Impeding corporate social responsibility: Revisiting the role of government in shaping business — Marginalized local community relations

Abstract

This paper is based on a case study of the European space industry as it is organized in the postcolonial setting of French Guiana. It brings the state back into political corporate social responsibility (CSR) by showing how government shapes interactions between business and local communities, more specifically around CSR issues. The paper opens new research avenues in political CSR by making two significant contributions. First, it identifies postcolonial contexts as instances in which government, rather than stepping back, gets actively involved to impede the emergence of CSR. This demonstration is made by building on a conceptualization of the marginalized local community as comprising citizens—rather than mere stakeholders—who expect their government to defend their rights vis‐à‐vis business. Second, by using a longitudinal approach that provides access to dynamics of interactions over time, the paper develops a typology of mechanisms that support a government’s changing role in CSR. Over a 50‐year period, such government is shown to have played the roles of impeding the emergence of CSR, partnering for CSR, symbolically mandating CSR, and finally, disengaging from CSR.

The influence of government support over environmental protection investment on SMEs: R&D collaboration and financial aspects

“…Public support is essential for companies to develop CSR strategies. In fact, there are studies such as those of Delannon and Rauddlet (2021) that show that when the government does not support it, the opposite effect occurs in many companies. In the same line, some authors like Kemp (2000), Horbach (2008), De Marchi (2012), Hoogendoorn et al (2015) or Garrido‐Prada et al (2021), conclude that public grants have a clear positive influence on environmental conservation.…”

Contesting social responsibilities of business: Centring context, experience, and relationality

“…Doing so raises questions of responsibility and irresponsibility from counter perspectives − e.g. radical, anti/de/post-colonial, feminist, intersectional, traditional, alienated, and subaltern − that emerge from sites of marginalisation (Delannon and Raufflet, 2021; Grosser and Tyler, 2022; Özkazanç-Pan, 2019).…”

“…Indeed, many of us have been vocal in calling for what might be considered the ‘decentring’ of the corporation, and indeed business, in discussions of business responsibilities for people and planet (McCarthy and Muthuri, 2018; Spence, 2022). Here, we call for a centring of lived experiences of those who engage in, or are affected by, business social responsibilities and their contestation (Delannon and Raufflet, 2021).…”

Corporate social responsibility communication for both business and societal sustainability in ten South African organisations

“…71 of 2008), which provides the legal platform for the King Reports. In the CSR context of a developing country, stakeholders should not only include those with power, urgency and legitimacy in terms of impact on business sustainability, such as investors, consumers, employees, suppliers and government (Jamali, 2008:219), but also marginalised groups in communities (Bester & Groenewald, 2021;Delannon & Raufflet, 2021).…”