An Empirical Examination of Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Chinese Banking Industry Investigation

By using companies listed in both Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2005, this study investigates the relationship between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility (CSR) of Chinese banking industry. The contribution of this paper is the development of an empirical model with employing eight criteria as the competitive advantage measurements of commercial banks and content analysis method to assess CSR. Results from the panel analysis of this study present the initial findings that the competitive advantage of companies in Chinese banking industry is positively related to CSR. This study also finds that the competitive advantage of companies is negatively but not very strongly relative to loan losses.