Explaining the Rise of National Corporate Social Responsibility : The Role of Global Frameworks, World Culture, and Corporate Interests

My chapter addresses the question: to what extent did global CSR frameworks shape national-level business-led CSR organizations? I find that national CSR associations were already successfully consolidated in several countries in the 1970s and 1980s and were relatively autonomous from global CSR frameworks that struggled to be institutionalized during the same time period.From a political economy perspective, it is not surprising that corporations would engage more with domestic business-led CSR organizations than alternative global frameworks over which they have less control. However, I also find that the establishment of national CSR associations is strongly correlated with country memberships in international non-governmental organizations. This suggests an important global-domestic dynamic whereby global nongovernmental linkages may have first encouraged the growth of national CSR associations before pushing CSR concerns up to the level of global CSR frameworks. This paper this chapter highlights the importance of both world society and political economy perspectives for understanding CSR in a globalizing world