CSR Reporting has already been in the mainstream as a common practice of 21st–century business. The benefits of CSR reporting go beyond obtaining license to operate. It also enhances the competitiveness of companies and fosters investor confidence. CSR reporting in China has been growing very fast in recent years due to the increasing pressure from the regulators as well as companies’ stakeholders including buyers, investors as well as local communities. Some of them recognized the benefits and importance of CSR reporting while some merely fulfilled the minimum statutory requirements to publish CSR reports. The CSR reports published by the Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong were examined in this study to assess their quality. When compared to the selected CSR reports by Hong Kong leading companies/organization, the reports published by Chinese companies were of relatively low quality in general with a few outstanding examples. The weakest areas included the way to determine report content and report assurance. This often led to information bias that the companies omit negative and sensitive CSR issues. It is recommended to fully adopt international reporting guidelines such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reporting guidelines, and thus the report content will be more relevant and comparable. Another major part of this study was a questionnaire survey targeting CSR specialists in Hong Kong to identify their views on CSR reporting in China. The result echoed with the findings from the report benchmarking that the specialists reckoned that the CSR reports produced by Chinese companies have room for improvement. Introducing mandatory CSR disclosure requirement was widely supported. Nevertheless, clear guidance and sufficient support in capacity building for the companies are recommended before launching mandatory CSR disclosure requirements to ensure report quality so that the reports will consist of meaningful and significant CSR information to their stakeholders. / published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Wu, Yanni. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-65). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.8 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Research Significance / Chapter 2.1 --- Theoretical significance --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2 --- Empirical significance --- p.11 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Literature Review / Chapter 3.1 --- Background of CSR --- p.12 / Chapter 3.2 --- The conceptual development of CSR --- p.13 / Chapter 3.3 --- Definition of CSR --- p.16 / Chapter 3.4 --- Why or why not corporations make philanthropic contributions? --- p.16 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Economic rewards for doing corporate philanthropy --- p.16 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Public Visibility --- p.17 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Institutional perspective --- p.20 / Chapter 3.5 --- Research on CSR in China --- p.26 / Chapter 3.6. --- Theoretical Framework --- p.31 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Data and Method --- p.33 / Chapter 4.1 --- Data --- p.33 / Chapter 4.2 --- Method --- p.35 / Chapter 4.3 --- Measurement --- p.37 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Dependent Variables --- p.37 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Independent Variables --- p.38 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Control Variables --- p.41 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- Findings and Discussions --- p.44 / Chapter 5.1 --- Significance of variables indicating arguments of economic rewards --- p.45 / Chapter 5.2 --- Significance of variables indicating new institutionalism --- p.47 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Variables indicating the normative influence --- p.47 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Variables indicating the cultural-cognitive influence --- p.48 / Chapter 5.3 --- Significance of variable indicating political incentive --- p.51 / Chapter 5.4 --- Summary --- p.52 / Chapter Chapter 6: --- Conclusion --- p.57 / Reference --- p.60

The Link REITs is the most renowned, world-wide real estate investment trust in Hong Kong since 25 November 2005. Yet, the performance of The Link REIT is controversial under the management of The Link Management Limited (“The Link”). The excellence financial performance of The Link is well known, but the non-financial performance is uncertain. While The Link has adopted a sustainability framework for sustainability management, the three key concepts including i) CSR, ii) sustainability and iii) the building of reputational capital will be integrated into one as a prism for analysis. “Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) is simply part of the scope under the concept of sustainability and the notion of building reputational capital is ingrained in various theories in relations to CSR and sustainability. Business that operates to comply with economic and legal responsibilities can be asserted to survive. Together with its compliance with the ethical and philanthropic responsibilities, a company could enjoy increasing competitiveness by gaining consumer confidence over a long term. The Link has been experiencing changes in its moral system prior to its personnel change upon these years. Start from the individual level, CEO of The Link disseminated his espoused ethical values to the organizational and then to the societal level. The moral system will be examined; barriers against the dissemination of ethical practice will be addressed. Upon The Link’s behavioural change in its ethical practice, a reputation audit which is also known as perception test will be used to test if there are perception gaps exists in between levels of the dissemination. Contrasting the existing state of The Link’s ethical performance with the desired state wanted by The Link’s key constituencies, this would help to address the perception gaps. Whether these perception gaps are opportunities to improve or challenges to overcome, it is important information for The Link to further develop and to gauge its sustainability management strategy. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) as a holistic approach to product stewardship has been increasingly incorporated into environmental policy agenda in the last two decades. One major expectation of EPR is to prevent environmental problems at source by providing appropriate incentives for product eco-design changes. However, available studies empirically examining the actual influence of EPR on eco-design are limited. This research therefore aims to fill the research gap by evaluating the effectiveness of existing EPR programmes in driving eco-design changes from the perspective of China’s electrical and electronic (EE) industry, and shed some light on the prospects of EPR development in China. Based on the analytical framework developed from reconstructed intervention theory, three intensive empirical studies have been carried out. The first study examines the perception and responses of 50 China’s EE manufacturers regarding the EU EPR programmes (i.e. the WEEE and RoHS Directives). The second study investigates the responses of 36 China’s EE manufacturers to the Chinese EPR programmes (i.e. China WEEE and China RoHS legislation) and identifies possible factors that exert causal impact on the occurrence of eco-design. In order to gain a deeper insight into the practical manifestations of effective EPR implementation in the private sector, three company case studies have been conducted in the third stage of the research, serving as an important supplement to the first two studies. The three studies show that EPR programmes in a stringent regulatory approach focusing on products’ environmental properties such as substance bans can exert strong influence on design changes. However, mandated recycling legislation seems to have little driving effect for companies to change product design. The research points to the weakness of collective producer responsibility that is currently adopted in many EU Member States for WEEE implementation in achieving continuous eco-design improvements. It highlights the significance of realising the principle of individual producer responsibility in EPR programmes for achieving this goal. Based on an attributability assessment, the research further shows that there are a number of factors that influence the adoption of eco-design in China, and the link between legislative EPR programmes and eco-design is complex and evolving. Not only may the EPR programmes have different existing, anticipating and potential effect on the incorporation of eco-design, but they may have very different driving influence on environmental laggards and leaders. In this regard, this research suggests that there is no one-stop solution for EPR in China. A mixed mechanism that integrates various policy instruments such as administrative, economic and informative instruments, in conjunction with cooperation and infrastructure facilities, would be the most effective means to implement EPR in the context of China, thereby achieving the goal of sustainable production and consumption. / published_or_final_version / Kadoorie Institute / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Education and training are recognized as the crux of developing green organizational cultures in the achievement of corporate sustainability. Should ecology training be linked with the practical work of corporate members? Should they “learn by doing” or “do by learning”? The present study covered the links between environmental education and training and its success in greening the employees and corporate cultures. It investigated the effectiveness of environmental training and models a suitable training approach in developing environmentally aware corporate cultures. The study first revealed the drivers and challenges of implementing environmental education and training in managerial perception. 13 environmental managers of sustainability leading corporations and governmental departments in Hong Kong were surveyed by either face-to-face interviews or mailed questionnaires survey. The role of environmental education and training in raising employees’ awareness toward a more sustainable manner has been fully recognized by the surveyed mangers. However, engaging employees in environmental learning was found to be the single biggest challenge among the managers. Managers have faced a dilemma when designing training content and training approaches. A wide range of rationales and determining factors were identified in the study. They were employee interests and motivation, training practicability and applicability, justification of resources and continuity of training impacts. A series of environmental education and awareness training programmes of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) were used as a case study. Evaluation of the training outcomes, in terms of changes in participants’ environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, was surveyed by using self-completion questionnaires with retrospective post- and then-test design. Across the 47 responses, the results show that employees gained knowledge and changed their values and behaviour towards the environment significantly. The acquisition of knowledge and attitude change leads to the development of green behaviour both in the workplace and at home. Training design and approach, relevance and applicability of training content were found to have the greatest impact on the training outcomes. A combination of direct- and indirect- experiences in the training is also essential as the employees have direct contact with nature for affective-based attitudes while a proportion of indirect experience training is responsible for intellectual development. Training should be available for employees from each stratum in the company rather than only focusing on pinpointed management staff since it could promote a workable interface between employees and the corporation. Furthermore, organizational support including supervisory and peer support is vital to the training outcomes by encouraging employees to perform pro-environmental behaviour at work, in turn, greening the corporate culture. This study brings to the conclusion that, even though transition of sustainable corporate culture is a long process, it could be achievable in real-life businesses through utilizing an effective environmental education and training with properly designed strategies. / published_or_final_version / Kadoorie Institute / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Environmental Management / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

by Jeremy Chung-lai Pong, Brenda Margaret Wai-ming Ko. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 45). / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.i / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Definition --- p.1 / Classical View --- p.2 / Contemporary View --- p.3 / Practical View --- p.4 / Chapter II. --- OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT --- p.7 / Background of Hong Kong Companies --- p.7 / Empirical Studies of CSR --- p.7 / Chapter III. --- RESEARCH PLANNING --- p.9 / Chapter IV. --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY --- p.12 / Questionnaire Design --- p.12 / Pilot Run --- p.14 / Distribution of Questionnaire --- p.14 / Chapter V. --- RESULTS --- p.16 / Company Profile --- p.16 / Interpretation of CSR --- p.17 / Introduction of CSR --- p.19 / Extent of CSR Knowledge --- p.20 / CSR Awareness and Activities Undertaken --- p.21 / Analysis under the Pyramid Model --- p.24 / Perceived Customers Support on CSR --- p.28 / Comparison of Responses between Top Management and Middle Management --- p.29 / Comparison of Ideals and Actions --- p.35 / Chapter VI. --- CONCLUSION --- p.36 / APPENDIX --- p.40 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.45