Buddhist Entrepreneurs and Corporate Social Responsibility in Shanghai

Shuxi YIN

I combined semi-structured interviews with Buddhist entrepreneurs in Shanghai city and observations during social or business meetings to study Buddhist entrepreneurs and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in China today. My qualitative findings suggest the following conclusions. First, Buddhism has a strong impact on how the Buddhist entrepreneur articulates his or her business philosophy. Secondly, affected by Buddhism, the entrepreneur’s business philosophy has led to several external and internal stakeholder CSR initiatives undertaken by the company. Thirdly, the company’s CSR initiatives have directly and indirectly contributed to corporate development.

Keywords: Buddhism, Corporate Social Responsibility, Entrepreneurship