Zhang Dongyong, Lu Shuhui, Morse Stephen, Liu Lingyi
College of Information and Management Science, Henan Agricultural University, 15 Longzi Lake Campus, Zhengzhou East New District, Zhengzhou, 450046 China.
Centre for Environment and Sustainability, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH Surrey UK.
Environ Dev Sustain. 2022;24(6):8521-8544. doi: 10.1007/s10668-021-01798-y. Epub 2021 Sep 16.
The new coronavirus (COVID-19) has generated an unprecedented degree of social and economic impact on the planet, but few researchers have explored the repercussion of COVID-19 for sustainable development (SD) and corporate social responsibility (CSR), especially from the perspective of Chinese businesses. This paper is the first to outline the priority changes of both SD and CSR over the period of COVID-19 incidence in China. An online questionnaire survey of 1161 owners and managers of Chinese companies was conducted, and respondents were asked to score the priorities of their company over the pre, during and post COVID-19 periods. The research was carried out at the end of the first COVID-19 wave in China but during the period of lockdown in some parts of the country. It was found that there was a priority change regarding three dimensions of sustainable development and 13 aspects of CSR. While the social dimension of SD was prioritized during and post COVID-19, the environmental dimension was the only one deemed to be less important and less prioritized over the longer term after the pandemic. The top three short-term CSR priorities were having in place a workplace health and safety plan, engaging in philanthropic activities and protecting biodiversity, and the top three longer-term CSR priorities were job creation, protecting biodiversity and having in place a workplace health and safety plan. Environmental protection and using clean energy were not reported as a CSR priority. The paper concludes that China's recovery mode cannot be called 'green' and suggests ways this could be changed.
新型冠状病毒（COVID-19）已对全球产生了前所未有的社会和经济影响，但很少有研究人员探讨COVID-19对可持续发展（SD）和企业社会责任（CSR）的影响，尤其是从中国企业的角度。本文首次概述了中国COVID-19疫情期间可持续发展和企业社会责任的优先事项变化。对1161名中国公司的所有者和经理进行了在线问卷调查，要求受访者对其公司在COVID-19之前、期间和之后的优先事项进行评分。该研究在中国第一波COVID-19疫情结束时进行，但当时该国部分地区仍处于封锁状态。研究发现，可持续发展的三个维度和企业社会责任的13个方面的优先事项发生了变化。虽然可持续发展的社会维度在COVID-19期间和之后被列为优先事项，但环境维度是唯一在疫情后长期被认为不太重要且优先级较低的维度。企业社会责任的前三大短期优先事项是制定工作场所健康与安全计划、开展慈善活动和保护生物多样性，而企业社会责任的前三大长期优先事项是创造就业机会、保护生物多样性和制定工作场所健康与安全计划。环境保护和使用清洁能源未被报告为企业社会责任的优先事项。本文得出结论称，中国的复苏模式不能被称为“绿色”，并提出了改变这种情况的方法。
