Research on latest trend of CSR development in China released

 

Mr. Yin Gefei, Founder and Chief Expert of GoldenBee, Secretary of ISO 26000 Stakeholders Global Network
 

Many things go through a cycle every few years. In the past two years, there have been some such issues of the CSR development in China.

For example, some people wrote articles saying that CSR is dead, some reflected on whether CSR is still necessary, and some said that CSR can be replaced by new things like shared value...

But today, I want to share with you a latest focus and that is “the development of responsible competitiveness in China is becoming an increasingly obvious trend”.
 

As for CSR and competitiveness, as early as 12 years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a special discussion in ZHIJIANG XINYU, saying that “only the wealth with love is truly meaningful, and only the enterprise that actively fulfills social responsibility is the most competitive and vigorous enterprise.” Later, on April 19, 2016, at the cybersecurity and IT application symposium, this discussion was again highlighted.

In fact, for more than 10 years' CSR development in China, this important statement has been verified and more and more clearly demonstrated.
 

Trend 1: The regularization and standardization of CSR development in China
 

 

 

Since the release of GB/T 36000 series of national standards of social responsibility in 2016, the trend of standardization and internationalization has become more and more obvious.
From the national level, national standards, such as the implementation guidance on integration of social responsibility into corporate management systems and the requirements of social responsibility management systems and guidance for use, are currently being studied.

From the industry level, since 2016, information and communication technology industry, pharmaceutical industry, payment industry, and liquor industry all have corresponding social responsibility norms, guidelines or industry standards. According to our statistics, 43 industries in China have promulgated corresponding guidelines, initiatives or tools to guide the industry to fulfill its social responsibility. At the same time, we can also see that since the end of 2017, six industries, including food industry, electric power industry, dairy industry, cultural industry, construction industry, inspection and testing industry, have launched the formulation of industry social responsibility standards.

All these show that fulfilling social responsibility in China has become the rule of enterprises’ operation. These standards and guidelines, to a certain extent, are actually the codes of conduct of enterprises, and in fact affect their social and industrial reputation as well as competitiveness.
 

Trend 2: SDG consensus and the deep realization of "corporate sustainability "   
 

 

The corporate sustainability has always been an important consensus of corporate social responsibility.

In particular, since the launch of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by United Nations in 2016, enterprises have found their responsibility in the global social development, which is the value of the enterprise -- contributing to the global sustainable development and also embracing development opportunities.

Therefore, we can see that all enterprises are exploring opportunities for themselves to serve the society while making their own efforts for global sustainable development, which not only embodies the social responsibility of enterprises, but also helps enterprises to enhance their competitiveness.
 

Trend 3: Increasing influence of social responsibility in financial capital market
 

 

2016 is the starting year of China’s green bonds. In that year, China issued 20 billion green bonds, and in just two years, the figure reached 280 billion in 2018. This is not only a positive incentive, but also a rare opportunity for enterprises and projects focusing on sustainable development.

As for green credit, at the end of 2013, the scale of green credit in China was 520 million yuan, and in the first quarter of this year, the scale increased to 923 million yuan.

In addition, in the capital market, social responsibility has long become an important reference factor for investors. 

All these indicate that social responsibility is becoming a more and more important factor for an enterprise to obtain capital support and better development opportunities.
 

Trend 4: Higher social concern and the changing traditional consciousness of CSR
 

 

In traditional perception, environmental protection, employee care and other issues are important contents of social responsibility, which will affect the reputation and competitiveness of enterprises if they neglect them.

But a few events in last year witness that traditional perception is changing. On the topic of internet privacy, for example, few people have realized that this is a social responsibility-related issue until Li Yanhong, CEO of Baidu Inc., said, “Chinese is not sensitive to privacy, and Chinese users are willing to trade privacy for convenience”. Along with the society’s widespread questioning of this view and Baidu, internet privacy has gradually aroused the attention of enterprises, and the protection of internet privacy has become an important manifestation of corporate responsibility fulfillment.

This shows that social responsibility has gone beyond the traditional issues of environmental protection, employee protection, charity and other fields of practices, and is affecting the operation, reputation and competitiveness of enterprises unconsciously. Even though many issues may not be known or familiar to us, in the course of learned lessons and controversial events, we will recognize its increasing importance.
 

Trend 5: Development of global responsibility and the supply chain sustainability management
 

 

With the gradual deepening of global division of labor and the continuous extension of supply chain, in the process of business operation, the social responsibility awareness and level of partners in different links of the supply chain are also becoming an increasingly important factor affecting the corporate competitiveness.

At the same time, it means that fulfilling social responsibilities not only has requirements on enterprises themselves. If the social responsibility practices of supply chain partners are “unsatisfactory”, it will also affect your business and competitiveness.
 

Trend 6: Quantitative development of CSR value
 

 

Can the value of corporate responsible competitiveness or corporate responsibility fulfillment be quantified? According to the results of our latest research, corporate responsible competitiveness can be quantified.

Specifically, corporate responsible competitiveness, the value created by corporate for the environment, society and corporate itself, is divided by the input of corporate and the input of social stakeholder.

This is the quantitative calculation method for enterprises to fulfill their social responsibility to enhance their competitiveness.

Through this formula, the market competitiveness enterprises achieved by fulfilling their social responsibility, or the way in which both responsibility and competitiveness are taken into account, can be clearly expressed by data.

From the above, we can be more convinced of the philosophy proposed by President Xi that responsibility can bring competitiveness. It will become a major trend in China.