Governmentality and the politics of CSR

Arguably, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) are influenced by a wide range of both internal and external factors. Perhaps most critical among the exogenous forces operating on MNEs are those exerted by state and other key institutional actors in host countries. Crucially, academic research conducted to date offers little data about how MNEs use their CSR activities to strategically manage their relationship with those actors in order to gain legitimisation advantages in host countries. This paper addresses that gap by exploring interactions between external institutional pressures and firm-level CSR activities, which take the form of community initiatives, to examine how MNEs develop their legitimacy-seeking policies and practices. In focusing on a developing country, Sri Lanka, this paper provides valuable insights into how MNEs instrumentally utilise community initiatives in a country where relationshipbuilding with governmental and other powerful non-governmental actors can be vitally important for the long-term viability of the business. Drawing on neo-institutional theory and CSR literature, this paper examines and contributes to the embryonic but emerging debate about the instrumental and political implications of CSR. The evidence presented and discussed here reveals the extent to which, and the reasons why, MNEs engage in complex legitimacy-seeking relationships with Sri Lankan host institutions.

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“…The manipulation strategy also bears a close resemblance to Fooks et al's (2013) (Polishchuk, 2009;Vallentin and Murillo, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeking Legitimacy Through CSR: Institutional Pressures and Corporate Responses of Multinationals in Sri Lanka

2015

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“…While researchers from Western countries sometimes show the ongoing withdrawal of enterprises from the very idea of CSR and present themselves to stakeholders by imitating CSR as one of the marketing tools [3][4][5][6], or even lobbying [7] (pp. [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67], it is becoming a clear trend in post-Soviet countries. Therefore, attention is paid to the fact that the implementation of CSR should be oriented not towards charity, marketing, and public relations, but should first and foremost be understood as social responsibility towards stakeholders [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Training the CSR Sensitive Mind-Set: The Integration of CSR into the Training of Business Administration Professionals

Stonkutė¹,

Vveinhardt

Sroka

2018

Sustainability

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Current corporations are subject to stringent requirements in terms of sustainable development; however, a relevant problem is highlighted on the basis of the studies conducted. On the one hand, corporations experience greater or lesser pressure, while on the other hand, it must be admitted that the problem of demand for professionals, which is presupposed by the insufficient quality of training in higher education institutions, is important. This is somewhat strange given that the issues of business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability have attracted increased attention in management education in recent years, and a five-fold increase in the number of stand-alone ethics courses has been noted since 1988. This interaction could contribute to the development of CSR, however a certain dissonance of cooperation between higher education and business exists, as there is a lack of leadership in this area in the study programs of business administration approved by the states, as well as in higher education institutions. Given these facts, the goal of the paper is to analyze the Master of Business Administration programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia to offer direction to the challenge of integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) into management and training. The method of analysis of professional business and administration training program content in terms of the integration of CSR was used during the survey. Using panel data of 28 full-time MBA programs, our findings show that that the core parts of MBAs under analysis merely-and mostly indirectly-cover CSR issues through one core course on business ethics. However, the leading MBA programs are currently missing an opportunity by ignoring their responsibility to support the training of CSR-minded future business administration professionals. The results of our research may act as a guide to which areas should be modified and/or changed.

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“…It can be seen as an umbrella term that encompasses a range of ethical discourses and practices, such as business ethics (Shaw, 2007), corporate philanthropy (Porter and Kramer, 2002) and corporate citizenship (Googins et al, 2007). Authors from a variety of academic disciplines have engaged with CSR, including organization and management studies (Campbell, 2007;Nielsen and Thomsen, 2010), communication and marketing studies (Kotler and Lee, 2005;Ziek, 2009), international relations (Blowfield, 2005), political theory (Palazzo and Scherer, 2008;Vallentin and Murillo, 2012) and political economy (Gjølberg, 2009), to name but a few.…”

Section: Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr)mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘1L=10L for Africa’: Corporate social responsibility and the transformation of bottled water into a ‘consumer activist’ commodity

Brei

Böhm

2013

Discourse & Society

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In recent years, it has become an increasingly common marketing practice to connect the sale of consumer products to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, such as aid and development projects in so-called 'developing' countries. One example is Volvic's pioneering '1L=10L for Africa ' campaign (2005-2010), which linked the sale of each liter of bottled water in 'developed' countries with the promise by Danone, Volvic's owner, to provide 10 liters of drinking water in Africa. In this article, we engage with this 'cause-related marketing' campaign, using critical discourse analysis (CDA) to uncover its mechanisms and ideological functioning. We show how Volvic was able to transform an ordinary commodity, bottled water, into a consumer activist brand through which consumers could take part in solving global social problems, such as the access to safe drinking water in 'developing' countries. Our analysis of this exemplary case shows the ways that CSR often operates to deflect ethical critiques, consolidate brand loyalty and corporate profits, and defuse political struggles around consumption. By doing so, we suggest that CSR forms part of a complex strategy deployed to legitimize particular brands and commodities. In this way CSR can be seen as playing an important role in the ideological makeup of contemporary consumer capitalism.

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Governmentality and the politics of CSR

Cited by 93 publications

References 83 publications

Seeking Legitimacy Through CSR: Institutional Pressures and Corporate Responses of Multinationals in Sri Lanka

Seeking Legitimacy Through CSR: Institutional Pressures and Corporate Responses of Multinationals in Sri Lanka

Training the CSR Sensitive Mind-Set: The Integration of CSR into the Training of Business Administration Professionals

‘1L=10L for Africa’: Corporate social responsibility and the transformation of bottled water into a ‘consumer activist’ commodity

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