Special Issue on “New Perspectives on Business, Development, and Society Research”

Abstract

The theme of this special issue is ‘‘New Directionsin Business, Development, and Society Research’’.The special issue aims to find new ways forward inthe CSR and international development debate5 years after the journal International Affairs firstpublished a special issue on critical perspectives onCSR in the developing world (81:3, May 2005). Acore concern of that particular issue was to take acritical look at the theoretical potential, limits andthe actual impacts of CSR policies in the developingworld. The last 5 years have witnessed a new set ofissues being linked to the notion of CSR (e.g., thebusiness and poverty reduction debate). We havealso seen increasing sophistication in terms ofthe theoretical perspectives and methodologicalapproaches that are employed in the CSR anddevelopment debate (e.g., impact assessment meth-odologies related to codes of conduct). Furthermore,there has been a greater emphasis on incorporatinglocal-level firm, farmer, and worker perspectives onthe relevance and applicability of Western-styleCSR interventions to their particular contexts (seee.g., Barrientos and Smith, 2007; Blowfield andDolan, 2008; Kandachar and Halme, 2008; Khanand Lund-Thomsen, forthcoming).Originally, the need for critical, academic inquiryof the way in which CSR was operationalized indeveloping world contexts arose due to the narrow,instrumentalist focus of the business-oriented litera-ture on the topic that existed in the late 1990s andearly 2000s. In fact, a great deal of attention was paidto how businesses could enhance their profitabilityby incorporating social and environmental consid-erations into their core operations (‘‘the so-calledbusiness case for CSR’’), thus generating win–winoutcomes for business and society at large. In recentyears, this original concern was further developed ina number of ‘‘inspirational books’’ for corporatepractitioners that continued to (uncritically) propa-gate ideologically based claims such as ‘‘businessesare part of the solution, not part of the problem’’ andexamining how ‘‘the world’s leading companies aredoing good by doing well’’ (Boutilier, 2009; Lazlo,2008, cover page; Waddock and Badwell, 2007;Wall, 2008).By contrast, the ‘‘critical perspectives’’ literatureon CSR in developing countries highlighted thelack of empirical evidence to support the idea thatCSR initiatives could produce win-win outcomesfor Northern multinational companies in financialterms and for local workers and communities insoical and environmental terms. Different studiesrevealed that win-lose outcomes were recorded insome cases, and lose–lose outcomes were the resultin other instances (see e.g., collection in Raufflet andMills, 2009). The mainstream business-oriented CSRliterature was criticized for assuming consensus onthe values and goals inherent in Anglo-Saxoninspired CSR discourse, for downplaying powerdifferentials and conflicts between actors, andexcluding the intended beneficiaries from having asay in the formulation, implementation, and moni-toring of Western-based CSR policies in thedeveloping world (Blowfield and Frynas, 2005;Frynas, 2008; Newell and Frynas, 2007; Prieto-Carro´n et al., 2006). Other criticisms pointed to thepotentially perverse effects of CSR policies inlegitimizing the lack of implementation of national-level social and environmental legislation in thedeveloping world (Utting and Zammit, 2009). Fromthis point of view CSR has been seen as part andparcel of a neo-liberal development model whosecore features – the privatization of state enterprises,deregulation of national economies, and liberaliza-tion of international trade – further marginalizedlow-income workers, farmers, and communities in