The Business-led Globalization of CSR: Channels of Diffusion into Venezuela and Britain, 1962–1981

Abstract

The global diffusion of CSR practices is widely explained in institutional- isomorphic terms: corporations worldwide adopt CSR in reaction to isomorphic pressures exerted on them by a pro-CSR global environment, including normative, economic, and regulatory pressures. By contrast, this article considers the proactive agency of corporations in CSR diffusion, which is informed by nonmarket strategies that seek to instrumentally reshape the political and social environment of corporations. Applying a “channels-of-diffusion” perspective, we show that in the initial phase of CSR’s transnational diffusion–as exemplified by the cases of Venezuela (1962–1967) and Britain (1977–1981)–CSR travelled through learning exchanges between business elite “exporters” and “importers” whose engagement in diffusion addressed crisis- enhanced political threats and opportunities in the receiving country. The focal agents established national CSR business associations, which disseminated among local corporations CSR practices ad...