The role of culture in corporate social responsibility practices in Asean: the cases of Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand

Abstract

Southeast Asia is a melting pot of various belief systems, traditions, customs, and cultures, influencing greatly the way of life in this part of the world. This study was conducted to identify dominant cultures and analyze their role on how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is perceived and integrated by the private sectors in the region, looking at the cases of Malaysia’s CIMB Group, Philippines’ San Miguel Corporation (SMC), and Thailand’s Siam Cement Group (SCG) as case studies. Deploying Easton’s Systems Theory to analyze the CSR motivation, CSR practice, and CSR focus and themes of each company, this study posits that CSR has evolved, practiced, and focused differently in each company due to various factors and priorities at the global, national, company, and societal levels. This was affirmed by the Need-Based Approach of SMC, the Global Competitiveness Approach of SCG, and Institutionalized Approach of CIMB Group. These approaches provide a model that may explain and inform the development phases of CSR in ASEAN and its future direction. In analyzing the development and practiced of CSR, this study affirms that culture is in the heart of CSR practices in ASEAN, transferred by actors through the stakeholder’s engagement process. This was demonstrated by the early accounts of CSR practices in the region even before the term has emerged globally. Early practices of CSR are conducted in the name of religion, belief system, traditions, and customs. This study further concludes that as the company expands, it transforms traditions and cultures into corporate culture, reflecting more widely known international norms. This then in effect creates more CSR awareness to the business community, and to the society as a whole. This study affirms its hypothesis that culture affects CSR policy in the region, and at the same time, policy affects and transforms culture. With this understanding, CSR still has a lot of room for development, and this study suggests that culture can serve as a communication tool to encourage, promote, deeply understand, and integrate CSR into the business strategies of Southeast Asian companies.