University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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benefit the companies as well. CSR as a formalized way of social contribution is also
relatively new in China, thus it is believed that Chinese companies are more inclined
to follow guidelines laid out by the government, mainly for compliance and
continuance of business. Therefore, there is a high chance that the social construction
process from nation-institution actually gets translated quite well into organizations
in China.
For the Danish case, the social construction process has evolved much faster and is
considered more advanced. The field-level that has the most significant influence
was found to be at the globalization level. This is largely due to the fact that
Denmark practices a free-market economy, thus it would be dependent on market
needs, rather than being controlled by the government. The most important
stakeholder is thus the international market itself and through it, breeds the
competition that drives the economy. Denmark would focus more on international
environmental issues such as climate change, carbon reduction, renewable energy
and sustainable development. Furthermore, its active participation in innovations and
dialogue makes the process a two-way course, rather than simply reacting to it.
Unlike in China, Danish corporations are given the freedom to focus on the CSR
issues that are pertaining in the respective industries that they partake in. Although
the government does in some ways provide incentives but it does not seem that they
were influential as most companies seem to be more internally motivated to pursue
CSR. Pruzan (2003) also stated that the focus of Danish corporations revolved
around these five major themes; political consumer, ethical investing, corporate
social responsibility, social and ethical accounting and values-based management.
Danish companies are emphasizing on more specialised areas, with particular interest
in employee relations, in improving the quality of its products and efficiency in
production. Based on this, the authors conclude that the social construction in Danish
companies does not necessarily get translated directly from nation-institution as
Danish companies react more from internal motivations and largely based on
international market needs.
CSR Performance & Conduct in Organizations
From the investigation on their CSR reports, it appears that the case companies in
both China and Denmark seem to be showing a high level of commitment in
sustainability reporting. Most companies are reporting their CSR or sustainable
development activities according to at least one international guideline, GRI
Initiative or the UN Global Compact. Once they commit themselves to either, they
would most likely comply with the high standards of CSR reporting. Both the Danish
and Chinese companies were found to be on equal footing when it comes to
sustainability reporting, at least on paper.
Community involvements is believed to be most commonly practiced within Chinese
companies, which started from a long tradition of philanthropy by the enterprises,
though initially the donation is usually under the name of the entrepreneurs rather
than that of the companies. At present, philanthropy is still the major CSR mode but
the target areas vary. More environmentally-concerned issues are placed on the
agenda typically for companies that have adverse effects to the environment in their