corporate social responsibility motivations and country factors

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an increasingly important issue for all businesses around the world. CSR covers economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities of firms. Explain the factors that may motivate an MNE to adopt CSR in its international business strategy and operations. How might the country context influence the types of CSR initiatives undertaken? Support your answer with real world examples or cases.

While corporate social responsibility (CSR) has existed for a long time, it has garnered attention only in the last two decades as an important aspect of doing business. Academic research on CSR has evolved over the years, indicating a change in how CSR is viewed as time goes by. In the earlier years of CSR research, academics sought to identify a link between CSR and financial performance (Aupperle et al. 1985; McGuire et al. 1998), as though CSR had to be rationalised in order to exist. But moving forward to the present, CSR has been undoubtedly recognised as a need by many organisations, and research has shifted from discussing “macro social effects to an organisational-level analysis of CSR and its impact on organisational processes and performance” (Lindgreen and Swaen 2010, p. 1). In other words, CSR research has moved from questioning the “why” to “how” of doing CSR, reflecting the growing prominence of the practice.
CSR involves the “economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time” (Carroll 1979, p. 500). These programs are designed to fulfill a basic economic or social need as expected by the community, honoured by the company in goodwill so as to position oneself as a positively value-driven entity (Swanson 1995; Wood 1991). CSR initiatives can be derived out of self-interest, or external pressure from institutional economics (Meyer and Rowan 1991; North 1992) or when a company decides to rise above its economic function to help and aid stakeholders

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