Corporate Social Responsibility and Strategic Management: An Empirical Study of Korean MNCs in the United States

Date of Submission

2000

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Science in Management Systems (Sc.D.)

Department

Management

Advisor

Omid Nodoushani

Committee Member

William S. Pan

Committee Member

Anshuman Prasad

LC Subject Headings

Social responsibility of business, Strategic planning, International business enterprises--Korea (South), International business enterprises--United States

Call No. at the Univ. of New Haven Library

AS 36 N290 Mgmt. Syst. 2000 no.1

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practice, which is a by-product of professional corporate culture has long been concerned with for corporate success in the U.S. In addition, as global markets expand and competition intensifies, multinational corporations (MNCs) are increasingly called upon to formulate and implement corporate strategies that pay sufficient attention to corporate social responsibility at the global level. Without the cooperation of the global community, multinational corporate economic success will be short-lived and not expected to survive in the long run.

Currently, large Korean business groups, Korean chaebols, are developing into global corporations. During this transition they are facing new trends in corporate business social environments, such as a cooperative living spirit between large corporations and society in the global marketplace.

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze corporate perceptions and practices of CSR among Korean multinational companies in the U.S. The results of the research will create of model for a universal practice for international companies, free of cultural biases.

The research question of this dissertation is to investigate whether the idea of Corporate Social Responsibility (a by-product of professional corporate culture) is transferable to the Korean MNCs in the U.S.

The research hypothesis is that the Korean MNCs’ CSR practice and their CSR components are strongly correlated with those of U.S. because the idea of CSR is a by-product of professional corporate culture, and thus, can be implemented universally.

The research methodology in this dissertation is based on a cross-cultural, comparative, quantitative, and an empirical model specification.

A mail questionnaire survey has been performed and sent to 129 Korean MBA students (45 returned; 34.8%) and 292 top executives, or top managers (72 returned; 24.3%) of Korean MNCs in the U.S.

All statistical results have been presented in appendices and tables. The dissertation has found that Korean MNCs understood Corporate Social Responsibility practice, and its global issues, and the ways such issues affect strategic management.

This analysis may not be generalized, however, to medium and smaller Korean corporations with a lower level of corporate financial performance.

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