Successful strategies for sustainability in China and the global market economy

Abstract

This paper is about the perceptions of 30 Chinese executives who are working for 20 foreign multinational enterprises in China about their corporate social responsibility programmes in China. It is based on the author’s extensive literature review, five years’ field work in China, Japan, and the USA, and personal reflections. There are two common problems of sustainability of foreign multinational enterprises in China: profit at the expense of innovation and integration in daily operations, and corporate social responsibility programmes are politicised for government relationships. Only two exemplary companies learned how to adopt the Chinese way of sustainability by increasing the Chinese Government’s capacity in the public service sector. There were six recommended strategies of sustainability: increase localisation, enhance the capacity of selected local suppliers, develop collaborative capacity with internal employees and external stakeholders, use a public-private platform to lobby the Chinese Government, change the poor consumers to be producers, and develop an internal culture of human flourishing based on sustainability concept.