Strategic Preferences And Gaps Of Corporate Social Responsibility In South Asia By Chinese Contractors

The importance o f assuming corporate social responsibilit y(CSR)is growing worldwide since its emergence in both academia and practice.Due to significant environmental,social and eco no mic impacts caused by construction industry,environmentalist s and governments insist that construction industry protect the environment more effect ively,and execute projects in a sustainable and socially responsible manner,or else they could encounter resent ment fro m their clients,local co mmunit y and civil societ ies,which would eventually weaken their growth and profits.With the emergence of Belt and Road Initiative and engagement of Chinese International Contractor(CIC)to implement most of its flagship projects,the phenomenon of being social responsible further increases especially in South Asia which has heterogeneity both in geography and cultural values.This study performed two-way analysis to examine the satisfactory level of CSR initiatives undertaken by CIC’s in South Asia by local populace,to evaluate the preference of local populace for various CSR initiatives,to examine the strategy of CICs’ CSR initiative in South Asia and to bridge the gap between preference and strategy of CSR initiatives via recommending rational suggestion based on socio-economic dynamics of different South Asian nation.A structured close-ended interview mechanism using o nline quant itative survey formats was used to accumulate feedback from South Asia local populace and CICs’ personnel.Then two-sample t-Test was used coupled with descript ive statist ics resulted fro m the survey respo nses to analyze preference for CSR and inference for this difference was described based on differences between each group sociocultural framework they endure.To summarize the result,sampled respondents from South Asia and Chinese construction industry personnel and also between two South Asian nations showed variation for the preference of CSR issues for different given categories.A sound recommendation for CIC to formulate a strategy for implementing CSR initiative were then suggested based on the regional and cultural background differences of South Asia with Chinese culture and value.In addition,the current strategy and implementation of CSR initiative were also evaluated in-depth between two groups which showed a discrepancy and reason for it was investigated.Since many flagship projects of Belt and Road Init iat ive lies in South Asia and CIC are likely to execute it,the importance to analyze the needs of the local populace of South Asia is essent ial to formulate the strategy of CSR init iat ive and sustainable execut ion o f BRI pro jects and CIC operation in South Asia.This research will pro mote the wider implementat ion and applicat ion o f CSR,helping CICs to improve their understand ing of CSR,highlight ing the opportunit ies inherent in CSR implementation and its ro le in building a posit ive corporate image in the South Asian market.It will also serve as a feedback mechanism,detailing the relative impact of CIC’s CSR activities in the South Asian populace.