Motives for corporate social responsibility in Chinese food companies

Abstract

This paper explores the connection between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and food safety and how best to promote CSR in Chinese food companies by comparing two groups of food companies, one which had food safety incidents in the previous three years and one which had no food safety incidents during the same period. Managers of 498 food companies in 17 regions of China were surveyed. It was found that companies where the senior management gave higher levels of support and commitment to CSR and companies that had higher levels of CSR engagement had lower food safety incident rates. Motives for CSR engagement by food companies are the expected benefits that might accrue to the company including helping to achieve strategic objectives, improving daily management, ensuring food safety, improving internal cooperation, enhancing food quality, improving employees' skills at work, increasing employee benefit and improving their morale, and maintaining business integrity. It was also found that the external factors for CSR engagement are consumer demand, as well as pressures from the government and from other companies in the supply chain. Finally, the paper makes a number of suggestions for improvements in policy.