| Corporate Social Responsibility Adoption Differ in Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan |
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HONG KONG, March 17 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) 2008, over half (56%) of privately held businesses are found to be adopting corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies. Among the 34 economies surveyed globally, mainland China records the highest percentage (74%) of privately held businesses having adopted CSR as a formalised strategy, while Hong Kong ranks 29th (37%) and Taiwan ranks the second last (30%) (see Table 1).
CSR becomes prominent in mainland China
Apart from mainland China, the survey also noted that over 60% of privately held businesses in emerging markets such as Mexico and Brazil had formal CSR responsibility programmes.
Patrick Rozario, Principal and Head of Business Risk Services at Grant Thornton, commented: "The findings suggest that privately held businesses in fast growing markets like mainland China are under pressure to formally adopt CSR strategy which complies with demands of foreign investors and large multinationals wanting all suppliers to fit into their CSR framework. On the other hand, Chinese businesses start realising that their effort on CSR practices will gain credibility and raise brand awareness when they plan to go global."
"The requirement from the regulatory dynamics controlled by the Chinese government should also be taken into account of the high adoption rate in China, which is not a key driver for Hong Kong nor Taiwan business owners," added Patrick Rozario.
Hong Kong’s businesses concern about cost effectiveness
When being asked about the keys drivers of adopting CSR, both Hong Kong (67%) and Taiwan (78%) have most respondents cite "cost management" as their main motive. Over half of Hong Kong privately held businesses also see "public attitudes/building brand" and "recruitment/retention of staff" as important reasons for CSR (see Table 2). This sheds new light on how Hong Kong businesses view CSR mainly as a cost-saving mean in terms of operation and management. |
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"Obviously privately held businesses do not have the same stringent CSR regulatory requirements and investor relationship as for public listed companies to consider. Nonetheless, it is interesting to note that privately held businesses are adopting CSR policies not just to save the planet but because they are having to in order to survive and prosper," commented Patrick Rozario.
Two out of the top four initiatives undertaken by Hong Kong’s privately held businesses in the past year were related to people while another two were related to cost effectiveness. Active promotion of diversity/equality at work was carried out by 75% of privately held businesses in Hong Kong, followed by improvement in energy efficiency (74%), active promotion of workforce health and well being (71%), and improvement in waste management (70%) (see Table 3).
CSR is a necessity
"Unsurprisingly, the survey’s results show that privately held businesses in Hong Kong appear more likely to adopt ethical business practices for practical commercial reasons than any other," said Patrick Rozario, "attention to CSR is on the rise across the world and many companies realise that they must earn the respect and confidence of their customers and clients in order to success, or even just to survive. I hope business owners have already realised that CSR is a necessity rather than a choice nowadays and look forward to seeing a rising trend of CSR adoption in a structured and systematic manner."
For leading statistics of the survey, please visit http://xprnnews.xfn.info/GrantThornton/20080317/HK087855A.pdf .
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