Flexible Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from A Chinese Company in Africa

Abstract

In the emergent field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies, there has been growing interest in understanding and practice in particular sociocultural contexts in developing countries. As a rising force of overseas investment, Chinese enterprises are increasingly encountering local challenges stemming from CSR. This paper is an ethnographic study of a Chinese gold mining company in contemporary Ghana in regard to CSR knowledge and practice. It investigates how multiple actors negotiate understandings of CSR in a Chinese gold mining company as compared with an American gold mining company. The research was conducted near the mining sites located in Odumase of Eastern region and Juaso of Ashanti region of Ghana during 2016. Its CSR practice was compared with that of the Akyem mining site operated by an American mining corporation. Through ethnographic fieldwork, this paper contextualizes the construction of diverse understandings of CSR among multiple actors in this Chinese investment project. It also demonstrates how both formal and informal engagements with affected communities constitute its CSR practice. Based on a case study and comparison with an American mining company, this paper finds that large-scale Chinese mining operation in Africa is receptive of the concept of CSR but its practice is very unique.