| dc.description.abstract | Grounding foreign companies in local context through CSR - the case of Norwegian Business in Indonesia This thesis seeks to explore whether Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be said to have a grounding effect in an evermore-globalised economy. I will attempt to understand CSR through different theoretical perspectives, from the geographies of globalisation to theories of power and networks, and recognizing their intertwining nature. Rather than trying to split up different theoretical entry-points to CSR, I will seek to look at this phenomenon as something ascending from the encounter between companies and local communities, as something mediated and contested amongst the company and its stakeholders. In these encounters, there are two main interests intersecting: a company's main goal of profit, and the local community's desire for development, prosperity and control over its own resources. At the same time, there exist two main concessions: the company has a need for legitimacy and acceptance in the society where it operates (licence to operate), and the local community has a need for additional private economic activities and support. Geographical theory gives us some clues to how CSR might influence both communities and companies. In the following, I will look into traits of resource transfer and exchange, trust and reciprocity between companies and local communities, but also look into how deeply founded CSR is in company conduct. The latter will serve as an indication of what kind of ownership such potential grounding activities have within the company. To which extent do companies involve in places and its people through CSR activities, and do they induce values and meaning into the places they operate? Finally, I will discuss whether or not CSR can be said to contribute to a more transparent and accountable way of increasing the reciprocity between foreign companies and the local communities they operate within, and curb more illegitimate, corrupt practices and expectations. | en_US |
