Sub-theme 27: Constructing Businesses Social and Environmental Responsibilities in the Global South: Tensions between Tradition, Innovation, and Imposition -> HYBRID!
Call for Papers
Businesses play a major role in tackling societal problems; their engagements range from policies around philanthropy,
corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability to more historical practices such as paternalism (Etchanchu
& Djelic, 2017). Despite the pervasiveness of business-society relationships across the globe, the involvement of for-profit
actors in the provision of public goods is especially salient in the Global South: for instance, in low-income countries,
businesses have undertaken political roles traditionally considered to be within the purview of the State, such as providing
education, recreation or health (Acosta & Péretzs, 2019; Matten & Crane, 2005, Scherer, 2018; Scherer & Palazzo,
2011). Through their roles in addressing social issues, private, for-profit actors are also increasingly determining and regulating
social behavior (Etchanchu & Djelic, 2019).
The global spread of CSR and the worldwide expansion of sustainability
(Bothello & Salles-Djelic, 2018) has also impacted how private actors develop new forms of social and environmental responsibility
with an increasing focus on questions at the societal level (Wickert, 2021). Examples of these practices include the development
of responsible investment approaches, carbon footprint measures, or gender and diversity programs. In parallel, we witness
an increase in the establishment of transnational organizations, multi-stakeholder alliances and meta-organizations, all aimed
at creating, monitoring and enforcing standards (Berkowitz et al., 2020). Far from being passive recipients though, Multi-National
Corporations (MNCs) have also been actively defining the terms of engagement, for instance defining environmental behaviour
(Scherer et al., 2016) across supply chains (Reinecke & Donaghey, 2021).
However, the effectiveness and
appropriateness of businesses involving themselves in tackling social and environmental issues has long been a contentious
topic. For instance, CSR is usually defined at the global level failing to take into account contextual idiosyncrasies (Acosta
et al., 2021), which prevents MNCs from both taking into account multiple voices (Girschik et al., 2020; Reinecke & Donaghey,
2021) and developing solutions that address structural problems within their host contexts (Alamgir & Banerjee, 2018).
Aside from this is a more fundamental issue about whether such interventions are effectively addressing the negative effects
of capitalism – or simply acting as a vehicle to perpetuate them (Schneider, 2019).
Beyond this is the role
of the academic: the comparative lenses we adopt to analyze the Global South involves a pejorative view of those settings
vis-à-vis the Global North. Low-income countries are, for example, often labelled as “institutional voids” (Bothello et al.,
2019). This view ignores the considerable social and cultural capital preexisting in these settings and transposes Western
concepts (e.g., performance, strategic growth), while avoiding the construction of a more nuanced and specific reality (Nason
& Bothello, 2019). Indeed, the model for innovative solutions and change that has dominated management literature is one
based on a top-down approach to innovation and technology transfer from Northern countries. In terms of social and environmental
policy, this domination of Western forms of thinking and knowledge may ultimately exacerbate the ecological and social problems
we face rather than ameliorate them (Banerjee & Arjalies, 2021). As such, we need greater efforts to identify and develop
indigenous solutions (Fu et al., 2011).
Accordingly, in this sub-theme, we want to dig deeper into the tensions
created by private actors’ involvement in social and environmental issues in the Global South. We also see this sub-theme
as a place to discuss our responsibility as researchers in engaging with these settings, as well as with marginalized actors
and organizations, when studying business involvement in social and environmental issues. Although the definition of Global
South/low-income countries is of debate, in this sub-theme we take a broad perspective wishing to include poorly explored
countries and communities in the organizational literature.
We seek to examine some of (without being limited
to) the following inquiries:
How have actors and organizations developed solutions to social and environmental needs in the Global South?
What have been the outcomes of the involvement of private actors in social and environmental issues in these non-traditional settings?
What different social and environmental practices have emerged in developing regions? How do they differ from those in other contexts?
What institutional mechanisms promote democratic forms local-global dialogue in different and new forms of social and environmental responsibility? How does the institutional context of actors affect dialogue practice?
In the context of grand challenges, what can we learn from indigenous approaches in the Global South?
How can we ensure that indigenous approaches to social and environmental responsibility will not fall victim to westernized ideas? How do actors and organizations in developing regions preserve tradition and protect themselves from Western imposition?
How do actors and organizations across different regulatory environments (e.g., authoritarian regimes) understand CSR? How do these understandings differ from those in other environments?
What are the tensions in the encounter between traditional sustainability-related practices and global approaches?
How do individuals, managers at all hierarchical levels, or entrepreneurs, perceive and cope with the tensions of integrating (or not) traditional approaches and new social and environmental practices?
What are the implications of hybrid CSR expressions (Jamali & Karam, 2018)?
How can we better equip ourselves as researchers to avoid a pejorative view of settings in developing countries? What kind of academic system do we need to avoid pejorative views on developing countries?
How do actors, organizations, and governments in developing countries deal with the tensions to reach a state of growth, development, and wealth close to one of developed countries, but at the same suffer from the catastrophic consequences that unlimited growth has produced (e.g., floods, droughts, or other extreme events)?
References
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