Corporate Responsibility Expectations in China: Advanced Business and Economics Students from Beijing

In this study, we examine the influence of culture and context on corporate responsibility expectations of future political and economic leaders in China. In contrast to implicit assumptions in the established literature, corporate responsibility is not universally shared and understood independently of context and culture. We explored corporate responsibility expectations of 80 advanced business and economics students from first-tier universities in Beijing. The data for this study consisted of essays written by the participants. Hermeneutic Content Analysis was used on the essays, which includes a combination of Content Configuration Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling. Our results revealed that, according to our respondents, corporations ought to be fully integrated into a meta-system that includes the state and society. Corporate success in terms of technological advancement, profits, and market share are thought possible through collective contributions by the state and society, which in turn expect considerable, systemic, and continuous contributions by corporations toward national socioeconomic development and prosperity. The responses seemed entirely independent of the business and economics literature to which the respondents are exposed. Furthermore, the respondents understood the interdependent and reciprocal relations within this meta-system with reference to the Chinese nation. Profit seeking or market share increase in their own right, or references to corporate responsibilities beyond national boundaries were mostly absent.