Cultural translation and negotiation: corporate social and environmental reporting in China

Abstract

While globalisation has strengthened global interconnectedness, it has also triggered concerns over cultural homogenisation and scepticism about the universal applicability of standardised practices. In the field of accounting, the cross-cultural transfer of practices such as Corporate Social and Environmental Reporting (CSER) continues to face challenges, often due to an overemphasis on technical standardisation while overlooking local cultural, political and social complexity. These challenges call for a more context-sensitive approach that considers how global accounting practices are interpreted, negotiated, and transformed within specific local settings.

This study explores the translation and adaptation of CSER from global contexts into China. The research aims to understand how culture and translation shape this process. Grounded in Homi Bhabha’s concept of hybridity as the theoretical framework, the study conceptualises CSER translation as a process of cultural negotiation and meaning reconstruction between global and local discourses and practices. Data were collected through documents review of 409 texts from China’s official newspaper, People’s Daily, and interviews with 24 local CSER practitioners with state-owned enterprises (SOEs), non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs), and consulting firms. Guided by the hybridity framework, a discourse analysis was deployed to analyse of documents, investigating how the state construct discourses around Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability; the thematic analysis of interview data further reveals how local practitioners translate and adapt CSER practices into the Chinese context.

The results of this research suggest that while the official CSR and sustainability discourse of the Chinese government has been constructing a form of resistance to Western discourse, the space is left for interpretation and negotiation by local enterprises and practitioners, producing culturally hybridised CSER practices that integrate global discourse and local realities. This study questions the extent to which the local adaptation of global CSR and sustainability frameworks can lead to transformative possibilities for substantive social and environmental change. This research contributes to the literature on social and environmental accounting, by examining how global discourses and practices are reinterpreted and localised within China’s specific political and cultural context. Therefore, this research offers insights into the complexities of global and local dynamics in CSER, calling for a reconsideration of how globalised frameworks are constructed and implemented locally.