Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management 
ISSN: 2766-824X | Vol. 15, No. 3, 2024 

 

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A Practical Study on The Integration of Business and 
Philanthropy Enabled by Data 

Huizhen Chen 

School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China 

 

Abstract: [Objective/Significance] To explore the mechanism of data empowerment "business + public welfare" integration, 
and open the black box of data empowerment in the field of commercial philanthropy. [Method/Process] A single case study is 

adopted, taking the logical conflict of the integration of business and public welfare as the starting point. [Result/Conclusion] 

Because of its intelligent ability, connection ability and analysis ability, data empowerment provides tools for the information 

supply, information interaction and data application of Shantao, and is the basis for realizing communication and interaction, 

supply and demand matching and public welfare supervision. In addition, due to the problems of organizational convergence and 

immature technology, this development model still has many obstacles. 

Keywords: Data empowerment, Public welfare and charity, Social enterprise. 

 

1. Introduction 

Since the early 20th century, the concept and methods of 

commercial profit have gradually entered the field of public 

charity [1], and public organizations have also begun to use 

commercial means to improve the efficiency and influence of 

philanthropy. At the same time, in order to draw resources 

needed for their own development from the outside [2] and 

promote the growth of corporate performance [3, 4], 

commercial enterprises enhance their image of social 

responsibility by participating in public welfare and 

charitable activities. Social enterprises are considered to be a 

kind of organizations with mixed value attributes that use 

commercial means to achieve social purposes. They are 

between commercial enterprises and public welfare 

organizations, and play an important role in making up for the 

insufficient capacity of the public sector to provide social 

services and the "market failure" of the private sector to create 

social welfare [5], While conducting business operations, it 

also undertakes the mission of improving social problems [6]. 

It can be seen that the integration of "business + public 

welfare" has become an important trend in the development 

of philanthropy. However, at the same time, the drawbacks of 

the commercial charity model have gradually emerged, with 

scandals such as enterprises using charitable donations as a 

tool to conceal negative information [7], and charitable 

organizations using commercialization to enrich themselves 

have emerged in an endless stream, and the legitimacy of 

commercial charity has been questioned. 

In this context, data empowerment provides new 

opportunities for the integration of business and public 

welfare. In the era of digital economy, the amount of global 

data has exploded, and data has become a globally recognized 

new engine for enabling economic development. As one of 

the five production factors alongside land, capital, manpower 

and technology, data has begun to form modular application 

scenarios in many fields such as government affairs, platform 

algorithms and enterprise production, and the marketization 

of data factors has become an objective necessity [8]. In the 

business field, data empowerment refers to the process of 

product innovation and service innovation through the use of 

data mining, data analysis and other technologies [9]. The 

intelligent ability, connection ability and analysis ability 

embodied in data empowerment are the necessary 

prerequisites for enterprise demand perception, resource 

connection and accurate matching of supply and demand [10]. 

By using data empowerment, enterprises can reduce the 

uncertainties brought by the huge data flow [11], and achieve 

enterprise performance improvement and value creation [12]. 

Although the existing literature has conducted a series of 

studies on the role of data empowerment in the business field, 

the contents mainly focus on platform enterprises and 

traditional manufacturing enterprises, and have not paid 

attention to the organizational form of social enterprises, and 

rarely involve the value creation of data empowerment in the 

field of business philanthropy. Based on this, this study 

attempts to explore the following questions: How can data 

enable the integration of business and public good? Therefore, 

this research chooses Shantao as the research sample, takes 

the dual goal conflict of commerce and charity as the logical 

starting point, and analyzes the practical process of the 

integration of commerce and public welfare through the case 

study, in order to promote the development of Chinese public 

charity. 

2. Case Selection 

In March 2011, when the Red Cross Society fell into a huge 

crisis of trust due to the Guo Meimei incident, China's first 

online charity supermarket, Shantao, quietly appeared on the 

Internet. It combines "e-commerce" with "charity shops" and 

creates a new model of public welfare. This model is still in 

its infancy in China, and there is no model that can be used 

for reference or success, but it is a very effective way to use 

business means to solve social problems. On the platform, 

people can easily participate in public welfare activities by 

purchasing goods online or donating idle items. From the 

commercial nature of "Shantao", in 2021 alone, Shantao 

sorted 331,000 idle items; 182,000 idle items were transferred 

through Shantao charity shops; There are 81 companies 

participating in the donation, and two donation companies 

have begun to employ people with disabilities from 2021, 

achieving a good radiation impact. Judging from the public 

welfare nature of "Shantao", the core public welfare mission 



 

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of Shantao is to support the employment of disabled people 

and advocate green consumption by selling idle goods. In 

addition to helping to solve the problem of training, 

employment and social integration of people with disabilities, 

the public welfare funds of Shantao are also used to support 

the advocacy of inclusive employment environment and 

green and low-carbon community construction and other 

public welfare projects, with a view to solving social 

problems through business models, revitalizing idle materials 

and invisible human resources, and creating a sustainable 

public welfare model. 

This study chooses Shantao as the case analysis object, 

mainly based on the principle of typicality. First of all, the 

nature of Shantao is typical, and it is a typical case of the 

integration of modern business and public welfare. Compared 

with commercial enterprises, Shantao, as a social enterprise, 

emphasizes the goal orientation of realizing social value, and 

changes the traditional goal of commercial enterprises to 

maximize personal profits. Compared with public welfare 

organizations, Shantao has its unique advantages in talent 

introduction, project implementation, organization and 

management. In addition, Shantao was established early, and 

has experienced both the highs and lows of the development 

of Internet public welfare, as well as the update and iteration 

of digital technology. After ten years of exploration and 

progress, Shantao has become the benchmark of the industry, 

effectively realizing the deep integration of business and 

public welfare, and has a strong social influence. Therefore, 

by taking Shantao as an example, this study can more clearly 

demonstrate the role of data empowerment in the integration 

of business and public welfare, and then respond to the 

question of how data can enable the integration of business 

and public welfare. 

This study mainly collects data through the abundant 

secondary data on the Internet. The diversity of data sources 

can make data complement each other and triangulate, so as 

to enhance the robustness of data and the validity of cases. 

Mainly includes: (1) internal information, including the 

company summary, annual data report, etc.; (2) Open external 

materials, including online and offline interview materials of 

relevant person in charge of Shantao, relevant news reports, 

official website dynamics, social media publicity materials, 

relevant academic literature and industry analysis reports in 

CNKI database, etc. 

3. Practical Process 

When studying the value co-creation problem of service-

oriented enterprises, Lenka et al. divided data enabling 

capability into intelligence capability, connection capability 

and analysis capability [13]. Among them, intelligent ability 

refers to the ability of information perception and capture; 

Connectivity refers to the ability to realize information 

interconnection; Analytical ability refers to the ability to 

transform existing data into valuable information and apply it 

[14]. At the beginning of its establishment, Shantao has 

optimized the e-commerce process with digital technology, 

and its internal and external data collection and 

transformation applications are relatively mature. Using data 

empowerment, Shantao can obtain users' feedback on 

corporate publicity more intuitively, and then widely mobilize 

donations, consumption and cooperation for Shantao in a 

targeted manner. In addition, data empowerment also 

provides a tool for the data interaction of various subjects 

centered on Shantao, and makes it possible for Shantao to 

achieve external supervision through data disclosure and thus 

gain public trust. Data empowerment is effectively embedded 

in the practice process of "business + public welfare" 

integration. 

3.1. Realize Multi-Dimensional Information 
Supply with Intelligent Ability 

The main line business of Shantao is mainly based on the 

Internet platform, so its external publicity and user data 

acquisition also rely on the platform, through which the 

captured data is converted into valuable information. External 

publicity is the most direct and commonly used way to expand 

corporate user data and improve corporate visibility and 

influence. According to the signal transmission theory [15], 

in order to attract potential consumers and partners and obtain 

various resources conducive to the development of 

enterprises, enterprises will take some actions to transmit 

information to the outside world. With the vigorous 

development and extensive use of the Internet, online 

mobilization has been able to transcend the limitations of 

physical space and micro-regional limitations, realize 

multidimensional information supply, and provide 

opportunities for the reorganization and sharing of social 

resources. 

On the one hand, data empowerment realizes the diversity 

of information supply media. As a carrier of information, data 

can be presented in various forms such as numbers, symbols, 

text, pictures, audio, video, etc., breaking through the 

limitations of traditional media. Shantao uses diversified 

forms of publicity to actively publish relevant corporate 

information on the official website, Weibo, wechat and other 

social media platforms, including Shantao's development 

status, participating public welfare projects, donations and 

purchases, and corporate dynamics, so as to achieve instant 

production, instant upload, instant communication, and 

effective interaction. These contents often contain emotional 

clues that can stimulate people's empathetic attention, which 

allows individuals to express their concerns about the welfare 

of others, thus causing altruistic behavior and stimulating the 

public's willingness to participate in charity. 

On the other hand, data empowerment realizes the diversity 

of information providers. In addition to Shantao itself, other 

enterprises, social organizations, and individual citizens can 

become new information providers on the information 

platform, and use wireless communication networks to 

transmit information to others to improve the overall 

information supply. With the help of various platforms, 

Shantao consumers can publish their shopping and 

participation experiences in Shantao anytime and anywhere, 

which not only greatly reduces the distance between Shantao 

brand and the public, but also makes the consumers who used 

to be silent behind the scenes become the makers of Shantao 

propaganda content and the disseminators of brand reputation, 

and become a powerful promoter of Shantao brand promotion. 

3.2. Realize Real-Time Information Interaction 
with Connection Capability 

With the wide application of digital technology in the field 

of public welfare and philanthropy, the flat, convenient, real-

time and shared characteristics of information exchange 

promote the transformation of information transmission from 

one-way to two-way interaction, bringing more beneficial 



 

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features for the public to participate in public welfare 

activities. Due to the nature of its social enterprises, the 

individuals and enterprises who donate goods and the buyers 

of goods are indirectly involved in the public welfare projects 

of Shantao, and the participation of various subjects forms a 

process or activity chain that can be called "data link", and 

data empowerment promotes the connection between people 

and information and information. 

For Shantao, with the help of data empowerment, the 

selection, processing, pricing, publicity, sale, after-sales and 

other related links of online charity sale products become 

more flexible, and the service standard is more controllable. 

The online feedback from donors and consumers is also 

conducive to the improvement of Shantao's work process. At 

the same time, the data-enabled connectivity enables the 

information transmission within the organization to break 

through the original hierarchical restrictions, and individuals 

in the organization can be both the receiver and sender of 

information, promoting the coordination and supervision 

within the organization. 

For donors, whether enterprises or individuals, as long as 

they are willing to donate, they can find clear and concise 

operating guidelines on the official website or wechat public 

account. If they have any questions, they can communicate 

with the staff of Shantao in a timely manner to achieve two-

way information exchange. After the completion of the 

donation, Shantao will assign an item number to each item 

upon receipt of the donation and feedback it to the donor, so 

as to facilitate the accurate tracking of the destination of each 

donation, enhance the participation of the donor in the whole 

process through the accurate matching of the data stream and 

the item stream, and realize the real-time mutual data. Not 

only that, in addition to recording the items left behind, it will 

also record the reasons for the removal of items (the reasons 

are classified and classified, concentrated in the bar code), 

and timely feedback the relevant data to the donor, in order to 

improve the storage rate and brand trust of donations, and 

expand the donation processing capacity. 

For commodity buyers, because Shantao has wired stores 

on Taobao and wechat mini programs, the vast majority of 

buyers can buy their favorite goods through these two 

platforms and pay through the payment tools provided by the 

platform. The occurrence of a transaction is accompanied by 

the completion of public welfare behavior, and people only 

need to authorize their user data to connect between various 

platforms to achieve "fingertip public welfare". In addition, 

commodity buyers can also share the information of Shantao's 

public welfare activities online through their own social 

networks and write comments on the activities. With the help 

of the Internet platform, such information can be spread to a 

wider group of people in a short time, improving the visibility 

and influence of Shantao. 

3.3. Analytical Ability to Achieve Effective Use 
of Data 

The analytical capabilities embodied in data empowerment 

can help Shantao in supply-demand matching and public 

welfare supervision. In terms of supply and demand matching, 

with the help of intelligent hardware and software, Shantao 

can collect massive user data through user donations, 

purchases and commodity browsing records, mining and 

analyzing the personalized needs of different users, and then 

provide users with targeted push and personalized services to 

improve the transaction rate and user satisfaction, so as to 

achieve effective locking of users. In addition, Shantao can 

analyze readers' reading preferences based on the number of 

social media tweets read, and adjust the content of the 

promotion to attract potential participants. 

In terms of public welfare regulation, data can bring more 

transparency and binding accountability mechanisms to 

public welfare activities, as well as clear evidence to judge 

whether public welfare goals are being achieved, and help 

solve the widely criticized problems in the public welfare 

sector such as donation circulation and information disclosure. 

Outside our organization, data empowerment has helped us 

build transparent relationships among donors, consumers and 

recipients, as well as other stakeholders, strengthening trust 

among participants. Shantao will publish its operation status 

in the form of "digital stories" on Weibo, wechat and other 

platforms from time to time to maintain effective 

communication with donors, and donors can also check the 

data of each donation through Shantao official website, 

including the sale of donated goods, the final flow of funds 

and the subsequent public welfare value. In addition, every 

month, Shantao will publicize the donation on the wechat 

public account, including the donated enterprises and 

individuals and the content of the donation; Publish financial 

transparency report on the official website every six months; 

The annual Transparency Report is updated annually. In the 

annual Transparency report, you can see the changes in the 

size of the organization, social impact data and financial data. 

Not only that, Shantao requires every public welfare 

organization that cooperates with it and accepts its donations 

to publish their financial reports and work reports online on a 

regular basis, so that all members of the public can view them 

on the online platform to facilitate online supervision by all 

members of the public and stakeholders. Through open and 

transparent data, we effectively balance the needs and 

expectations of various stakeholders and enhance the 

credibility of the organization. 

4. Conclusion 

In China, the rapid development of digital technology has 

injected new vitality into philanthropy, and business and 

philanthropy are no longer in opposition to "left" or "right". 

The logic of consumerism and the business interests of 

enterprises influence the direction and agenda setting of 

emerging philanthropy. However, many scholars are still 

skeptical about the integration of business and public welfare, 

believing that commercial power will lead to the deviation of 

public welfare goals. There is some reason for this concern. 

The behavioral logic of business and public welfare is indeed 

in conflict, but the conflict is not insoluble. As a typical case 

of the integration of business and public welfare, the practical 

experience of Shantao is worthy of in-depth summary and 

excavation. This study starts from the case, and through the 

in-depth analysis of the case, summarizes the mechanism of 

data enabling the integration of business and public welfare. 

Data empowerment is an important tool for business and 

public welfare to move from separation to integration. The 

integration of the two mainly connects the originally 

independent business chain with the public welfare chain by 

directly connecting the transaction behavior with the public 

welfare project, forming a new ecosystem network. Using the 

intelligent ability, connection ability and analysis ability 

embodied in data empowerment, Shantao realizes the 



 

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integration of business and public welfare from the 

dimensions of information supply, information interaction 

and data application. 

While the commercial practice of charity has become the 

mainstream of development, the risks of data-enabled 

business and public welfare integration should not be ignored. 

First of all, this development model still faces enormous 

competitive pressure. The scale of the integrated development 

of business and public welfare is gradually expanding in the 

exploration, the phenomenon of organizational convergence 

is becoming more and more obvious, and the competitive 

advantage of organizations is gradually declining. Second, 

data empowerment may introduce new risks. On the one hand, 

at this stage, the development of digital technologies such as 

big data and blockchain is still immature, and there may be 

loopholes in practice. On the other hand, technology is not 

neutral, it is the material expression of multiple and 

contradictory social intentions. The current Internet public 

welfare increasingly emphasizes the unfortunate "visibility", 

the logic of competition dominates the relationship between 

recipients and donors, the logic of platform algorithms and 

commercial interests shape the development direction of 

public welfare, and public welfare activities have become a 

tool to attract traffic. Therefore, in order to ensure the healthy 

development of public welfare undertakings and promote the 

effective integration of business and public welfare, how to 

prevent the erosion of technological capital and avoid the 

possible asynchronous dilemma between technology and 

society is the next question that needs to be explored. 

Acknowledgment 

I thank Teacher Li Yunxin for his guidance and help.  

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