How Socially Responsible are Multinational Corporations?

Abstract

This paper first explores various attempts to conceptualise corporate social responsibility (CSR), articulate an encompassing concept, and examine elements that drive businesses to form CSR as part of their strategic policy. Second, it examines the implementation of some of the multinationals CSR strategies and the roles of NGOs and Media in the future of CSR. It draws on academic literature, newspaper articles, journals and grey literature and is complemented with case studies of various actions of multinational corporations from the extractive sector. We find that despite the diversity of defining and conceptualising CSR, there is a commonalty that cuts across board. However, there is yet a huge disparity that exists between policies, strategies and actions that organisations display in interests of their short-term economic gains, while jeopardizing interests of both internal and external stakeholders as well as the environment especially in developing countries.