New trend of corporate social responsibility management under the background of digital economy

Since the introduction of the concept of corporate social responsibility in China in the 1970s, the issue of corporate social responsibility has been promoted in both theoretical research and corporate practice, and Chinese discourse and Chinese experience in the field of corporate social responsibility have been formed through exploration and accumulation. Especially since entering the 21st century, China's corporate social responsibility practice has gradually entered the standardized development stage of corporate social responsibility management. Formulating responsibility strategies, carrying out responsibility activities, and releasing responsibility reports have become the normal behaviors of a large number of enterprises, and a lot of useful Chinese experience has been formed in promoting the integration of corporate social responsibility with modern management practices.

At present, the era of digital economy is coming, and the digital economy will reshape the management paradigm of enterprises while reconstructing the business model of enterprises, thus penetrating into all aspects of corporate social responsibility management. Digital technology not only makes corporate social responsibility actions easier and more efficient, but also makes corporate responsibility performance more transparent and traceable. Social responsibility management innovation based on digital transformation will lead a new wave of corporate management innovation, and corporate social responsibility management will form the following trends:

Trend one: digitization of management processes. Big data makes management science truly enter the quantifiable scientific development stage, and will also promote the digitalization of corporate social responsibility management in the whole process of "goal - measure - result" : First, from the front end of the process, enterprises can quantify the social responsibility strategy and objectives, clarify the time node and content mode of corporate social responsibility in a digital way, effectively promote the performance of corporate responsibility with evidence to rely on, and reduce the blindness and uncertainty in the performance process of existing enterprises. In fact, the traditional corporate social responsibility management often takes the enterprise itself as the starting point, and the ability and advantage of the enterprise become the dimension and boundary of the performance of responsibility. This relatively blind responsibility output behavior is likely to fall into the embarrassing situation of inefficient, ineffective and even not understood by the public. In the context of the digital economy, enterprises can use digital tools to accurately depict the demands of stakeholders, so as to clarify the objectives and contents of performance. For example, in terms of public welfare performance, traditional donations have begun to develop in the direction of precise poverty alleviation, and a large number of e-commerce platform enterprises take advantage of digital and channel advantages to actively "hematopoietic" for poor areas. 

Second, from the perspective of the middle end of the process, big data accurately describes all aspects of enterprise operation and management, and with the help of digital tools, enterprises can clearly explain the implementation path of research and development, procurement, production, marketing and other links to the responsible executors. Through intelligent performance means, enterprises will greatly improve the effectiveness of social responsibility management. Thirdly, from the perspective of the process terminal, enterprises can deeply interpret their strengths and weaknesses in the field of social responsibility according to the digital results, further modify the objectives of social responsibility management accordingly, and form a virtuous circle of "goal setting - management practice - goal optimization", which is conducive to the sustainable practice of corporate social responsibility.

Trend two: management body platform. Under the background of digital economy, the focus of competition among enterprises is gradually evolving from technology competition, product competition and supply chain competition to platform ecosystem competition, and the emergence of a large number of digital platforms has also promoted the vision of corporate social responsibility management from enterprise internal management and value chain management to platform management. This platform trend is specifically reflected in the following two aspects: First, platform enterprises actively fulfill their responsibilities, which will significantly enhance the demonstration effect and driving effect of eco-circle related enterprises. The greater the capacity, the greater the responsibility. The platform enterprises at the core of the digital ecosystem have high innovation barriers and strong bargaining power due to their inherent advantages of resources, technology, information, users, etc. Platform enterprises should become the largest beneficiary of the ecosystem and also the largest responsible entity, and play a role of responsibility demonstration for related enterprises. Especially, under the realistic dilemma that many small and medium-sized enterprises in our country are facing with insufficient digital transformation ability, platform enterprises should undertake the important responsibility of cluster digital platform, to build a new business ecology with digital technologies and data energy, and to carry out an all-round, all-round and full chain transformation of traditional industries with new technologies and new applications to help small and medium-sized enterprises to adapt to the wave of digital transformation. Second, the digital ecosystem intensifies the dual relationship between business and responsibility of all enterprises on the platform. On the one hand, the social responsibility of different enterprises will show a lot of crossover in the ecosystem, and the platform needs to cooperate to fulfill the responsibility; On the other hand, the lack of social responsibility in the ecosystem is often caused by multiple subjects, which has a wider impact and requires collaborative governance by the platform. In the strong correlation state, the management domain between enterprises is gradually broken, which supports the platform trend of collaborative performance and collaborative governance to a certain extent.