THE IMPACT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ABOUT
THE ENVIRONMENT ISSUE OF VIETNAMESE LIMITED
COMPANIES BY
TRAN BAO NGOC
E0700052
Graduation Project Submitted to the Department of Business Studies HELP
University College, in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for The Degree of
Bachelor of Business (Accounting) Hons

MARCH 2011 2
DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY
AND WORD COUNT

I hereby declare that the graduation project is based on my original work except for
quotations and citations which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that it has not
been previously or concurrently submitted for any other course/degree at Help University
College or other institutions. The word count is 9397 words.
Without them, I can not complete my project.
Lastly, I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my family who always are on
my side for loving me, supporting me and beliving in me.

TRAN BAO NGOC 4
THE IMPACT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES ABOUT THE
ENVIRONMENT ISSUE OF VIETNAMESE LIMITED COMPANIES.
By
TRAN BAO NGOC
MARCH 2011
Supervisor: Dr. Le Van Lien
ABSTRACT
CSR and it components have become important issues in the world also in Vietnam.
Vietnam is developing country with developing economy, thus CSR and environment
issue are the key term for the country to develop sustainably. This paper aims to discover
how limited companies in Vietnam view CSR and environment duties, whether those have
any effect on the Vietnam citizens behavior, how they can have impact in Limited
compay, and the attitude of Vietnam Governemtn staff toward them. After we can see
that, there is strong support for CSR and its component: environment from managers and
a growing awareness among citizens and Government staffs. Nevertheless, there is
expectation gap between how manager think and how they act because there are lack of
honesty CSR disclosure from firm or manager, inactive support actions from consumers
due to the barriers in living expenses, and the way company chose to communicate CSR.
In contrast, with highly positive attitude toward the important impact of CSR and
environment duties and the strong belive finding from the survey have drawing potential
bright future for CSR and environment duties in Vietnam.


3.4.2 Secondary data 22
3.5. Research method 23
3.6. Research tool 23
3.6.1. Questionaire 23 6
3.6.2. Personal interview 23
3.6.3. Annual report …………………………………………………………………………………………………………23
3.7. Data collection 24
3.8. Sampling 24
3.8.1. Sample population 24
3.8.2. Sample frame 24
3.8.3. Sample size 24
3.8.4. Sample technique 24
3.9. Limitation 24
4. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 26
4.1. Management 27
4.1.1. Findings from questionnaire survey 27
4.1.2. Actual CSR disclosures by firms 31
4.1.3. Findings from managers interview 33
4.1.4. Overall evaluation of management‟s responses 34
4.2. Citizens 35
4.2.1. Findings from questionnaire survey 35
4.2.2. Overall evaluation of citizen‟s responses 37
4.3. Government staff 40
4.3.1. Findings from questionnaire survey 40
4.3.2. Overall evaluation of Government staff‟s responses 43
4.4. Overall discussion 44
5. CONCLUSION 47

8
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CSR Corporate Social Responsibility
IQR Inter-Quartile Range
VSA Vietnamese Accounting Standard
9
1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. CSR and CSR about environment issue in the world
Nowadays with the booming of Internet and Information Technology (IT), the world
become closer and the economy in over the world also become more global. As the result,
to gain advantages of this chance all companies in the world need to have the perfect
image to the society to ensure that they can run their business well with the support of
public. As the result, they spend a lot of money to achieve that and responsible for society
that means a huge number of money are used to complete their Corporate Social
Responsibility. For example, General Electrics uses more than two billion USD per year
for ensure its CSR. In addition the most important aspect need to consider when talking

“Environmental Protection Law and the Vietnam Agenda 21” for sustainable
development. Besides, the Government also established Environmental Police and special
fees levied on the emission of waste water to strengthen enforcement measures against
companies that polluted.
11
1.4. CSR practice and challenge
Vietnam had CSR Awards, which was organized by Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, Ministry of Labor-Invalids and Social Affairs, Vietnam Ministry of Industry and
Trade since 2005, together with Vietnam Leather & Footwear Association, and The
Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group, in order to honor enterprises and all
limited companies that effective done of CSR and environment duties. In 2006, there are
50 Vietnamese companies in field: Leather & Footwear Association, Textile and Garment
that join in that. According to PhD Doan Duy Khuong - Vice-Director of Vietnam
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, “CSR and its component have become necessary
requirement for each company, if the company does not embrace CSR, they can not
approach the global market” (Saga Vietnam, 2008).
However, in Vietnam, there are still a lot of difficulties in applying CSR and complete
environment duties. Firstly, there is not enough law and regulation to enforce limited
companies and other kind of companies to complete their duties to the society. The
evaluations of CSR effectuation are set in Code of Conduct and standards such as
SA8000, WRAP, ISO 14000, GRI, etc. Furthermore, there are not common deal between
Government and International department about the way to do those. Thus, ties are only
among export or import companies or companies' rules. Secondly, there is also a lack of
knowledge from limited companies' knowledge about CSR and environment duties. The
do not have enough knowledge and experience. Besides, we have some limited companies
that have started to produce friendly environment goods such as: Thach Bich, Hai Ha
tokobuki….however, those actions have mainly been based on company‟s nature rather

2.1.1. Carroll 1979- 1991 conceptualization
Figure 2.2


Carroll introduced CSR into four part: economic responsibility, legal responsibilities,
ethical responsibilities, and discretionary in 1979. Firstly, he concerned about economic 14
responsibilities which represents the principal roles of business organizations is not only
making goods and services but also making profit that means business organization was
the basic economic unit before it was anything else.
Secondly, legal responsibilities of the firm were talked, represents the expectation of
society that all activities of company need to take care of law, and fulfill their economic
target set by Government. “Fair operation” was established by lawmakers is the basis for
the view of “codified ethics” affect legal responsibility (Carroll, 1979). In fact, companies
can take advantages of law and regulation but it is not easy to know whether it is fair or
not. Hence, the laws are used when the tolerable business behavior are limited, but they
neither define ethics nor do they “legislate morality” (Solomon, 1994).
In fact, to fulfill with the limitation of law, the ethical responsibility have been depended
on by the companies. Thus, it is not necessary to make ethical responsibility that based on
human principals and rights commitment become law, but the societal members want that
(Novak, 1996). In contrast, the firms might face up with difficulties to deal with the ethic
because of various definitions.
Lastly, when talk about model of Carroll we can not miss discretionary responsibility
which includes activities that relates to the society‟s expectation of businesses to become
good citizens. The difference between ethical responsibility and that is that the public‟s
expectation is not based on ethical or moral sense under this area. The community need
companies to join in the process of building and enhancing the society, however if it does
not satisfy such desires, it will become unethical firm. This responsibility is more

it? “Social responsibility is the principle that companies should contribute to the welfare
of society and not be solely devoted to maximizing profits. This responsibility can be
“negative”, meaning there is exemption from lame or liability, or it can be “positive”,
meaning there is a responsibility to act beneficently (proactive stance). Let‟s check the
following diagram to see the relationship between companies and environment.

Figure 2.3 : 17

2.4. Limited company
In addition, to complete this paper we must know what limited company is. A limited
company is a type of business entity. In the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland it is a
corporation with shareholders whose liability is limited by share (Ltd), which is the most
common form of privately held company. Setting up as a limited company is an attractive
opinion for many people as, unlike sole proprietorships, personal assets are distinct from
company finances.”
2.5. Hypothesis:
2.5.1. Management‘s attitude toward CSR and Environment issue
It can not be denied that there are many different ways to define CSR and it component:
environment by firms. They can be the way to increase efficiency and effectiveness in
operation and performance, or some companies commit to CSR and environment duties
just because they simply believe that it is morally right. However, according to a survey
among corporate managers, there are none company have those. It can not be denied that
many companies focus mainly not on action only in saying about that. Although there are
some companies make good progress in implement CSR and environment duties, it is not
easy CSR become fully adopted by business (Franklin, 2008). Thus, integrating CSR and
environment duties in day-to-day operation is a key issue for management.
However, there are also some challenges which can affect the attitude of manager. We
2.5.3. Government staff‘s attitude toward CSR and Environment issue
Government staff are agency of the Government they directly control the process of
completing CSR and environment of all companies thus the realize clearly the important
of them. Hwever they only are the agency of Government thus they do not have the right
to make the policies. As a result, they show their neutral but positive trend attitude. We
might conclude that:
: Citizens’ attitude toward CSR and environment issue is positive.
20
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1. Research objective
The first aim of this project is to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the
completed concept of corporate social responsibilities and other relevant components
under this area to build framework for all companies to have better understanding about it
and they can avoid breaching any issue related to CSR.
The second aim of this project is to evaluate the impact of CSR especially environment
issue in Vietnamese companies mainly in limited companies. In other word, when these
firms do CSR, what they can achieve and what they can take advantage of.
The last aim of this project is to obtain from the view of all Vietnamese companies within
the industry that means it is designed to explore how the Vietnamese companies and

as with this kind of data researcher may have direct interaction with other parties. Beside
the advantages, there are also some disadvantages of primary data such as: expensive and 22
time consuming, false result when not conduct properly, demanding more skill and
expertise of researchers.
3.4.2. Secondary data
The second source will be used is secondary data_ are those data that have already been
collected for purposes other than the problem at hand. This source of data will provide the
overall picture about application Corporate Social Responsibilities in Vietnam and
example of implementing Corporate Social Responsibility in Vietnamese Limited
Companies. The secondary data will be collected at the low cost and quickly from the
relating sources such as: books, websites, newspaper, magazines and so on… Besides
these advantages, this ways also contain disadvantage. For example, the needed
information may not available. It is very difficult for researcher to get all information they
need in secondary data or when the data is available it may usefulness.
3.5. Research method
- For primary collection: as it is descriptive information thus I use survey research such as
questionnaire and personal interview to have better result.
- For secondary collection: I will carry out the limited companies annual reports and
journal information in Internet, magazine and book. 23
3.6. Research tool
3.6.1. Questionnaire


24
3.8. Sampling
3.8.1. Sample population
The target population is citizen in Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City.
3.8.2. Sample frame
The sample frame is the managers, citizen and Government staff in Ha Noi and Ho Chi
Minh City.
3.8.3. Sample size
80 management questionnaire patterns, 150 citizens questionnaire patterns and 80
Government staffs questionnaire pattern have been sent out. There are also 10 requested
letters for interviews are sent to managers of 10 limited companies.
3.8.4. Sample techniques
The sampling was conducted based on two techniques: convenience sampling and
judgment sampling. I will use convenience sampling for questionnaire survey and
judgment sampling for managers‟ interview.

3.9. Limitation
When conducting a research, we will face with some following problems. Firstly, the
problem can be found in survey pattern. Sometime, because people may not have enough
knowledge, they can not answer the question. Besides, although they do not know the
issue or understand the question, they still answer the question to have better imagine
which can cause the wrong result for conclude the research. In addition, people may be
unwilling to respond to unknown interviewer or about issues they consider sensitive. And
people may refuse to spend time to answer the questions (Amstrong & Kotler, 2007).
Secondly, the problem also can be found in finding annual report of the chosen firms. It
can not be denied that all companies want to have perfect imagine in society thus they try
their best to enhance their strength and decrease their weakness. As the result, when