Chinese Enterprises’ CSR Deployment under the Belt and Road Initiative: A new Multinationalizing Paradigm

The Belt and Road Initiative has encouraged increasing Chinese enterprises in multinational investment and development in the Belt and Road countries. Differing from previous multinationalization, the Initiative requires the enterprises to take Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and profit pursuit as equal priorities in the very beginning. That is, the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration consolidates the cooperation foundation. This differentiation could signify a new multinationalizing paradigm. For the purpose of revealing this paradigm, the authors construct a G-CAGE Framework. This paper demonstrates that: (1) Chinese enterprises in the Belt and Road countries take CSR as a prime consideration. (2) The enterprise's responsibility should differ along cultural, administrative, geographic, economic and green development distances. (3) Chinese enterprises are the main body for establishing a new development paradigm among the Belt and Road countries, and taking CSR strategically is the right way to achieve that.