A Comparative Study on Corporate Social Responsibility Focusing on the Shipping Industry in the Four Asian Countries

The purpose of this paper is to offer the understanding of shipping companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities from a cross-country perspective. In an attempt to achieve the research aim, it searches for the answers to the following questions: (1) Do differences exist in students’ perceptions toward CSR of shipping companies of Republic of Korea, China, Japan, and Thailand? (2) Do demographic variables play a significant role in students’ perceptions toward CSR of shipping companies among four countries?. A questionnaire survey is the core approach employed to analyse the perceptions of university students from each country, and the results were produced by using a one-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) mainly. The findings demonstrate significant differences in perceptions of shipping companies’ CSR among the four countries, which possibly reveal variances in their national circumstances and interpretations of CSR. Considering that little research has been conducted to explore CSR in the shipping industry in a comprehensive way, this study particularly focusing on four major Asian countries is vital to suggest several implications.