Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water: Discourses Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility and Growth in International Business

Abstract

In this paper, the purpose is to illustrate how organised actors within an international business environment manage to integrate conflicting perspectives on growth and corporate social responsibility (CSR). An empirical study of sustainable fishing in Britain between 2002 and 2005 illustrates how different organisations succeed in creating a shared meaning on sustainability and CSR among the participant organisations. The empirical material is analysed with the help of critical discourse analysis. Results indicate that the form of collective understanding displayed in the study, may have unforeseen consequences for sustainability and principles developed to handle this issue within an international business context. Implications are that an interdisciplinary perspective within economics and other scientific fields could contribute to models with increased possibilities to be applied in empirical settings.