These cases have given impetus for business
leaders to reconsider the relationship between
business and society and to call for a more strategic
approach to CSR. In a response article to The
Economist’s damning of CSR, McKinsey CEO Ian
Davis (2005) reminded readers that CSR represents
a strategic opportunity as well as a set of obligations,
and that MNEs would be well advised to
analyze CSR issues and opportunities with the same
tools and skills they apply to market strategy. At the
same time, Davis joined the growing group of
academic critics concerned that CSR is a set of
disparate, well-intentioned ideas rather than a
coherent theory and set of practices (Baron,
2001). In this paper, we seek to contribute to
bringing greater theoretical and practical coherence
to the area by examining CSR in relation to
organizational strategy in MNEs.