Corporate Social Responsibility Approaches of Korean Companies

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an important priority for companies, and many of them have done much to improve the social and environmental aspects of their operations. Many Korean firms have taken up CSR activities as well in various areas from helping the poor, providing social services, scholarships, environment, and research. Some companies use CSR to embolden their image and reputation as a good corporate citizen, while some companies pursue it as purely charity- oriented by reciprocating to the society. Some companies strategically combine CSR activities with their competitive advantage areas to better match their non-business activities with what they do best. With many companies involved in CSR, it is important to know what CSR approaches are pursued by companies. In this paper it is argued that primarily two CSR approaches are utilized by companies in Korea: long-term, sustainable approach and legitimacy-seeking, decoupling approach. The possible determining factors are firm size, corporate reputation, commitment of top management, and legitimacy. And, it is proposed that they influence the extent of CSR involvement, which results in the two primary forms aforementioned. The larger the firm size, the higher the corporate reputation and commitment of top management, the greater the extent of CSR involvement by companies could be seen. If the need for legitimacy is strong and exceeds the strength of other factors, the likelihood of companies to opt for the latter approach of CSR involvement should be higher. These cases would be more likely to seen among small and medium-size companies. In this paper the factors pertaining to each of the approaches are discussed along with ways to improve some problematic ways with which many Korean firms still approach CSR.