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Donna J. Wood The David W. Wilson Chair in Business Ethics University of Northern Iowa

Theoretical Challenges of Global Business Citizenship: Taking Corporate Social Responsibility Across Borders. Donna J. Wood The David W. Wilson Chair in Business Ethics University of Northern Iowa (acknowledging the co-creation of Jeanne Logsdon, Patsy Lewellyn, and Kim Davenport).

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Donna J. Wood The David W. Wilson Chair in Business Ethics University of Northern Iowa

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  1. Theoretical Challenges of Global Business Citizenship:Taking Corporate Social Responsibility Across Borders Donna J. Wood The David W. Wilson Chair in Business Ethics University of Northern Iowa (acknowledging the co-creation of Jeanne Logsdon, Patsy Lewellyn, and Kim Davenport)

  2. 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.

  3. 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”)

  4. Deriving the GBC Process

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. UNDP Partnership and the Multi-Functional Platform (MFP)

  9. 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

  10. 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?

  11. Transiting to Predictive Theory • Testable hypotheses of relationship and causation • Normative underpinnings need to be worked out for prescriptive interpretations • How to get data???

  12. 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!

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