Little is known about how subsidiaries of MNCs implement political CSR across Africa. The purpose of this paper is to determine how corporations respond to the many ‘pressures’ to align competing socioeconomic demands through political CSR and how that affects local communities in global supply chains. Based on field work in an emerging economy, we focus on a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest multinational palm oil producers and its HR Management. Contrary to what extant literature presents as pressures on MNCs to fulfil demands that are neither related to their raison d’être nor competence, we found that socioeconomic demands in low-income countries are rather the local communities’ natural response to shocks emanating from the presence of the subsidiary in their community. The ensuing dramatic changes in the socio-cultural, political and economic institutions underpinning their way of life are articulated as ‘5Ds’: dispossession of land; displacement of people; destruction of the environment; desperation; and de-democratization through disenfranchisement. Our micro-level analysis reveals HR managers’ dilemma. They are mostly torn between responding to community’s grievances and the profit-maximization intents of the firm. They make attempts to liaise and create dialogue but ultimately loyalty to the subsidiary is privileged over social demands.

The chapter shows that one way of tackling the problem of weak regulatory systems that allow corporations to ignore environmental sustainability in their business activities is to make corporate investments in environmental sustainability in developing countries economically attractive to the corporations. And in the process enable them to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in these developing countries, while reaping economic rewards for doing so. ‘Green capitalism’ as a concept merges economic capitalism with green objectives and when appropriately utilised, can be an effective tool for achieving the SDGs in developing countries. This chapter analyses the application of green capitalism in developing countries and how it merges the profit-focus of capitalism with environmental sustainability. Utilising the ‘environment contestation approach’, the chapter examines how ‘green capitalism’ reconciles the notions of free-market enterprise and the sustainable development desired by developing countries. It discusses the regulatory steps needed to prevent potential ‘greenwashing’ by corporations while incentivising increased investments in SDGs-related projects within these jurisdictions. Using available statistics, the chapter examines the success of ‘green bonds’ issuance for environmental projects as a reflection of the increasing reliance on green capitalist tools for achieving the SDGs in developing countries.

Organisations and managers are increasingly being held accountable for CSR in their spheres of operation. While a few organisations already have structures to deal with competing demands from stakeholders with regards to corporate social responsibilities, some are caught flatfooted. This paper takes a look at the theoretical underpinning of CSR and CRS education in the literature. It also focuses on exploring the following questions. How do leaders or managers acquire the sensibilities of being in tune with the social responsibilities of an organisation? How do managers acquire the necessary knowledge and sense to handle corporate social responsibilities expectations? How are MBA institutions handling this critical task of preparing mangers as decisionmakers in charge of CSR for the future? Can a model emerge from current CSR education practices? These issues are addressed in this chapter.

This chapter examines whether the CSR concept and its emerging legal framework can become an allocative device allocating responsibility for certain aspects of development to business and channelling business conduct on development issues. CSR is a concept which often captures dimensions of the relationship between business and society in context. On the one hand, it covers aspects which focus on the mitigation of corporate impacts on a range of issues including environment, health, labour, human rights and corruption. On the other hand, it also covers the ability of corporations to contribute constructively to societal objectives in the above areas and beyond. Consequently, in a developing country context, CSR could be invariably linked to some development objectives such as optimal health, well-being, education, jobs etc…, because these objectives form the bedrock of capabilities which the individuals in these societies would like to achieve. Sen’s capabilities conception of development permits the consideration of institutions and frameworks including legal mechanisms geared towards human development objectives. Human development objectives also have a bearing on wider sustainable development goals. The chapter examines examples of emerging legal frameworks to reveal the potential and limitations of this perspective, which indicates how CSR can contribute to development.

Several sources of today’s pressure on managers operating in developing and emerging economies (DEEs) are arguably more associated with social issues than profit-making concerns. Managers are thus faced with understanding and embedding solutions to societal challenges in their core business strategies in order to be sustainable. Consequently, solutions that go beyond the traditional focus of the CSR discourse on philanthropy in DEMs have become much more imperative as companies strive to use CSR to re-engineer their value chain. As lack of adequate human skills remains a major problem to firms and society, the existing challenges of human capital in many DEMs present businesses (both small and big firms) with the opportunity to use CSR to increase the knowledge, skills and abilities of both their workforce and the society in general. A firm that is able to invest in human capital development across the entire spectrum of its several stakeholders is more likely to achieve a higher competitive advantage and sustainable growth. In this chapter, we present case studies of two different approaches to using CSR as a tool for human capital development in Africa and given the success of the companies, it is recommended that firms operating in DEMs should place emphasis on developing and utilizing CSR policies and strategies for human capital development.

This chapter builds on the institutional voids literature within institutional theory by highlighting the role that multinational corporations can play when policy voids are severe, as is the case in many developing countries. We utilize an in-depth narrative case study of Nestlé’s operations in Thailand to elucidate the institutional and policy voids and then to show how Nestlé worked to fill these voids. Specifically, this chapter documents the history of slavery and child labor in Thailand and how international and domestic policy efforts have failed to address these issues in a political environment that is rife with corruption and abuse. Instead, corporations like Nestlé are filling this policy void with efforts like the Seafood Task Force, which aims to alleviate human rights abuses by eliminating them at the source.