HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

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INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
Subject: Business Ethics

Management and instruments of corporate social responsibility: corporate

social management systems; corporate social responsibility and sustainability
reports; codes of conduct or ethical codes; and international framework
agreements; Management and instruments of CSR in Vietnam.

Student’s name: Vũ Hoa Đạt

Student code: 20203206
Class: 136332
Instructor: Dr. Nguyen Duc Trong

Hanoi, 12/2022
 Table of contents

I. Introduction ..............................................................3
II. Main contents of the report.....................................3
1. Corporate Social Responsibility..................................3
2. Corporate Social Responsibility Management............3
3. Corporate Social Responsibilit Instruments................4

4. Corporate Social Responsibility in Vietnam...............5

III. Conclusion...............................................................5
1. Lessons........................................................................5
2. References...................................................................6
3. Acknowledgements……………………………….....7

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I. Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a well-known concept for some time though the interpretation of
this concept differs among countries, companies and stakeholders. In many cases, CSR has been abused as a
marketing ploy, masking unsustainable practices of companies, in others it has simply constituted a charity event,
again, often to mask the negative impacts of companies’ operations. However, the winds of change are blowing,
in particular in the wake of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Increasingly,
companies are adopting sustainable business practices as an integral element of their corporate strategies, which
is the true meaning of CSR. In fact, some companies have gone beyond the traditional interpretation of CSR and
either engage in social or impact investment and/or play active roles in development cooperation, including the
provision of disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. In this regard, the concept of CSR has evolved and today
is often referred to as “corporate sustainability” or “responsible business practices” to avoid confusion with the
narrow (and wrong) interpretation of traditional CSR as charity events. Various global CSR instruments and
sustainability frameworks, such as the Global Compact, Global Reporting Initiative and ISO 26000, have been in
existence for some time and have been increasingly adopted by many companies, usually the bigger transnational
corporations (TNCs). However, two main issues can be identified which require attention by both policymakers
and companies. First, many companies in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular the millions of small and medium-
sized enterprises (SMEs), are slow to adopt CSR instruments as they are considered to undermine their
competitiveness and belong to the realm of the public sector. Secondly, the increasing number of different CSR
instruments and sustainability frameworks has led to a certain level of confusion and imposed cumbersome and
duplicative reporting burdens on companies, and therefore some form of convergence is required. This
publication looks at recent developments in CSR with particular attention to the growing role of impact
investment and the need for greater convergence of global CSR instruments and provides recommendations to
policymakers to enhance the adoption of CSR as an integral part of business strategy and operations.

II. Main contents of the report:

1. Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially
accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. By practicing corporate social responsibility, also
called corporate citizenship, companies can be conscious of the kind of impact they are having on all aspects of
society, including economic, social, and environmental.

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 2. Corporate Social Responsibility Management

- Corporate responsibility management is a type of leadership that focuses on how an organization or brand
impacts the community. By implementing this management style, brands can boost their image and attract a
positive customer base. If you're a manager or leader within an organization, learning more about social
responsibility management can be beneficial.
- There are 4 types:

1. Environmental responsibility: Reduce pollution; Increase reliance on renewable energy; Offset negative
environmental impacts.

2. Ethical responsibility: Achieve fair treatment of all stake holders, including leadership, investors, employees,
suppliers and customers.

3. Philanthropic responsibility: Aim to actively make the world and society a better place.

4. Economic responsibility: Aim to both maximize profits and positive impacts on the environment, people and
society.

3. Corporate Social Responsibilit Instruments

* CSR Management systems

- The implementation of all activities within the scope of CSR can be structured and carried out within a
management system covering at least the following aspects:

+ Assignment of Directorate and Council responsibilities (policy and objectives statement)

+ Identification of interested parties’ expectations.

+ Strategic planning.

+ Resources, processes and systems management.

+ Measurement and Analysis

+ Change management and continuous improvement.

 + Impact on interested parties.

* CSR reports
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- A corporate social responsibility (CSR) report is an internal- and external-facing document companies use to
communicate CSR efforts and their impact on the environment and community. An organization’s CRS efforts
can fall into four categories: environmental, ethical, philanthropic, and economic.

* Codes of conduct or ethical codes

- A code of ethics is broader, providing a set of principles that affect employee mindset and decision-making.

- A code of conduct offers principles defining the ethics of a business, but it also contains specific rules for
employee actions and behavior.

* International framework agreements

- An International Framework Agreement (IFA) or Global Framework Agreement (GFA) serves to establish an
ongoing relationship between a multinational enterprise and a Global Union Federation (GUF) to ensure that the
company adheres to the same standards in every country in which it operates.

4. CSR management in Vietnam

- In Vietnam, the concept of CSR has been introduced from the top down by western governments, MNCs, and
international and transnational organizations since 2002 (Hamm, 2012). This was through the implementation of
Codes of Conduct or in the form of social standard requirements (Brown, 2017; Wang, 2005). Since the
introduction of CSR to Vietnam, many domestic enterprises have been found to mimic, promote and expand CSR
in their policies to gain competitive advantages and in return for access to the global market (Lee, 2016; Newman
et al., 2018). Recently, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also been collaborating with the
government statutory bodies such as The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Vietnam (VCCI), and Ministry
of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to promote business practices in Vietnam in accordance with
international laws and regulations, particularly in the garment industry (Lim et al., 2017; Ya Hui & Hoa, 2016).
Consequently, new industry standards in business practices are being developed (Newman et al., 2018), and it is
worth noting that social expectation about business responsibilities has changed gradually, requiring Vietnamese
companies to manage their relations within society in a new way (Anner, 2012; Tran & Jeppesen, 2016).

III. Conclusion
1. Lessons
- There is no doubt that the field of CSR is in a state of emergence with new frameworks constantly being

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 proposed (Athanasopoulou & Selsky, 2015). Our paper has contributed to that progress by proposing a
conceptual framework that includes three specific institutional contextual factors that arguably influence the
nature of CSR in Vietnam. There is a dearth of context-sensitive research on CSR in Vietnam, with existing
studies tending to rely on theories and frameworks developed from studies undertaken in the West for their
investigation (Thang & Fassin, 2017; L. T. Tuan, 2017). However, as the concept of CSR is not well defined in
Vietnam (Tran & Jeppesen, 2016) and it is apparent that the foundational assumptions of these western
frameworks may not hold up in the Vietnamese context, we argue that any examination of CSR in Vietnam
without contextualization could perpetuate superficial understanding of CSR and may yield invalid results.
Therefore, a major tenet of this paper is that the novelty of the context may challenge the universality of
existing CSR models and theories, with this proposition explicitly proposing that the peculiarities of context
determine the boundaries and transferability of CSR theories and models.

Our conceptual framework carries important practical implications. First, by noting the multi-level and
interlinked nature of social context, our study draws a meaningful picture of the nature of CSR in Vietnam and
channels attention to the importance of multi-level analysis as a means of gaining a deeper understanding of how
CSR should be practiced in Vietnam. This study, in turn, can help authorities to understand how the business
operating environment may shape CSR decisions and managers to identify the ways to manage the interplay
between forces at a particular social contextual level more effectively. Moreover, this paper serves as a call for
management educators in Vietnam to strive to ascertain how a Western phenomenon, such as CSR, is relevant,
applicable, and conceptualized within the context of Vietnamese management.

Future investigation of CSR in Vietnam can proceed from diverse perspectives so that more context-sensitive and
multilevel CSR research can emerge. Firstly, future research might make use of our framework to test which factors,
studied by which perspectives in different organizational types, have more pervasive influences on the nature of CSR.
Secondly, although some general studies of national culture and CSR in Vietnam using Hofstede’s cultural typology
exist (Nguyen & Truong, 2016), researchers might go beyond the use of Hofstede, looking at the relationship between
CSR and a variety of social movements (transformational and transnational education) or a collective of cultural values
in Vietnam (such as nationalism and familialism) to develop a more comprehensive framework of CSR. Moreover,
philosophical research may examine the influence of the triple religion in Vietnam (Buddhism, Confucianism and
Daoism) on the nature of CSR, while political science research may be interested in examining potential positive and
negative impacts of the official ideology (such as Marxism–Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts) on CSR thinking
and doing in Vietnam during the transition period towards sustainable development in Vietnam. These kinds of
examination could potentially fill a gap in knowledge about the role of religion, socialist ideology, and hegemonic
regimes on CSR. Last but not least, it has been pointed out that in most studies of CSR, researchers employ a static
cohort design that ignores contextual influence that varies with time (Tilt, 2016). As CSR practices and its
underpinnings are not constant, longitudinal research on Vietnamese economic development could provide rich
background on the development of CSR in Vietnam, reflecting how fundamental changes in business operating systems
might affect the way in which organizations manage their relations within society. By drawing from a wide range of
views, CSR scholars in Vietnam may provide some unique contributions that take the literature of CSR into new and
interesting directions.

2. References

- Jo Bensemann & Stephen Kelly(2018), https://jcsr.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40991-018-0032-5

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- https://www.industriall-union.org/global-framework-agreements
- (2019), IndustriALL suspends global agreement with Volkswagen 
- Uni Global Union (2018), UNI Global Union and Banco Itaú extend global agreement securing labour rights 
- ILO (2018), International Framework Agreements in the food retail, garment and chemicals sectors: Lessons learned
from three case studies 
- Valamis(2022), https://www.valamis.com/hub/code-of-conduct
- ILO(2007), https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_080723/lang--en/index.htm

3. Acknowledgements
- I am very appreciate and thank to my teacher, Phd. Nguyen Duc Trong , for his guideline each stage of the process.