The Research On Driving Force And Mechanism Of Corporate Social Responsibility

The concept of corporate social responsibility comes from historical labor issues. The 18th century industrial revolution brought out the consciousness of corporate social responsibility which focus on the labor issues. With the economic and social development, the rapid expansion of capital leads to the emergency of large transnational enterprises. Including labor, environmental issues, human rights, and other social issues, corporate social responsibility has become a worldwide focus. The study on corporate social responsibility in and out of China reached a peak level. This paper tries to study the driving force and the effect mechanism in the process of evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility from a particular perspective of government, society and Enterprise. This paper explores the evolutional objective laws of corporate social responsibility in order to guide the driving force into proper situation, to establish appropriate mechanisms, and to lay the theoretical foundation to catalyst the development of corporate social responsibility into development in global context.The driving role of government on corporate social responsibility briefly lies in the government regulation. The government restricts the behavior of social and enterprises through regulations and legislation. Its effect on corporate social responsibility was mandatory. In the beginning, the constraints from government were minimal. The governments didn't realize the fact that corporate social responsibility has become an inevitable matter until corporate social responsibility movement was unfolded. Governments gradually increased the control of corporate social responsibility. This regulation system played a critical role in promoting the evolution and development of corporate social responsibility.The driving role of society on corporate social responsibility briefly rests in the civil movement which was only rooted in civil societies. Specifically, this paper describes the driving force and effect mechanism from the the aspects of labor movement, the consumer movement and the NGO, unions and trade associations. Citizen campaign was rooted in the concern of labor issues, and then triggered by the development of environmental issues, human rights and other social issues. The most important part of civil campaign was workers and consumers. From the initial slight damage to the factory to the establishment of organized unions to safeguard their rights, workers played a leading part in spurring enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities; As concerned with labor conditions, environmental issues and others, consumers began to "vote with their feet" by boycotting some commodities to restrict and to punish enterprises'bad behavior which was against social responsibility. NGOs, Labor Unions and Industry Associations promoted CSR mainly through soft bound to restrict the behavior of enterprises such as constituting industry-specific regulations, providing international advices and so on. Although this constraint is not mandatory, its effect on promoting enterprises to fulfill the corporate social responsibility through public voice and industry regulations was considerable. Although that sanctions for violating regulations is not as severe as that for violating legislation, the enterprises would lose the basis to survive in a particular industry.The driving role of enterprises on corporate social responsibility briefly relies on the theory background of corporate governance. From the perspective of historical development, this paper conducts the analysis of the evolution of enterprise behavior in promoting development of CSR with the changes of theory about corporate governance. Following the occurrence of industrial revolution, the entrepreneurs personally embarked the act of charity .And then enterprises undertook the responsibilities passively in the constraints of Enterprise Management Responsibility Theory. Afterward the enterprises fulfill the responsibilities for the implementation of the initiative in the promotion of the Enterprise Flourish Theory. Finally the enterprises put the corporate social responsibility into the framework of operational strategy and the sustainable development -- in the course, from the initial awareness of the CSR to the formation of modern philosophy of corporate social responsibility undergone a long period of time. And the most fundamental force which promoted the development of corporate social responsibility was the gradual improvement of corporate governance theory. From the agency theory, the transaction cost theory to the stakeholder theory, corporate governance has developed from the initial theory of individual attention to the right of all stakeholders. And this was accompanied by the enterprises'development from the perspective of the initial pursuit of profit maximization to an overall consideration of both economic interests and social interests. It can be said that the stakeholder theory is the basis of modern concept of corporate social responsibility theories.The tripartite force on corporate social responsibility from government, society and enterprises are not isolated from one another, more than that there are complex interactions to continually promote corporate social responsibility forward. Based on the specific analysis about the independent driving force and their tripartite interaction between government, society, enterprises, and integrating stakeholder theory, I have established a corporate social responsibility driving model. This model can be adopted to obtain a more in-depth understanding and more comprehensive insight into corporate social responsibility and the driving force mechanisms. As a result of all the forces, Corporate Social Responsibility gradually becomes standardized. This has given rise to the establishment of corporate social responsibility standards. Corporate social responsibility standards were the main results of the effect from the driving forces of government, society, and enterprise. Simultaneously the CSR standards play an important role in promoting the development of corporate social responsibility. These standards made the drivers become more canonical. But so far, common global standards accepted by the government, society and enterprises do not exist. The corporate social responsibility standards still play a very limited role. Through the analysis on driving forces of Corporate Social Responsibility, it is foreseeable that the establishment of CSR standards which fit the different economic development level is an irreversible trend, and the presence of global standards of corporate social responsibility also is highly possible.Finally, by the theoretical analysis in this paper, I try to describe the development and its dynamic mechanism of the corporate social responsibility in China and supplied the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions. China's attitude toward corporate social responsibility should be objective and dialectical. The government should take measures, all sectors of the society should have effective promotion and enterprises should take practice actively. Taking corporate social responsibility into the framework of China's economic and social development is consistent with China's national conditions, and also be necessary for a socialist harmonious society.