Contents and determinants of CSR website communication toward international stakeholders: evidence from Chinese MNCs

Abstract

With Chinese companies increasingly transforming into powerful social and economic institutions in the global market, they have begun to face progressive pressure to sustain communication with international stakeholders in a socially responsible fashion. This study represents a preliminary attempt to explore Chinese MNCs’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication to their international audiences through corporate websites, as well as its company-level determinants. The CSR information posed by 149 leading Chinese MNCs on their official English websites was analyzed in terms of their visibility, extent, and themes, and the impact of four company-level factors on the communication was tested. The findings indicated that Chinese MNCs generally presented CSR information in a visible and readily accessible way, yet the extent of the communication was relatively low. The communication focused on issues related to consumers and stakeholders, followed by the community and employees, with inadequate addressing of suppliers. The positive impact of company-level determinants (i.e. degree of internationalization, overseas experience of top management, and industry affiliation to polluting sectors) on communication was confirmed. Theoretical and practical implications for online CSR communication in the global context are subsequently discussed.

Keywords:

• CSR communication
• English websites
• Chinese MNCs
• international stakeholders
• determinants

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Doctoral Fund of Yunnan Normal University [grant number 2021SK017] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in UIBE [grant number 22YB04]. The authors contributed equally to the study.

Notes on contributors

Wenjuan Xu

Wenjuan Xu is a lecturer at the Pan-Asia Business School at Yunnan Normal University of China. Her research interests include cross-cultural corporate communication, corporate online communication, and corporate discourse.

Xingsong Shi

Xingsong Shi is a professor at the School of International Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, where she also serves as the director of the Research Center of Cross-Cultural Business Communication. Her research interests include cross-cultural business communication, corporate online communication, and corporate discourse.