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Previous scholars have assumed that multinational enterprises (MNEs) can reduce the liability of foreignness and increase profitability by investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, empirical validation of this assumption has rarely been attempted. This study aims to provide empirical evidence that the adoption of multi-stakeholder initiatives, which are globally recognized as signals of CSR, helps MNEs increase profits from internationalization.

Fixed effect models, which address model misspecification problems, and instrumental variable estimation, which controls for the endogeneity in firms’ choice of internationalization, offer empirical evidence supporting the moderating effects of global multi-stakeholder initiatives on the relationship between internationalization and firm performance.

This study examines the moderating role of multi-stakeholder initiatives in the relationship between internationalization and firm performance, drawing on signaling and stakeholder theories. The results suggest that the signaling effect of multi-stakeholder initiatives can help MNEs overcome the liability of foreignness and, therefore, profit from overseas markets.

Although the internationalization–firm performance relationship has been a subject of debate in the field of international business, the role of firms’ stakeholder engagement in this relationship has been largely overlooked in previous studies. In this study, the authors explore the impact of multi-stakeholder initiatives on the internationalization–firm performance relationship. Our primary contention is that multi-stakeholder initiatives have moderating effects on this relationship by reducing the liability of foreignness experienced by MNEs in host countries. Furthermore, the findings suggest that active engagement in multi-stakeholder initiatives significantly contributes to the financial success of MNEs as they internationalize.

Although previous research has highlighted the importance of innovative intermediary services that are delivered through cluster initiatives to foster own attractiveness and the development of business, little emphasis has been placed on examining the patterns and influencers of such a change in new organisational forms from a management perspective. The present study investigates the change patterns of core intermediary activities in cluster initiatives as well as the influence of various stakeholders on change in those core activities.

The empirical data of this work illustrates the general picture of change within new organisational forms and therefore emerges from a survey study carried out among numerous European cluster initiatives originating from different industries. The main propositions for testing have roots in and are discussed through the prism of Stakeholder Theory as well as entrepreneurship, change and intermediary (middle-hands, brokerage) literature.

The findings reveal that intermediary activities are under continuous change, and the changes appreciated by the initiative members tend to gradually increase in intensity over time. Internal stakeholders are actively engaged in the change process activities, and external stakeholders are too, but to a limited extent. This leaves space for creativity and action for the initiatives.

This research combines stakeholder theory and literature on intermediation (new forms of organisations), change, and entrepreneurship. The outcome of the study might serve as a ground for theoretical classification of cluster initiatives as a particular type of intermediary in accordance with their specific occupation. This would add to the ongoing discussion on definition and typologies of intermediaries as well as lift the awareness on the peculiar constellation of stakeholders within these innovative organisations – their engagement expectations and level of involvement.

Knowledge on which stakeholders can turn to in the event that a special service is needed can shorten implementation times and improve the quality of services. This knowledge is a way to choose suitable and influential networking partners who can assist by pushing existing working mechanisms in a favourable direction.

The study illustrates the patterns behind changes of intermediary activities/services over time, which would form solid ground for developing new methods to assist in achieving stakeholder satisfaction through cluster-initiative services. Therefore, this work can serve as a benchmarking example for traditional organisations that find themselves in “sleeping” mode or that aim for revitalization.

The contribution of change and engagement mechanisms to effectivization and innovativeness of organisations are highlighted as main value added of this research.

The transformative potential of CSR is a far-reaching question. It has been analysed through the lens of the inclusion of stakeholders concerned by social and environmental issues in political CSR fora such as multi-stakeholder initiatives or, on the contrary, their exclusion from these processes. This paper aims to highlight the transformation or status quo produced by political corporate social responsibility (PCSR) initiatives, the extent of transformation being a function of the degree of inclusiveness, or conversely of exclusion, of these initiatives. From a promise of inclusion to the inability of corporate-society fora to act on the actual levers of marginalisation, PCSR scholars have developed contrasted views on these initiatives.

This led us to elaborate a hypothesis that such initiatives intrinsically act as levers in the recurring marginalisation of directly affected stakeholders. Drawing on an empirical study of the CSR discourses of mining industry stakeholders – both corporations and civil society – involved in an informal multi-stakeholder initiative, this paper discusses the disconnect between its representatives and the needs of the directly affected stakeholders.

To explore this disconnect, the authors draw on the voices and causes framework developed by Boltanski et al. (1984), which provided us with a relational system involving victims, guilty parties, complainants and judges.

Accordingly, the authors highlight a set of three interrelated marginalisation mechanisms (i.e. the capture of the role of the judge by PCSR initiatives, the side-lining of victims’ needs by complainants, the intertwining of the guilty party and the judge), which empirically support the lack-of-inclusiveness hypothesis.

This paper aims to explore how existing collaborative governance arrangements in the context of corporate responsibility (e.g. the Global Reporting Initiative and Social Accountability 8000) need to collaborate more directly in order to enhance their impact. The objective of this paper is twofold: primarily, to explore existing and potential linkages between multi‐stakeholder standards; but, at the same time, to explore the potential for standard convergence.

The paper follows a conceptual approach that is supported by a variety of case examples. First, the nature and benefits as well as shortcomings of multi‐stakeholder standards are explored. Second, a categorization scheme for the availability of such standards is developed. Third, linkages between the different standard categories are explored and discussed. Last but not least, the paper outlines practical implications.

A variety of linkages between existing multi‐stakeholder standards exist. These linkages need to be strengthened, as the market for corporate responsibility is unlikely to support a great variety of partly competing and overlapping initiatives.

The paper offers a structured discussion of potential linkages between multi‐stakeholder standards and thus complements the literature where such initiatives are discussed (usually without much mention of linkages). Practitioners will find the discussion useful to explore how their participation in a variety of initiatives can be better coordinated.

This paper aims to investigate the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives adopted by Chinese firms during the outbreak of COVID-19. Facing this unknown, unexpected and devastating disease, Chinese corporations demonstrated their CSR in different approaches. The purpose of this paper is to explore how CSR influences the decisions of the corporations that respond to a severe incident and how corporations can achieve their mission or strategic objectives by responding to a serious incident.

Based on secondary data and thematic analysis, this paper examines six Chinese corporations which are the leading firms in their respective industries.

This paper finds that firms adopted a mixed approach to conducting their CSR initiatives, including altruistic, strategic and citizenship CSR initiatives. This paper also confirms that strategic CSR initiatives were in line with the five dimensions of strategic CSR including centrality, specificity, proactivity, visibility and voluntarism. In addition, this paper also shows that a company could create its competitive advantage by carrying out CSR initiatives that are able to strengthen its value chain activities or the competitive context. This is based on the partnership built by the firms with their stakeholders to recognize the shared value.

This paper shows the implication that business leaders should understood the role of a business in society and the importance of stakeholders’ expectations. The underlying philosophy is that CSR could strengthen the resilience of society; business organizations need to operate in a healthy society.

This paper provides insights of Chinese corporations responding to a severe social incident. It highlights the strategic perspective of CSR initiatives and the linkage between CSR activities and a firm’s competitive advantage.

Studies of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and stakeholder engagement have recently gained traction in the global strategy field. However, they have mostly developed as parallel streams, thereby limiting the cross-fertilization between global strategy research and stakeholder theory. We believe that because the CSR context in essence calls for the simultaneous participation of a large and heterogeneous set of local and global stakeholders, it requires a novel theorizing of multinational enterprises’ (MNEs’) worldwide practice implementation. Thus, we develop a series of propositions in the context of CSR to highlight the role stakeholders play in MNE subsidiaries’ implementation of initiatives, depending on the complex institutional pressures that they undergo, their distance from the parent’s home country, and their level of network embeddedness. We focus in particular on the role of stakeholder demands alignment in subsidiaries’ CSR implementation. Our conceptual propositions are enriched by the consideration of illustrative data on initiatives undertaken by Iberdrola from 2008 to 2014.

The purpose of this study is to explore the contributing barriers to corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) practices. In particular, this study focuses on non-managerial stakeholders’ perceptions of the barriers to CSER practices in a developing country context. The study also investigates the current initiatives undertaken by the different stakeholders, such as government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and regulators.

The study takes a qualitative approach, undertaking semi-structured in-depth interviews with 26 participants from NGOs, the media, regulatory authorities, government departments, shareholders, trade union leaders and customers.

The views of stakeholder groups were analysed to identify the contributing barriers to CSER practices. The findings of the study reveal that corruption and politics, lack of coordination, lack of government initiatives and unsatisfactory implementation of laws are perceived as the major barriers that hinder CSER practices in Bangladesh. The study also found a lack of awareness amongst various stakeholder groups regarding the influential role CSER plays in promoting sustainable development. The current initiatives undertaken by various stakeholders to improve CSER practices were limited but growing.

The study utilises the stakeholder theory to examine the role of stakeholders, rather than managers, in relation to CSER practice in Bangladesh. The findings may provide impetus for mitigating CSER barriers in a developing country context.

This study is one of the few engagement-based studies to explore the non-managerial stakeholders’ views on CSER in a developing country context.

Companies face increasing pressure from stakeholders to play a leading role in addressing a wide array of environmental, social, and governance issues. What are the relevant and responsible contributions that corporations are expected to provide in support of defining solutions to sustainability issues? This paper shows how corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a negotiation process to help corporations manage uncertainties through collaborative work and alignment with stakeholders. From that angle, CSR is a process that generates standard and acceptable business practices.

This paper uses both an adductive as well as an interpretative approach of CSR and looks at CSR as a collaborative process that builds rules and norms.

CSR is defined as a contractual process between stakeholders in order to drive decision making processes and agree on commitments between business and society. Interestingly, all studied examples depict the development of standard and acceptable business practices with very little involvement of stakeholders, which is not the understood way of driving changes to business strategy as defined by the CSR negotiation processes.

A framework is presented linking CSR business practices research findings to empirical market isomorphism. The paper is of practical relevance for management practitioners. The limitations of recent research are also discussed.

Our examples show that CSR is no more than the achievements of fragmented initiatives led by companies showing limited transparency toward external stakeholders. There is no overall coordination. The paper is original in its recommendation that public authorities play a strategic role showing clear direction, and establish themselves as a strategic platform enabling more engagement between stakeholders.

The current market conditions are driving firms to plan, design and implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies that are true to the firms' real sense, i.e. authentic. Authenticity is an important aspect of micro-foundations of CSR in shaping the way social responsibility initiatives would impact the stakeholders including the customers, partners, current members of the organization and shareholders. This calls for a need to synthesize past research on CSR authenticity in order to propose directions for future research.

The current study synthesizes relevant literature on CSR authenticity using systematic literature review (SLR) approach. In total, 34 research works were identified and examined to seek insights on CSR authenticity.

Findings of the study identified various miro-, meso- and macro-level determinants of CSR authenticity and different set of outcomes having implications on business and society. The study also proposes a comprehensive definition of CSR authenticity which was somewhat missing in existing literature.

The study provides strong theoretical and managerial implications. Particularly, the study provides directions for future research on the topic.

In this paper, a review of literature on CSR authenticity is currently missing.