Part I

East and South Asia

In the following first four chapters, readers would see the various interesting
viewpoints on CSR, and benchmarking and comparing each with the other, readers
would gain insights from what Mikhail Gorbachev former USSR President and
once President of the Green Cross International once said, that is, “we need a new
system of values, a system of the organic unity between humankind and nature and
the ethic of global responsibility.”
Part I focuses on East and South Asia and consists of Chaps 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Chapter 1: “Corporate Social Responsibility in Shaping Corporate Image: An
Empirical Study of State-Owned Enterprises in China”, Weiping Yu and Hao Hu
highlight the recent awareness and impact of corporate social responsibility to
corporate image in People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s state-owned enterprises.
This study is based on a survey of 317 state-owned enterprises and their findings
point to different effects of corporate responsibilities such as economical,
organisational, employee, environmental, community and product responsibility
on corporate image. This study contributes to understanding the internal impact
mechanism of CSR on corporate image and it also facilitates the explorations about
the social context on CSR practices in PRC.
Chapter 2: “The Indian Roots to CSR Practice from a Vedantic Perspective” by
Balakrishnan Muniapan discusses CSR from the Vedantic viewpoint which is
solely dependent on developing the individual leader’s self-conscience – his or
her svadharma (prescribed duties) and karma (action) plus the pancha rina (fivefold
debts). Based on the Vedantic insights, CSR should ideally begin with ISR (Indi-
vidual Social Responsibility) and to go beyond CSR with GSR (Global Social
Responsibility). These three social responsibilities are the essential dharma and
karma of corporate leaders. The leaders and the role they play in corporations are
crucial in ensuring transparency, good conduct and governance towards the ulti-
mate aim of achieving CSR. This chapter is expected to provide a framework to the
study of Vedantic viewpoints in other aspects of corporate management besides
CSR in the near future.
Chapter 3: “Re-conceptualizing Corporate Social Responsibility in Japan” by
Scott Davis points out that many Japanese corporations have traditionally defined
2 Part I East and South Asia

their corporate social responsibility (CSR) as being the conduct of their business in
accordance with the normative values embodied in their statements of corporate
principles. This value driven approach has largely emphasised the legitimisation of
business on the basis of the social benefits accrued as a result of business activities.
Within this approach, relatively little emphasis has been given to the design of
processes whereby business activities are planned and implemented or to the input
of external stakeholders within these processes. The book chapter presents an
overview of how CSR has been defined and debated in Japan in the periods before
and after the March 2011 disaster, examine the new conceptualisations of CSR that
have emerged in recent years, and present case studies illustrating how two major
global corporations based in Japan have changed their CSR policies and sought to
redefine their systems for the creation of social value by reintegrating them with
their processes for the planning and implementation of business.
Chapter 4: “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Practice and Implementation
Within the Institutional Context: The Case of the Republic of Korea”, by Ki-Hoon
Lee and Chung Hee Kim. Here, the issue of multi-faceted CSR in different
instructional environments is said to offer different motivations, value systems,
and commitments to different CSR agendas internationally. By applying institu-
tional theory, they attempt to identify institutional pressures on CSR imposed by
Korean national and international organisations; and normative pressures by differ-
ent stakeholder groups. The chapter provides (i) theoretical foundations to examine
institutional factors within CSR practice; (ii) description of research methods and
data analysis; (iii) empirical findings; (iv) discussion and implications for
academics and management. It contributes to (i) the current debate on CSR debate
between win-lose or win-win scenario by adding empirical evidence; (ii) Korean
institutional factors to affect CSR practices; (iii) Korean firms’ awareness between
Korean and Western (Anglo-American) institutional factors; (iv) CSR practices in
Korean institutional context.