Strategic CSR and corporate development: A case study of Huamao Group

Abstract

Since the implementation of the reform and opening up policy, China's economy has experienced remarkable and sustained growth for nearly four decades, accompanied by a substantial enhancement in its comprehensive national strength. Private enterprises have played a pivotal role in this progress. However, some private enterprises have been solely fixated on achieving short-term profit objectives, neglecting their CSR towards advancing overall economic development for the society. In contrast, there are exemplar companies like Wahaha Group and Fuyao Group, who exhibit fervent commitment to fulfilling their CSR. This thesis focuses on Huamao Group as a case study, and examines the influence of CSR on its business development from a strategic standpoint. This thesis adopts the grounded theory method to conduct a case study, employs in-depth interviews for data collection, and uses Nvivo 11 software for data analysis and model construction. The findings in this thesis suggest that SCSR enhances the operational performance of Huamao Group. Results show that Huamao Group considers SCSR as a pivotal factor contributing to the company's achievements. Moreover, the company has consistently enhanced its business performance through a dedicated approach to SCSR. This commitment to SCSR has yielded positive impacts on Huamao Group's reputation, financial performance, and market share, which benefits its stakeholders, including employees, consumers, communities, and shareholders. This thesis significantly enriches the research perspective on CSR among private enterprises and lends substantial support to the government in devising policies that encourage private enterprises to actively fulfill their social responsibilities, thus promoting overall economic development.

Nos últimos 40 anos, com a política de abertura, a economia chinesa tem crescido a um ritmo elevado tendo as empresas privadas contribuído para este crescimento. Algumas empresas privadas focam-se apenas nos lucros de curto prazo, ignorando a sua responsabilidade social e económica. Contudo, existem algumas empresas, tais como, o Grupo Wahaha e o Grupo Fuyao, empenham-se em cumprir a sua Responsabilidade Social e Económica (RSE), o que facilita a discussão, entre os académicos, da responsabilidade social das empresas privadas. Esta tese escolhe o Grupo Huamao como caso de estudo e discute o impacto da responsabilidade social corporativa no seu desempenho empresarial numa perspectiva estratégica. O estudo concluiu que o Grupo Huamao considera a responsabilidade social corporativa estratégica (RSCE) um dos fatores principais para o sucesso do grupo e a RSCE tem contribuído para uma melhoria constante do seu desempenho empresarial. A RSCE tem um impacto positivo na reputação da empresa, no desempenho financeiro e na dimensão do mercado, contribuindo deste modo para a realização dos interesses dos stakeholders empregados, consumidores, comunidade e acionistas. Esta tese contribui para a pesquisa da responsabilidade social das empresas privadas e ajuda o governo a formular políticas que incentivem as empresas privadas a cumprir a sua responsabilidade social e promover o desenvolvimento económica.