The Social Responsibility of Multinationals: From an Afterthought to Center Stage

This chapter explores the treatment of multinational corporations (MNCs) and social issues from 1960 to the present day through a review of the extent scholarly literature. From the 1960s on, economic and international business scholars concentrated on the economic and political impacts of MNCs, while international political economy scholars devoted more research to political and social issues. Since the 2010s, however, scholars of MNCs have been given more attention to the global social responsibility of such actors. Given the significance of social responsibility, the chapter seeks to outline ways in which the book can contribute to discussions on the topic.

This piece originally appeared In: Lorraine Eden, “The Social Responsibility of Multinationals: From an Afterthought to Center Stage,” in Rethinking Business Responsibility in a Global Context, ed. Lorraine Eden, Bodo B. Schlegemlmilch, and Ilona Szocs (Cham: Springer, 2020), 1-18. Copyright remains with the original holder.