Stakeholder Approaches to Construction Contractors’ Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries: A China Case

Construction business has overwhelming corporate social responsibility (CSR) to embark on in reaction to the obligation, requirement and expectation of the environment and society. Previous studies have pinpointed a stakeholder approach to CSR in developing countries, providing a useful reference to similar examinations in various industrial contexts. Bearing this in mind, this study examines the range of stakeholders behind CSR be haviors using a sample of 40 Chinese major contractors. By virtue of the technique of content analysis, it is found that Chinese contractors usually follow a stakeholder-based CSR pattern in a same way. They place emphasis on the public, government authorities, and the contractors themselves, but attach little importance to other stakeholders involved in the construction process. Moreover, business structure, company size, company ownership and multinational operation are the main factors determining the makeup of stakeholders in contractors’ CSR be haviors. Findings of the study shed some lights on the attributes of CSR in other construction contexts.