Eight Misunderstandings about Corporate Social Responsibility

Misconception 1: Corporate social responsibility is SA8000. It is incomplete to confuse corporate social responsibility with standards and equate corporate social responsibility with the International Labor Standards, the Corporate Social Responsibility Code of multinational companies, and the SA8000 Certification.
The concept of corporate social responsibility is a product of modern society's development to a certain stage. It is in contrast to the past economic responsibility of enterprises that only needed to make money and profit. If enterprises want to achieve sustainable operation, they must bear corresponding responsibilities for their stakeholders. There are three types of corporate social responsibility certification: first-party certification, second-party certification and third-party certification, and SA8000 is only one of the third-party certifications.

Misconception 2: Taking SA8000 as an international standard SA8000 is a corporate social responsibility certification system led by a non-governmental organization in the United States and claims to be an international standard. As of March this year, there were only 655 companies in the world that passed the SA8000 certification, from 40 countries and regions. However, most of these more than 600 companies are small companies, and only a few companies in developed countries have passed the certification.
This is enough to show that SA8000 has not been recognized by most countries or regions in the world or even Western developed countries. The main reason is that SA8000 is not a truly international standard.

Misconception 3: Equating corporate social responsibility with enterprises running social affairs The so-called "enterprises running social affairs" means that under the planned economic system, the state regards enterprises as administrative units, and enterprises assume welfare functions for each employee that should have been borne by society. Corporate social responsibility means that under market economy conditions, under the premise that the economic function of enterprises is separated from their social functions, enterprises take the initiative to assume social responsibilities to employees, consumers, the environment and the community in a purposeful and planned manner, so as to achieve a win-win situation for corporate interests and social development.

Misconception 4: Thinking that corporate social responsibility is the business of the enterprise itself and has nothing to do with the government. Corporate social responsibility is not entirely the business of the enterprise itself, but a broadly defined issue that transcends legal concepts. Maintaining the normal order of an economic system cannot rely solely on the self-consciousness of enterprises, but should be based on laws and rules.

At present, many Chinese companies have a weak sense of social responsibility, which is not only related to the quality of some entrepreneurs, but more importantly, the relevant functional departments have not assumed the corresponding regulatory responsibilities. In recent years, my country has formulated a large number of industry norms, but the core problem is that a sound legal regulatory mechanism has not been formed and established, resulting in a lack of effective connection and checks and balances between government legislation and citizens' compliance with the law, and the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility has naturally become an empty talk.