Theoretical Challenges of Global Business Citizenship:
Taking Corporate Social Responsibility
Across Borders
Donna J. WoodThe David W. Wilson Chair in Business EthicsUniversity of Northern Iowa
(acknowledging the co-creation of Jeanne Logsdon, Patsy Lewellyn, and Kim Davenport)
Global Business Citizenship
A global business citizen is a multinational enterprise that responsibly implements its duties to individuals and to societies within and across national and cultural borders.
Can Businesses Be Citizens?
• Person-to-state, and person-to-person, rights and duties. Identity, belonging.
• No: companies are ‘shells’; it’s a terrible idea; but companies still have duties.
• Yes: companies are legal ‘persons.’• Our view: Companies CAN be “citizens
of the world,” with interests and rights secondary to those of humans, upholding universal principles (UDHR, “Ten Principles”)
Deriving the GBC Process
Degree of Ethical Certainty:
Multi-domestic Strategy
Globally Integrated Strategy
Principles – a limited number of basic universal principles
(ethical relativism)
1. CODE OF CONDUCT
Consistent Norms – acceptable local variations
2. LOCAL IMPLEMENT-
ATION
(ethical imperialism)
Incompatible Norms-incompletely governed or ungoverned by, in conflict with, principles
3. ANALYSIS & EXPERIMENT-
ATION
4. ORGANIZA-TIONAL
LEARNING
• Step 1: Choose a small but compre-hensive set of universal principles, use to underlie code of conduct.
• Step 2: Implement routinely where there are no conflicts with local norms or customs.
• Step 3: Analyze problems & conflicts; engage stakeholders; experiment with solutions.
• Step 4: Systematize what is learned and share it with others.
Example: Aarhus United A/Sin Burkina Faso
SHEA NUTS: Woman’s Gold _____________________• Cottage industry and
major exported product.
• Gathered by women and girls.
• Shea nut butter and oil a key ingredient of cooking oil, margarine, cosmetics, soap, detergents, candles, and as a substitute for cocoa butter.
Problem & Solution
• UNICEF’s 2000 report on child slavery.• ILO Convention 182; Aarhus task force.• Plan 1 – school – abandoned.• Plan 2 – multifunctional platform –
UNDP. Sustainable; economically powerful.
• Global Compact and MFP postings to aid others’ learning.
UNDP Partnership and the Multi-Functional Platform (MFP)
Issues in GBC Theory Development
• Matten/Crane/Moon challenge• Rousseau-type use of “world citizen”• Choice of citizenship “types”
(minimal, communitarian, universal)• Information & power assymetries vis-
à-vis rights• Standard-setting processes, norm
enforcement mechanisms
Some Questions for Transforming GBC into Descriptive Theory
• What’s the difference between a GBC company and a non-GBC company?
• Does it matter what the differences are?• Does competitive advantage or
profitability add to or detract from GBC?• What variables can define the
constructs?• Can existing theories help? Offer
counter-suggestions?
Transiting to Predictive Theory
• Testable hypotheses of relationship and causation
• Normative underpinnings need to be worked out for prescriptive interpretations
• How to get data???
Conclusion
• CSR is a powerful heuristic but not useful for theory-building and testing:– Normative assumptions vague.– Relationship to stakeholders vague.– Prone to relativism and/or imperialism.
• GBC, by contrast, builds on political theory, is a process more than a heuristic, and suggests variables and testable hypotheses.
• More work needs to be done!
