A Study On The Relationship Between The Corporate Social Responsibility And Competitiveness Of Construction Enterprises

Construction enterprises(CE)are the main body that fulfil corporate society responsibility(CSR).On one hand,they provide indispensable built facilities for daily lives and production,create plenty of job opportunities and aggregate the progress of civilization.On the other hand,with the emerging problems with construction quality and safety,environmental disruption,expansion of income disparity and occupational health and safety hazard,responses of CE ought to be made towards social concerns.As a matter of fact,there are growing number of CE that actively fulfill their CSR,while a large proportion of CEs are reluctant to do so.The main reason may be that CE only know how to fulfil CSR,but not know why they should do.They lack adequate awareness of CSR,and thus they don’t really have many options and cannot operate effectively.In this thesis,the relationship between Corporate Society Responsibility(C-CSR)and Competitiveness of Contractors(C-CMP)is examined.The research is aimed to reveal the intrinsic mechanism between the two sides and guide CE to recognize and practice CSR from the perspective of enterprise competitiveness.The research content is separated into five aspects,namely the definition and properties of C-CSR,modeling of evaluation index for C-CSR,remodeling of evaluation index of C-CMP,modeling the relationship between C-CSR and C-CMP,countermeasure for CE to fulfil CSR.The research is a combination of theoretical analyses and empirical studies.The measurement scales was collected from professionals in construction industry and the evaluation model of C-CSR and C-CMP was proposed using structural equation modeling(SEM)and principal component analysis(PCA)respectively.Lastly,taking an instance of CE in Zhejiang province,the proposed model is validated and countermeasures of CE towards CSR are derived.The research findings are as follows:First,the evaluation index of C-CSR includes inside stakeholders’ responsibility(C-ICSR)and outside stakeholders’ responsibility(C-OCSR).C-ICSR is concerned with stakeholders inside an enterprise(e.g.,investors and employees),including five dimensions as organizational governance,labor relations,democratic management,health safety,and training development.C-OCSR refers to those stakeholders outside the enterprise(e.g.,clients,partners,government,community and natural environment),including seven dimensions as quality control,service satisfaction,purchasing management,innovation and progress,obey compliance,community co-construction and green construction.This analytical framework is helpful for CE to subdivide CSR and improve resource efficiency.Second,the evaluation index of C-CMP includes long-term competitiveness(C-LCMP)and short-term competitiveness(C-SCMP).C-LCMP means the ability of financial financing,human operation and brand building.While C-SCMP is the ability of market development,project management and technology research.The two dimensions together can help CE to evaluate and control its competitiveness.Third,there is two-way positive correlation between C-CSR and C-CMP.C-CSR has a significant positive impact on C-CMP,and conversely,C-CMP has a significant positive impact on C-CSR.In general,C-ICSR and C-OCSR have a positive impact on C-CMP,and the key is C-ICSR,not C-OCSR.On the contrary,C-SCMP and C-LCMP of C-CSR also have a positive impact,mainly C-SCMP,followed by C-LCMP.However,in the specific context,these effects may change,such as the private nature of C-LCMP than C-SCMP of the positive impact on C-CSR greater.Last,the performance of C-CSR varies with different sizes,nature and age of CE.In Zhejiang,C-CSR of large-scale CE is better than those small and medium-sized CE;the state-owned C-CSR are better than private C-CSR,especially in C-ICSR;the performance of C-CSR in different growth stages also makes significant difference;and with the growth of an enterprise,the performance of C-CSR is getting better,but when in the recession or transition stage,the performance of C-CSR is intended to decline in general.There are three major new findings in this study.First,with the integrated theory of Stakeholders,Social Issues and Levels of Responsibility,an analytical framework called SSL is proposed and an evaluation index system of C-CSR which fully reflects the Chinese characteristics is modeled.Second,based on resource capacity theory,an evaluation index system that reflects C-CMP is remodeled as an improvement of the existing one.Third,by examining the current situation of China’s construction industry,the relationship of C-CSR-C-CMP is empirically revealed and the results are presented.The study helps guide CE to fulfill CSR and to improve competitiveness.However,due to limited number of samples,the study has some limitations.Since data are collected from subjective measurements of key insiders in Zhejiang CE,the results of the study may have certain limitations for generlization.