Comparing international contractors’ CSR communication patterns: A semantic analysis

As corporate social responsibility (CSR) is attracting increased social attention, understanding and improving the patterns of CSR communication can improve corporate social performance, mitigate cultural conflicts, and facilitate the development of overseas markets for international contractors. Although researchers attempted to investigate the gaps in CSR communication from various perspectives, they tended to ignore how these communication patterns differ between various geographical regions from a collective perspective, i.e. they lacked the capacity to cover the entire population in an integrated geographical region, and thus could not identify the differences and directions for improvement accurately. Based on the agenda-building theory, this study analyzes international contractors’ CSR communication patterns with their stakeholders in three regions, i.e. the US, the EU, and China. Through this comparative analysis, this study identifies similarities and differences in the communication patterns between Chinese international contractors and those of developed countries in a collective manner. To perform these analyses, empirical data from international contractors’ CSR reports are firstly used to construct CSR semantic networks. The defining concepts of CSR in the US, the EU, and China are then identified, thereby allowing us to compare CSR communication patterns in China with those in developed countries. The results show that the stage of a country's CSR development is reflected by the areas on which its international contractors focus. For example, community involvement and development indicates that China is still in the initial stage of developing a CSR norm. Labor practices are important across all regions, but the reasons for their importance are different. These findings provide Chinese contractors with practical guidance for expanding their overseas markets and engaging in sound CSR practices while executing international projects. This study can also inform other international contractors about CSR communication patterns in China, thereby facilitating international cooperation.