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The ‘real’ reasons behind Corporate Social Responsibility

Management Summary

With this thesis I would like to contribute on the on-going CSR discussion. I attempt to investigate the real motives why multinational corporations engage in corporate social responsibility activities. The debate in CSR is nowadays still focused on the link between CSR and financial performance. Research lacks real proof of this link and corporations are failing in formulating a business case. So why is it that MNCs are willing to engage in CSR activities. In the following thesis I would like to give an answer on this question.

Inhoudsopgave 1. Introduction 5 1.1 Research Purpose 6 1.2 Problem Statement 6 1.3 Sub questions 7 1.4 Structure 7 2. Theory 8 2.1 Definition CSR 8 2.2 Definition Multinational Corporation (MNC) 9 2.3 Theoretical Framework (Garigga & Mele (2004)) 10 2.3.1 Instrumental theories 10 2.3.2 Political theories 12 2.3.3 Integrative theories 13 2.3.4 Ethical theories 14 2.3.5 Propositions 16 3. Methods 18 3.1 Research approach 18 4. Results 19 4.1 Instrumental motive 20 4.2 Political motive 20 4.3 Integrative motive 21 4.4 Ethical motive 22 5. Conclusion & Recommendation 24 5.1 Conclusion 24 5.2 Limitations & Recommendation 27 6. References 28

1. Introduction

Corporate social responsibility is becoming more and more important for companies. The last few years there is an increase of interest from companies in CSR and in the implementation of different CSR activities in their day-to-day businesses. In general, corporate social responsibility encompasses the responsibilities that businesses have towards society. These responsibilities can vary from acting by compliance with the law to creating community groups. The increase of interest in CSR emerges from the increase of attention that CSR gets