CSR Adoption by Chinese Firms for Global Competitiveness: An AMC Perspective

CSR in China is still in its early development stage today. There are great variances and fluctuations in CSR adoption among Chinese firms. State-owned enterprises (SOE) are taking a leading role in CSR practices, while private and foreign enterprises are lagging behind. Overall, there is still a huge gap between China and developed countries in terms of firm awareness and involvement in CSR initiatives. There has been a proliferation of CSR research in the past decade, including those in the Chinese context. The recent CSR literature has witnessed shifting foci in several dimensions: (1) from “why CSR?” to “how to do CSR?”; (2) from the external drivers of CSR to the internal firm strategies for CSR; (3) from the outcomes of CSR to the processes of CSR implementation; (4) from domestic practices to international norms. Fundamentally, this shift is about engaging firms to take on a more proactive role in CSR adoption. Accordingly, this chapter aims to address the research question: how to facilitate Chinese firms to proactively adopt modern CSR practices, in order to gain international competitiveness? To achieve this objective, we adopt the Awareness-Motivation-Capability (AMC) model (Chen et al., Academy of Management Journal, 50, 101, 2007) to systematically discuss how to facilitate Chinese firms to take proactive actions in CSR. The awareness dimension requires education of firm managers as well as consumers about the necessity of CSR. The motivation dimension involves discussion of the long-term sustainability and competitive benefits from CSR strategies. Finally, the capability dimension involves concrete advices on how to build up CSR-related competences through resource allocation and integration. In summary, this article aims to educate Chinese firms about the why and how of CSR adoption, as well as to advise them on the necessary internal capability building in CSR implementation, in order to meet the challenges of international competition.