UNIVERSITY OF IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Jacinto St., Davao City

MBA – Section 2

CHARMINE A. AMITA ROLANDO G. BORJA, DBM

Student Professor

CASE NO./ TITLE:

The Influence of Political Connection on Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Listed
Private Companies in China

BACKGROUND OF THE CASE:

China’s strong economic growth since the late 1980s has made it a global leader in many
industrial sectors, but we are now also beginning to see a number of Chinese companies make
significant contributions not only to economic development but also environmental protection
and social justice. In particular, the private sector is recognizing the contribution it can make to
shaping the development agenda both inside and outside China. Thus, this paper tries to
introduce political connection based on stakeholder salience theory using financial figures and
reports, to test how political connection changes managers’ perception of stakeholders’ relative
importance and cause changes in stakeholders’ satisfaction level of social responsibility
requirement.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

In the context of examining the association of corporate political connection with the level of
voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) to determine how the relationships between the
state and the corporate sector influence CSR engagement. In line with its significant growth
among businesses in China and in the private sector’s contribution to sustainable development.

SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths: 
Can improve the ability of capital acquisition through a high corporate quality signal.  Political
connection allows for more tax preference for connected companies and they would remove
barriers more easily and then improve competitiveness and values.  When facing difficulty,
politically connected companies may obtain more government assistance.
Weaknesses: 
Close connection with government will sometimes spur a decrease in stock value and sales
growth when the government is faced with negative rumors such as a leader’s health
deterioration or death.  Political connection may be a cause for companies’ immoral activities
because government is less stringent on regulation.
Opportunities:
 Political connection is a recessive contract, based on reciprocity and fairness principle of
social exchange, companies should help government solve problems when they receive help
from government.
Threats:
 Bypass government’s safety checks and regulations and decreasing investments in
employees’ safe work environment and environmental protection.

ALTERNATIVE ACTION:
Build a fair competitive environment and a sound legal system environment for private
companies and guide them to establish a systematical social responsibility strategy. Specifically,
improving the institutional environment and giving more attention to the relationship between
the Chinese government and enterprises are necessary for an economic reform. Then, the
government should guide private companies to establish social responsibility strategy, improve
labors protection system and bargaining power. Also, Companies should distinguish the core
stakeholders according to their own characteristics. Companies should know which stakeholder
is most important and establish viable relationships to promote sustainable development.

PROS & CONS TO ALTERNATIVE ACTION:

Pros 
Can help to crack down the moral cost issue caused by the political connections.  A
better and fair environment can lead to a consistent development.
Cons 
Inherent nature of imperfections in the economic and legal systems.  Companies could
tend to focus on the important ones and may disregard the rest.
RECOMMENDATION:

It is respectfully recommended to do further research which will focus on the following points.
(1) Establish more comprehensive and objective indicators to measure the performance of
corporate and stakeholders’ social responsibility. (2) Distinguish different types of political
connections and discuss the influence of government-type political connections and delegate-
type political connections on the performance of fulfilling stakeholders-oriented responsibility.
(3) The degree of importance of different stakeholders perceived by companies and the
difference for companies to meet stakeholders' demand at various levels are reflected in
corporate operating performance. Operating performance can be added in future research.
Further research can test whether corporate choice's change brought by political connections
will improve corporate performance, a more realistic significance.

References:
Badrul, B. M., Mihret, D. G., Khan, A., (2018) Corporate political connection and corporate social
responsibility disclosures. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

Parsa, S., Tang, G., Dia, N., (2016). How do Chinese businesses view corporate social
responsibility. caew.com/academic

Jabali, M., Welford, R. (2004). A study on Corporate Social Responsibility development And