Rhetorical Framing of Organizational Identity: Corporate Social Responsibility in the Modern World Polity

As multinational corporations (MNCs) have increased their activities associated with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), scholars, analysts, and practitioners have focused on functional and strategic issues in line with profit motivations, questioning whether CSR enhances the corporate bottom-line. However, there is little empirical evidence to date showing any definitive positive relationships between CSR and corporate financial performance. Nonetheless, more and more MNCs are putting significant efforts and resources into CSR practices and are actively participating in global CSR schemes, such as the UN Global Compact. Based on analyses of organizational identity claims and of organizational engagement, this exploratory research suggests that, while not always straightforward and transparent, the growing CSR involvement by MNCs is part and parcel of broader legitimization processes conforming with world polity cultural norms and identities as world polity constituents. Although at times contradictory, CSR itself has been framed in terms of normative value-added activities, along with more rationalist financial goals.