Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia

by Kyoko Fukukawa (Editor)

Overview

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an important issue in contemporary business, management and politics, especially since the launch of the United Nations Global Compact in 2000 as an initiative to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on them. This book examines the theory and practice of CSR in Asia. The philosophical and ideological underpinnings of CSR are rooted in Anglo-American and European principles of liberal democratic rights, justice and societal structures. This book not only considers the impact of Western CSR practices in Asia, but also provides much needed Asian perspectives on this issue. It investigates the operation of CSR in different countries across Asia, including China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Bangladesh – comparing the different meanings given to CSR, and the varying degrees of success experienced in different national contexts. This book argues if CSR is ever to revolutionize the manner in which we trade then it is needs to open itself up to the full variety of social responsibility as it occurs around the world. The book re-maps and refines debates about CSR as a global phenomenon, and will be of great value to professionals making strategic decisions in the global business environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415673044
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/24/2011
Series:	Routledge International Business in Asia
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	186
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kyoko Fukukawa is a Senior Lecturer at Bradford University School of Management, UK. She was a Fellow of the Japan Foundation in 2006, investigating CSR practices in Japan, and co-edited the special issue of Journal of Business Ethics on Corporate Identity, Ethics and CSR (2007).

Table of Contents

1. Social Paradigms in China and the West 2. Structural Change in Corporate Society and CSR in Japan 3. Perceptions of CSR and its Adoption to Business Practice in the Thai Context 4. A Multilevel Assessment of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure in Malaysia 5. Exploitation of Labor in Bangladeshi RMG Sector: Who is responsible? 6. CSR – a Virtuous Circle. But Which Circle? And Whose ‘Virtue’?

Editorial Reviews

The editor of this collection concludes her introduction by remarking that "This book hopes to offer - if only in a very modest fashion - something towards the development of a new 'world literature' on CSR". One can only congratulate her for hitting the nail right on the head. The essays reflect the editor's commitment to pluralism, pragmatism and a deeply respectful appreciation of the complexity of individuals and communities. In a world in which oversimplification is celebrated nearly as much in the world of scholarship as in broadcast media, it is refreshing to read a manuscript that celebrates complexity. Fukukawa's collection is a fine contribution to understanding the variety of forms of CSR across our planet and the importance of drawing on this rich resource to create a sustainable system of trade for all the planet's inhabitants.

Alex C. Michalos, Ph.D., F.R.S.C.
Chancellor
Director, Institute for Social Research and Evaluation
Professor Emeritus, Political Science
University of Northern British Columbia
Editor-in-Chief for Journal of Business Ethics

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Two of the rising BRIC economies of the twenty-first century are in the Asia-Pacific region. India is the world's largest democracy; China is the largest country in the world and totalitarian and increasingly dominating the global economy; Russia and Brazil are struggling to shape their destinies as very different democracies. In the meantime Japan, still the world's second largest economy, is trying to maintain its economic and intellectual dominance. All Asian economies present different CSR perspectives shaped by their colonial and non-colonial experiences, and by their ethnic and religious diversities. This is a very useful and timely book, edited by one of the growing scholars in this area who has collected a great range of writers in one volume. A 'must-buy' for anyone interested in CSR, capitalism and sustainable enterprise in the 21st century.

Malcolm McIntosh
Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, Asia-Pacific Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Griffith Business School, Brisbane, Australia.

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Dr Fukukawa has put together a book that delivers far more than it promises. Upon seeing the title, I expected a delineation of CSR in Asian countries and how it differs from practice in the West. Indeed, it does this, at least for five countries, but it also re-visits the very basic questions of what is the purpose of CSR and what'should it be, as well as what'should be the relationship between business and society in today’s “hot, flat, and crowded” world. The book is a must read for all of us who have a serious interest in the philosophy and practice of CSR.

Edmund R. Gray
Professor of Management and Chair of the Department of Management, Loyola Marymount University, USA.

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Recently CSR has become so widely accepted and so rarely questioned, that we risk losing sight of its origins and implications. For Asian companies, the Western values and philosophies that underpin conventional CSR thinking are different to those from their own cultures and traditions. The implications of this simple observation, in an increasingly globalized business world, have barely begun to be explored by researchers. This book pulls together a range of expert contributions to reveal how an appreciation of CSR from an Asian perspective may be the key to a more ethical and sustainable global economy in the 21st century.

Professor Ken Peattie, Director, BRASS Research Centre, Cardiff University.

From the Publisher