The Societal Role of MNCs in Transnational CSR: Analyzing Reputable MNCs Corporate CSR Videos

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) of multinational corporations (MNCs) is seen as a crucial answer to the global concerns on social and ecological issues in the 21st century. Current debates around MNCs transnational CSR reveal different premises on the conceptualization of the societal role of MNCs. The international business literature conceives MNCs as reactive, complying with social expectations; the political CSR conceives MNCs as more proactive, engaging in public will formation through deliberative democracy. In this study, we develop an alternative conceptualization of the societal role of MNCs, one which explicitly takes into account the transnational power dynamics of the current global world. We turn to the plural framework of cosmopolitanism as our guiding theoretical view, attending to the different ways in which MNCs construct self-other-world relation. Empirically, we examine the CSR videos of reputable MNCs and, by developing a social semiotic multimodal analysis, interpret how MNCs construct their societal roles in transnational CSR. Our study shows four ideal types, suggesting a conceptualization of the societal role of MNCs along identity, agency and type of world order.