Social business in multinational corporations: an analysis of marketing practices

Thiago José De Chaves,Jana Reuther,Thelma Rocha,Renata Fernandes Galhanone

doi:10.18568/1980-4865.12176-90

Thiago José De Chaves, Jana Reuther + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.18568/1980-4865.12176-90

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Abstract

Social business (SB) as a category of organization that seeks to create long-term economic and social value for the majority of the people has attracted the attention of policy-makers, practitioners, and scholars. Some authors highlight the role that multinational corporations (MNCs) have in mitigating social and environmental problems by offering products and services to meet the demands of lower-income populations. Based on a discussion of social business and such initiatives inside MNCs, this article investigates how the Brazilian subsidiaries of two large MNCs (Coca-Cola and Danone) are performing SB in a developing country. More specifically, we focused on how they are using their marketing know-how to achieve the desired results. The cases were chosen based on their global relevance, reach, and representativeness in SB efforts. Our study has shown that their social initiatives are linked to the corporate mission, values and strategies, and that they aim to achieve social transformation in connection to their core business. Our goal is to contribute both to academic research and to future initiatives in Brazil and other developing countries.

Highlights

Social business (SB) as a category of organization that seeks to create longterm economic and social value for the majority of the people has attracted the attention of policy-makers, practitioners, and scholars
We focused our research on the Brazilian subsidiaries of two multinational corporations (MNCs) (Coca-Cola and Danone); thanks to their impressive global reach, they are positioned as potential promoters of a more sustainable and inclusive kind of capitalism
Our study has shown that these multinational corporations are developing social initiatives that are linked to their corporate mission, values and strategies in order to achieve social transformation intrinsically connected to their core business

Summary

Introduction

Social business (SB) as a category of organization that seeks to create longterm economic and social value for the majority of the people has attracted the attention of policy-makers, practitioners, and scholars. In response to current social and environmental challenges including social inequality and depletion of natural resources, the phenomenon of the social enterprise (SE) as a distinct category of organization has attracted the attention of policy-makers, practitioners, and scholars (Doherty et al, 2014) This type of enterprise may come in different forms, ranging from the private sector to the third sector model (Comini et al, 2012). MNCs are no longer expected to perform only corporate social responsibility activities, which may be limited, and even ineffective, in helping improving the living standards of marginalized people Instead, they should offer innovative products and services to meet types of demand that are different from what large corporations traditionally focused on (Spiess-Knafl et al, 2015)

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