An attempt is made in this article to explore and build knowledge on the corporate social responsibility performances for community development and sustainability in the context of Rourkela Steel Plant of Steel Authority of India in Odisha, particularly in the wake of Companies Act, section 135, 2013. The paper looks at the conduct of CSR transitional strategy if any for delivering a range of activities while the amount of money spent on CSR is a common indicator of performance. The case (...) is based on content analysis and narrative inquiry. In-depth, open-ended personal interview and focus group discussion were conducted with project participants, women leaders, youth, community stakeholders, NGO partners and officials. Hard data and field information on the impact of CSR initiatives were organised to validate the proposition. Findings indicate that brand building and creating far-reaching positive business impact of RSP-SAIL as a responsible corporate citizen were important outcomes. This paper sets up an analytical framework that defines transitional strategies at different levels of communities in terms of production, organisations, governance, institutions and culture of relationships, noting how best to guide corporate towards sustainable community development through its CSR policy. (shrink)

In 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao instituted a “Harmonious Society” policy marking a new China’s approach toward development. This generated intense excitement among observers of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) who perceive an overlap in objectives between CSR and Harmonious Society and believe that Harmonious Society will lead to increased CSR engagement in China. However, there is little exploration of how Harmonious Society will contribute to increasing CSR engagement. This article seeks to explore whether Harmonious Society will meet this promise. It (...) does so by drawing up a list of actions that if taken by the government would increase the level of CSR in China and make Harmonious Society a relevant factor in the development of Chinese CSR. To do so, my article studies comparative literature on CSR development to develop a framework that divides causes of CSR in a country into environmental constraints and discretionary responses. Understanding what drives the development of CSR allows us to understand what measures the Chinese government can take to influence the level of CSR. Using this framework, my article suggests that Harmonious Society is unlikely to promote CSR in China’s growing private sector because policy measures that affect the “constraints” driving CSR are bounded by other political considerations. (shrink)