Corruption and Corporate Social Responsibility in China : The case of the Norwegian shipping industry

Abstract

This paper has two main purposes. Firstly to look at how Norwegian shipowners are affected by corruption in China. Secondly to find out how the companies’ CSR policy can protect them against corruption. The background for this thesis is among others statistics from Corruption Perceptions Index (Transparency International). Also I wanted to look deeper into the increasing focus on Corporate Social Responsibility policies the later year. It seemed interesting to look at how Norwegian Shipowners are affected by this when doing business in China. In order to find out more I made use of qualitative research method. The research was conducted by semi-structured interviews in which I talked to several respondents with knowledge on the area of research. The main findings are that the shipowners are not as affected by corruption in China as one would initially believe. Also many find their CSR policies useful when it comes to protecting own company and employees against corruption. The findings will be analyzed by using new institutional theories.