Abstract

Corporate malfeasance, irresponsibility, and unethical practices as well as the negative consequences of globalization including environmental crisis, rising income disparities, socio-economic malaise, political conflict, rising social inequalities, and the outsourcing of increasingly skilled operations to emerging and/or developing countries have triggered clamour for protection against the ‘pathological pursuit of profit and power’ by global corporations. This has also fuelled interest in curbing the ‘anarchy of unregulated market forces’ and effort to arrest corporations’ ‘exploitative psychopathic personalities’ for them to take responsibility for their impact on society, footprint on the environment and treacherous roles in developing countries, which are in the shadow of their influence, power and actions. Guided by this ratiocination, Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure in Developing and Emerging Economies: Institutional, Governance and Regulatory Issues argues that understanding the institutional, regulatory and governance issues underpinning poor CSR practice and reporting can be one of the ways to not only explicate the ravaging ‘race to the bottom’ thesis by multinational corporations, but to uncover and reposition the debate on corporate greed, profiteering, business irresponsibility and lack of accountability and transparency in the methods of disclosing CSR. The notion that businesses have responsibilities to society and the environment is not new; a lot of scholarship from the Western and non-Western standpoint has addressed this issue severally and in different contexts. However, there is paucity of research on the role of corporate governance, institutional frameworks and legal systems that frame CSR reporting and practices in developing/emerging economies as well as the legal, conventional and taken-for-granted implications of these practices to wider stakeholders. This is the mainstay of this book! Notwithstanding the acceptance of a context-specific significance to CSR (reporting), there is a privileging of western-centric inquiry essentially focused on developed and progressively transitional economies underplaying and undercutting research in emerging economies. Thus, research centering on emerging/developing countries remains quite scarce with few exceptions. Given the disparities between developed and developing countries’ CSR research and experiences framed by cultural, socio-economic and political configurations, the book makes a bold effort to supplement and further extend insights into an under-researched space – developing and emerging economies.
There is no gainsaying the fact that developing countries’ peculiarities about CSR (disclosure) policy regulation, corporate governance and business responsibility continue to legitimise and reproduce norms and values, which are not in the interests of developing, marginalised economies. Thus, in rethinking scholarship from the perspective of emerging economies for a more ethical, accountable and transparent CSR policies, actions and activities, we must first of all explicate the institutional and regulatory environment and determinants that are shaping CSR practices and fueling what Tom Mueller has described as ‘crisis of conscience’
negating an understanding of what is accepted or unacceptable practice by the corporations. A contextually relevant CSR practice and policies viewed from an exploration of the institutional, regulatory and governance mechanisms that drive such issues is crucially important to reinvent CSR agenda, rekindle interest in sustainable development goals (SDGs) and to redraw the map of corporate-stakeholder interest that are in a comatose state.