Study On Behavior Motives And Behavior Patterns Of Social Responsibility For Chinese Private Enterprises

A commitment to bear social responsibility is both business philosophy and social practice ofthe “common welfare” for contemporary enterprises. Along with economic globalization, thecorporate social responsibility movement also flourishes all over the world. Nowadays, the Westerndeveloped countries actively promote corporate social responsibility, whereas enterprises indeveloping countries are generally in the state of passive response. And we have to call onenterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities.People have paid much attention on the social responsibility performance of privateenterprises for their historical and social status. We find that bearing social responsibility is to meetthe demands of their subsistence, development, social power, and personal values realization ofentrepreneurs. The behavioral motives of private enterprises have five dimensions, including thepromotion of social position of entrepreneurs, concern for social values, gaining support fromgovernment, concentration of talents, and development risk averse. These five motives meetdifferent demands of enterprises or entrepreneurs.Based on survey of295private businesses in Zhejiang, it shows that behavior modes of socialresponsibility consist of five basic dimensions, including participating in charitable activities,making social responsibility strategy, abiding by business ethics, upholding integrity of attitude,and protecting interests of stakeholders. Considering their performance to bear social responsibility,these three behaviors of protecting interests of stakeholders, upholding integrity of attitude, abidingby business ethics get relatively high scores. Nevertheless, the behavior to make socialresponsibility strategy obtains the lowest score. And the behavior to participate in charitableactivities is in a middle position. According to independent t-test of means, the five behaviors donot show significant differences among enterprises with different sizes, different stages of growthand different industries. The two case studies of typical enterprises also echo the results of the dataanalysis.Overall, it is a gradual process to bear corporate social responsibility. The stakeholders, including government, society, associations, and firms should play their roles respectively. In orderto promote better commitment to social responsibility for private enterprises in Zhejiang, it’snecessary to take coordinated action with government, society and enterprises themselves. It relieson intrinsic motivation of enterprises and broad participation of consumers, the public, and media.The final solution to the problem of social responsibility depends on the attitudes, motivations andbehaviors for corporate social responsibility. In order to play a better role and influence of socialresponsibilities, the firms should initiative the social responsibility at the strategic level. Theleading firms could develop appropriate social responsibility strategies, foster entrepreneurshipspirits, and strengthen self-discipline. The firms should change their social responsibility behaviorgradually, from passive to proactive, random to strategic planning, legal constraints toself-regulation in order to be more competitive. The results are helpful to stimulate the intrinsicmotives of private enterprises to bear social responsibility. And they are also valuable to promotethe together works of government, society, and private firms for better corporate socialperformance.