Corporate Citizenship Behavior in a Transitional Economy: An Exploratory Study in the People’s Republic of China

Charitable donations play a vital role in redistributing wealth in the People’s Republic of China. Of the various sources in society, corporate giving is the most important contributing source. As reforms are deepening and state interference diminishing, enterprises are gradually becoming autonomous economic units. This new trend has already brought changes to the existing resource reallocation system, so that resources channeled to charitable causes will have to rely less on centralized administrative initiatives and more on the voluntary citizenship behavior of corporations. Chinese enterprises, especially state-owned enterprises (SOEs), are less compelled to act as state vehicles to provide social goods and services and more pressurized to meet business goals. Many of these enterprises shy away from public welfare donations, leaving a gap in the redistribution system that cannot be filled in this transitional period. Hence a tension exists between the community’s expectation that enterprises will continue to act altruistically and the enterprises’ desire to be good citizens. How Chinese enterprises can operate according to market principles and at the same time not forfeit their broader social responsibilities is an acid test for reform success in a socialist market economy. The purpose of this study is to identify antecedents of corporate citizenship behavior and its implications for an evolving socialist country.