Case Study: Dongguan Unicom's Practices On Social Responsibility Of Consumers

Society and Corporations have been paying more attention to corporate social responsibility increasingly as the evolution of corporate social responsibility. Consumer movement for promotion of corporate social responsibility as well as the labor movement, the environmental movement has become the three important stimuli to promote the development of corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility to consumers has always been an important component of CSR. In general, business to consumer's social responsibilities include providing consumers with safe and reliable products, providing products and services at fair and reasonable price, to ensure that consumers receive adequate information about the product to protect consumer freedom of choice of products and services and to ensure that consumers have the right to appeal. In the domestic market economy, there is something problem in carrying on CSR in some industries including the telecom operators.Before the 1980s, it is generally believed that, including telecommunications, electric power, railway, pipeline gas, water supply and other sectors likewise have the properties of natural monopolies. Based on such theory, these kinds of industries have been operated by state owned enterprises or enterprises authorized by the government all through the ages. But the results lies opposite to their initial imaginations—not only the monopoly telecom companies proved some problems in fulfilling the social responsibility to consumers due to lack of external competitive pressures, but also the defect of management offset the efficiency of scale which monopoly can provide. Therefore, since 1980s, countries have gradually begun to open such industries by introducing the privatization and competitive mechanism. Similarly, the domestic telecommunications industry is still monopolized by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication until the mid 1990s while they provided poor service to public. To deepen the reform of post and telecommunications industry and speed the development of the telecommunications industry, the State Council decided to break the monopoly situation of the telecommunications industry to promote the telecom companies to better meet their social responsibility to consumers. In 1994, the State Council approved the establishment of China Unicom. Introducing the mechanism of competition in the telecommunications industry to develop communications capabilities, reduce costs and improve service to consumers.In this context, China Unicom set up its branch in Dongguan City in 1997, namely China Unicom Dongguan Branch (hereinafter referred to Dongguan Unicom). Dongguan Unicom then provided mobile communications services to the public in 1998 and had broken the exclusive monopoly situation in telecommunication industry in Dongguan. This paper shows the twelve years efforts Dongguan Unicom made since it came into operation. This paper also analyzed the reformation of telecommunications sector in order to assume the responsibility to consumers to be fulfilled by the operators in Dongguan. It include the protection of consumers'interests, reducing consumer costs, improving customer service levels as well as popularizing the use of modern communication technologies by consumers. As well as Dongguan Unicom played an active role in the promotion of rapid development of communication industry in Dongguan. This paper finally points out that all telecom companies including Dongguan Unicom have still much work to do to meet their responsibilities to consumers.