A Research About Commercial Banks’ Corporate Social Responsibilities

Chapter1first elaborates the relevance of corporate socialresponsibilities (CSR) to the modern banking industry and how it hasevolved over time are introduced. Then, a theoretical account is givenregarding the definition of CSR. Chapter2analyses the role thatinternal and external factors play in CSR, leading to a conclusion thatCSR is both inherently requested by banks’ stakeholders and also neededby banks themselves for long-term, sustainable development.Chapter3is devoted to empirical analysis of the relationshipsbetween CSR and3key parameters of a bank its profitability, size andthe economic well-being of its home market. The conclusions are that abank’s CSR performance tends to be positively related to its profitabilityand the economic development level of its home market while therelationship between CSR performance and the bank’s size is notstatistically significant. Chapter4first briefly talks about governance of banks in developedcountries. The focus is given to the CSR performance of two leadingwestern banks Standard Chartered Group and RaboBank, and whatlessons might be learnt from them. Chapter5reviews what has beenachieved by Chinese banks in their CSR endeavors and what remains tobe improved.Chapter6is the conclusion of the thesis and recounts the abovetheoretical analysis, lessons from leading Western banks and the actualsituation in China. On the basis of these, suggestions are proposed asregards how Chinese banks should further enhance their CSR efforts:they should keep their CSR practices relevant to the local situation;proactively learn from best international practices and ramp up theirsustainable financing activities which will also improve their corecompetency.