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.

Trend 3: Management nodes are controllable. In the context of digital economy, information asymmetry is further broken, the black box in the process of corporate social responsibility management is gradually opened, corporate performance and non-responsibility behaviors become traceable, and key management nodes tend to be controllable: First, the management node can be controlled in advance, and enterprises can use digital tools to achieve scientific prediction of social responsibility input-output situation, and do what they can before implementing social responsibility behavior. This is not only conducive to solving the current practical dilemma that corporate social responsibility cannot be effectively measured in the cost and value dimensions, but also to strengthening the confidence of enterprises in performing their responsibilities, but also to reducing the cost of performing their responsibilities and improving the efficiency of performing their responsibilities. Second, the management node is controllable, in the context of the digital economy, all the performance and default behaviors of enterprises have become digital traces, visible, traceable and traceable. On the one hand, these digital traces can become the regulatory basis for stakeholders to perform their responsibilities; On the other hand, when an enterprise's operation and management behavior touches the red line of morality, ethics and law, digital traces can also give real-time and accurate early warning to the enterprise, helping the enterprise to respond quickly and actively. As mentioned above, the controllability of corporate social responsibility management nodes will significantly reduce the risk and cost of corporate responsibility performance, thus promoting the normalization of corporate social responsibility practice.

Trend 4: Efficient management communication. Responsibility communication is an important part of corporate social responsibility management. Through responsibility communication, enterprises release performance information to stakeholders and accept their supervision. In the context of the digital economy, stakeholders have more diversified channels to receive information, and the effectiveness of information also promotes the communication of corporate social responsibility management to become more efficient: First, the release of corporate responsibility information will shift from annual reporting to real-time communication. The traditional annual information release method of Corporate Social Responsibility Report (CSR report) will be replaced by real-time release of all media, and enterprises can use we-media and social media means to release responsibility actions to the public at any time and in a timely manner, so as to change the post-responsibility communication to pre-event and in-event communication. Second, the release of corporate accountability information will shift from one-way reporting to efficient interaction. With the help of digital tools, the process of corporate responsibility tends to be scenarioized, and two-way responsibility communication with stakeholders can be realized, so as to effectively improve the awareness and participation of stakeholders on corporate responsibility behavior. It is worth noting that while digital technology changes the channels and speed of responsibility communication, it also makes enterprises have to face a wider range of responsibility communication objects, and stakeholder supervision often evolves into supervision by the whole people, which undoubtedly increases the pressure and challenge of corporate social responsibility management.

Trend five: Management value spillover. With the continuous advancement of corporate social responsibility activities in China, the judgment of "responsibility = value" has gradually replaced the mindset of "responsibility = cost". In the context of the digital economy, the content of corporate responsibility is diversified and the way of corporate responsibility is intelligent, which promotes the transformation of corporate social responsibility management effectiveness from single dimension to multi-dimension, forming a multiple value system of "economic value + social value + environmental value + cultural value". At the same time, the digital ecosystem strengthens the stickiness among stakeholders, and the high degree of internal correlation makes the externality of corporate responsibility behavior continuously increase, and the trend of value spillover is more significant. A certain corporate responsibility behavior is likely to bring a disruptive and long-term value impact to the society.