The "Corporate Social Responsibility Blue Book 2009", which was jointly released by the Economics Division of China Academy of Social Sciences and China's Social Sciences Academic Press, shows that the general level of CSR in Chinese enterprises is low.
Through evaluating the CSR level of the top 100 Chinese enterprises from four aspects of responsibility management, market responsibility, social responsibility, and environmental responsibility, the Blue Book offers a deep insight to the status of social responsibility management and information disclosure of the these companies in 2008. It shows, that based on a scale of 100 points, 94 companies get an average of just 31.7 points for social responsibility, which means that these enterprises' CSR level is still low and their CSR development is at a preliminary stage.
According to the Blue Book, only 14 Chinese companies, accounting for just 15% of the total, achieved 60 points or more. In addition, 10% of the companies received less than 20 points, which means that they have not taken any management measures or disclosed any relevant information to the public.
The Blue Book also shows that the CSR levels of central enterprises and state-owned financial enterprises are generally higher than those of private enterprises, other state-owned enterprises, and foreign funded enterprises. Of these, scores for central enterprises are the highest of all the business types.
In addition, the Blue Book points out that the scale of an enterprise goes in proportion with its CSR scores — the bigger the company, the higher the score. COSCO, State GRID Corporation of China, China Mobile, China Datang Group, and China Huaneng Group rank in the top five for CSR scores.
In conclusion, the Blue Book states that about two-thirds of the top 100 Chinese companies are still lacking in CSR awareness and ineffective in responsibility management and responsibility information disclosure.
