Abstract
This article evaluates the potential of the current Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda for addressing issues related to societal governance. The investigation focuses on the experience of the oil and gas sector, which has been among the leading industry sectors in championing CSR. In particular, the article analyses the issue of revenue transparency, which has been the principal governance challenge addressed by multinational oil and gas companies. The article suggests that (1) tackling governance challenges is crucial to addressing the impact of corporate activities; (2) current CSR and policy initiatives are entirely insufficient in addressing governance challenges and (3) corporate activities may be contributing to governance failures.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Alt, J. E. and D. D. Lassen: 2006a, ‘Transparency, Political Polarization, and Political Budget Cycles in OECD Countries’, American Journal of Political Science 50(3), 530-550.
Alt, J. E. and D. D. Lassen: 2006b, ‘Fiscal Transparency, Political Parties, and Debt in OECD Countries’, European Economic Review 50(6), 1403-1439.
Bell, J. et al.: 2004, ‘Sao Tome and Principe Oil Revenue Management Law - Oil-Revenue Management Team of the Columbia University Consulting Group to H.E. The President of Sao Tome and Principe’, (Columbia University, New York).
Besley, T. and A. Prat: 2006, ‘Handcuffs for the Grabbing Hand? Media Capture and Government Accountability’, American Economic Review 96(3), 720-736.
Blowfield, M. and J. G. Frynas: 2005, ‘Editorial: Setting New Agendas - Critical Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Developing World’, International Affairs 81(3), 499-513.
Chen, M. E.: 2007, ‘National Oil Companies and Corporate Citizenship: A Survey of Transnational Policy and Practice’ (The James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, Houston, TX).
Collier, P. and A. Hoeffler: 1998, ‘On the Economic Causes of Civil War’, Oxford Economic Papers 50, 563-573.
Collier, P. and A. Hoeffler: 2000, ‘Greed and Grievance in Civil War’, Policy Research Working Paper No. 2355 (World Bank, Washington, DC).
Corden, W.M.: 1984, ‘Booming sector and Dutch disease economics: Survey and consolidation’, Oxford Economic Papers 36, 359-380.
Economist Intelligence Unit: 2006, ‘Country Profile 2006 - Azerbaijan’ (Economist Intelligence Unit, London).
Elbadawi, I. and N. Sambanis: 2000, ‘Why Are There So Many Civil Wars in Africa? Understanding and Preventing Violent Conflict’, Journal of African Economies 9(3), 244-269.
Extractive Industry’s Transparency Initiative (EITI): 2008, EITI Website at http://eitransparency.org/. Accessed 18 July 2008.
Frynas, J.G.: 1998, ‘Political Instability and Business: Focus on Shell in Nigeria’, Third World Quarterly 19(3), 457-479.
Frynas, J. G.: 2004, ‘The Oil Boom in Equatorial Guinea’, African Affairs 103(413), 527-546.
Frynas, J. G.: 2005, ‘The False Developmental Promise of Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Multinational Oil Companies’, International Affairs 81(3), 581-598.
Frynas, J. G.: 2008, ‘Corporate social responsibility and international development: critical assessment’, Corporate Governance: An International Review 16(4), 274-281.
Frynas, J. G. and K. Mellahi: 2003, `Political Risks as Firm-Specific (Dis) Advantages: Evidence on Transnational Oil Firms in Nigeria', Thunderbird International Business Review 45(5), 541–565
Frynas, J. G., K. Mellahi, and G. Pigman: 2006, ‘First Mover Advantages in International Business and Firm-Specific Political Resources’, Strategic Management Journal 27, 321-345.
Frynas, J. G. and M.L. Paulo: 2007, ‘A New Scramble for African Oil? Historical, political, and business perspectives’, African Affairs 106(423), 229-251.
Gelb, A. et al.: 1988. Oil Windfalls: Blessing or curse (Oxford University Press, New York).
Gelos, G. and S.J. Wei: 2005, ‘Transparency and International Portfolio Holdings’, Journal of Finance 60(6), 2987-3020.
Getz, K. A.: 1993, ‘Selecting Corporate Political Tactics’, in B. M. Mitnick (eds.), Corporate Political Agency: The Construction of Competition in Public Affairs (Sage, Newbury Park).
Glennerster, R. and Y. Shin: 2003, ‘Is transparency good for you, and can the IMF help?’ (International Monetary Fund, Washington DC).
Gould, J. A. and M. S. Winters: 2007, ‘An Obsolescing Bargain in Chad: Shifts in leverage between the government and the World Bank’, Business & Politics 9(2), 1-34.
Gulbrandsen, L. H. and A. Moe: 2005, ‘Oil Company CSR Collaboration in “New” Petro-States’, Journal of Corporate Citizenship (20), 1–12.
Gulbrandsen, L. H. and A. Moe: 2007, ‘BP in Azerbaijan: A test case of the potential and limits of the CSR agenda?’, Third World Quarterly 28(4), 813-830.
Gylfason, T.: 2001, ‘Natural resources, education and economic development’, European Economic Review 45, 847-859.
Henriques, A.: 2007, Corporate Truth - The Limits to Transparency (Earthscan, London).
Heywood, A.: 2002, Politics, 2nd edition (Palgrave, Houndmills).
Hillman, A. J. and M. A. Hitt: 1999, ‘Corporate Political Strategy Formulation: A Model of Approach, Participation, and Strategy Decisions’, Academy of Management Review 24(4), 825-842.
Hojman, D.E.: 2002, ‘The political economy of Chile’s fast economic growth: An Olsonian interpretation’, Public Choice 111(1/2), 155-178.
Karl, T. L.: 1997, The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro-States (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA).
Karl, T. L.: 2005, ‘Understanding the Resource Curse’, in S. Tsalik and A. Schiffrin (eds.) Covering Oil (Open Society Institute, New York).
Keen, D.: 1998, ‘The Economic Functions of Violence in Civil Wars’, in Adelphi Paper (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
Keim, G. D. and C. P. Zeithaml: 1986, ‘Corporate Political Strategy and Legislative Decision Making: A Review and Contingency Approach’, Academy of Management Review 11(4), 828-843.
Kojucharov, N.: 2007, ‘Poverty, Petroleum & Policy Intervention: Lessons from the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline’, Review of African Political Economy 34(113), 477-496.
Leite, C. and J. Weidmann: 1999, ‘Does Mother Nature Corrupt? Natural Resources, Corruption and Economic Growth’ (International Monetary Fund, Washington DC).
MacDonald, K.: 2007, ‘Globalising Justice within Coffee Supply Chains? Fair Trade, Starbucks and the transformation of supply chain governance’, Third World Quarterly 28(4), 793–812.
McWilliams, A., D. D. Van Fleet and K. D. Cory: 2002, Raising Rivals’ Costs Through Political Strategy: An Extension of Resource-Based Theory. Journal of Management Studies 39(5), 707–723
Mitnick, B. M., (ed.): 1993, Corporate Political Agency: The Construction of Competition in Public Affairs (Sage, Newbury Park).
Olson, M.: 1965, The Logic of Collective Action - Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
Pegg, S.: 2006, ‘Can policy intervention beat the resource curse? Evidence from the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project’, African Affairs 105(418), 1-25.
Ray, D. M. (1972) Corporations and American Foreign Relations. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 403 (1), 80–92
Rose-Ackermann, S.: 1999, Corruption and Government (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
Ross, M. L.: 1999, ‘The Political Economy of the Resource Curse’, World Politics 51(2), 297-322.
Ross, M. L.: 2001, ‘Does Oil Hinder Democracy?’, World Politics 53(3), 325-361.
Rosser, A.: 2006, ‘Escaping the Resource Curse’, New Political Economy 11(4), 557-570.
Sachs, J. D., and A. M. Warner: 1999, ‘The Big Push, Natural Resource Booms and Growth’, Journal of Development Economics 59(1), 43-76.
Sachs, J. D., and A. M. Warner: 2001, ‘Natural Resources and Economic Development: The Curse of Natural Resources’, European Economic Review 45, 827-838.
Sarraf, M. and M. Jiwanji: 2001, ‘Beating the resource curse: The case of Botswana’ (The World Bank, Washington DC).
Schattschneider, E.E.: 1935, Politics, Pressures and the Tariff - A study of free enterprise in pressure politics as shown in the 1939-1930 revision of the tariff (Prentice Hall, New York).
Shaffer, B. and A. J. Hillman: 2000, ‘The development of business–government strategies by diversified firms’, Strategic Management Journal 21(2), 175–190.
Shankleman, J.: 2006, ‘Managing Natural Resource Wealth’ (United States Institute of Peace, Washington DC).
Shi, M. and J. Svensson: 2002, ‘Conditional Political Budget Cycles’ (Stockholm).
Shultz, J.: 2004, ‘Follow the money - A guide to monitoring budgets and oil and gas revenues’ (Open Society Institute, New York).
Stevens, P.: 2005, ‘Resource curse and how to avoid it’, Journal of Energy and Development 31(1), 1-20.
Tallontire, A.: 2007, ‘Who Regulates the Agri-food Chain? Towards a framework for understanding private standards initiatives’, Third World Quarterly 28(4), 775-791.
Transparency International: 2006, Global Corruption Report 2006 (Pluto Press, London).
Transparency International: 2008, ‘Promoting Revenue Transparency - 2008 Report on Revenue Transparency of Oil and Gas Companies’ (Transparency International, Berlin).
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development: 2007, ‘World Investment Report - Transnational Corporations, Extractive Industries and Development’ (United Nations, New York and Geneva).
Usui, N.: 1996, ‘Policy adjustments to the oil boom and their evaluation: The Dutch Disease in Indonesia’, World Development 24(5), 887-900.
Utting, P.: 2007, ‘CSR and Equality’, Third World Quarterly 28(4), 697-712.
Valiyev, A. M.: 2006, ‘Parliamentary Elections in Azerbaijan: A Failed Revolution’, Problems of Post-Communism 53(3), 17-35.
Vandewalle, D.: 1998, Libya since Independence - Oil and State-Building (Cornell University Press, New York).
World Bank: 2003, ‘Striking a better balance: The World Bank Group and extractive industries - Final report of the Extractive Industries Review Vol.1.’ (World Bank, Washington DC).
World Bank: 2008, ‘World Bank Statement on Chad-Cameroon Pipeline’, Press Release No: 2009/073/AFR, 9 September (World Bank, Washington DC).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Frynas, J.G. Corporate Social Responsibility and Societal Governance: Lessons from Transparency in the Oil and Gas Sector. J Bus Ethics 93 (Suppl 2), 163–179 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0559-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0559-1