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Between Business-as-Usual and Development agents, The Role the International Finance Corporation’s Performance Standards Foster for Business

Kessel, Jakob LU (2020) STVK12 20201
Department of Political Science
Abstract
In recent years, the notion that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) schemes enable corporations to assume a role of a development agent has been heavily contested in academia. Among CSR schemes are the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Performance Standards, which, regardless of their foundational role in shaping the paradigm of responsible business, are yet to be exposed to thorough academic scrutiny. This thesis critically investigates what role do the IFC Performance Standards foster for business in development by deploying a qualitative content analysis utilizing Blowfield and Dolan’s (2014) conceptualisation of business as a development tool-agent as the theoretical framework. This thesis found that while the Performance... (More)
In recent years, the notion that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) schemes enable corporations to assume a role of a development agent has been heavily contested in academia. Among CSR schemes are the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Performance Standards, which, regardless of their foundational role in shaping the paradigm of responsible business, are yet to be exposed to thorough academic scrutiny. This thesis critically investigates what role do the IFC Performance Standards foster for business in development by deploying a qualitative content analysis utilizing Blowfield and Dolan’s (2014) conceptualisation of business as a development tool-agent as the theoretical framework. This thesis found that while the Performance Standards are often rhetorically framed as a stringent set of rules, they much rather present a flexible framework upon which corporations can construct their own responsibility policies. As a result, they do not mandate businesses to act as development agents, but rather gear social and environmental policies towards financial risk mitigation. More research analysing specific adoption cases of the Performance Standards is required to truly understand whether they can live up to their rhetoric of fostering responsible business behaviour. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Kessel, Jakob LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK12 20201
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
IFC Performance Standards, Corporate Social Responsibility, Business and Development
language
English
id
9011467
date added to LUP
2020-08-05 11:19:57
date last changed
2020-08-05 11:19:57
@misc{9011467,
  abstract     = {{In recent years, the notion that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) schemes enable corporations to assume a role of a development agent has been heavily contested in academia. Among CSR schemes are the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Performance Standards, which, regardless of their foundational role in shaping the paradigm of responsible business, are yet to be exposed to thorough academic scrutiny. This thesis critically investigates what role do the IFC Performance Standards foster for business in development by deploying a qualitative content analysis utilizing Blowfield and Dolan’s (2014) conceptualisation of business as a development tool-agent as the theoretical framework. This thesis found that while the Performance Standards are often rhetorically framed as a stringent set of rules, they much rather present a flexible framework upon which corporations can construct their own responsibility policies. As a result, they do not mandate businesses to act as development agents, but rather gear social and environmental policies towards financial risk mitigation. More research analysing specific adoption cases of the Performance Standards is required to truly understand whether they can live up to their rhetoric of fostering responsible business behaviour.}},
  author       = {{Kessel, Jakob}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Between Business-as-Usual and Development agents, The Role the International Finance Corporation’s Performance Standards Foster for Business}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}