Inclusive partners? Internationalising South Korea’s chaebol through corporate social responsibility-linked development cooperation

Abstract

In recent years, non-traditional or ‘emerging’ donors such as South Korea have organised their development cooperation models in a manner that seeks to complement the capacities of the private sector by extending the overseas activities of domestic businesses. To better understand this process, this article examines the role of South Korea’s large, family-led conglomerates (chaebol) in its growing international development sector. In particular, we focus on how the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been used to link the role of its large, and frequently scandal-ridden, private companies to international development, and, by extension, how it has helped to internationalise state–business networks long associated with the Korean developmental state. We examine two strategies through which this has been carried out. The first is by extending the logic of creating shared value (CSV, a derivative of CSR) to aid and infrastructure projects in which chaebol and other state-linked businesses have participated. The second is by directly embedding CSR-based aid initiatives in the value chains of the specific chaebol themselves.     

New partnerships for social development: business and the third sector

One of the main issues for Latin America now that it is entering a new period of economic growth is the process of speeding up social development to catch up with economic trends. This may be seen by some as a highly profitable investment, but by most as a moral obligation. A long history of exploitation and the most recent decades of misgovernment have provoked a legacy of social injustice and disparities incompatible with the region's economic potential.

Structural adjustment policies impose a significant reduction in the size of governments which have shown an unequivocal tendency to retreat from their responsibilities regarding the social sector. Current trends of the new world order raise many concerns regarding the social perspectives of the less privileged layers of the population.

Besides the new economic opportunities, redemocratization of the region has led to a new socio-political environment in which paternalistic patterns have given way to a more participatory and mature relationship between government, civil society and business.

The so-called third sector has become of increasing importance and is growing rapidly in most countries. Business is also assuming new roles in terms of its responsibility towards social development. There is a change in culture and there are new opportunities to develop innovative forms of participation. The retreat of the State is opening up a new niche for the third sector and business to establish partnerships that can speed up social development without the risks of the heavy paternalistic and patronizing influence of governmental branches. Overall, one can observe a shift in responsibilities. Partnerships will involve the three actors, with government participating heavily in financing the operations of the third sector, while business lends its’ efficiency as well as material resources.

The business sector in Latin America is rapidly learning the social responsibility of participating in community initiatives and the benefits that such an approach can bring. Foreign companies have played an important role in bringing new values, strategies and experience of this participation. Local businessmen are adopting these values and adjusting them to their realities. The new economic and political environments have created a new sense of citizenship and there is an observable advance in the approach that business is taking in relation to the potential of its participation and of its responsibilities regarding social growth and development.

Corporate philanthropy -- or community relations, or corporate citizenship, as the local culture prefers to call it -- assumes several forms. Grantmaking is still the least frequent as companies prefer to maintain tighter control over the use of resources, either by operating their own projects in a joint effort with target communities, or by establishing partnerships with small organizations of the third sector. Stimulating volunteer work of their employees is also a form of participation.

More recently, in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico we have witnessed the emergence of associations of grantmakers and philanthropists, similar to those of the United States. Through these organizations, corporations, corporate foundations and independent foundations can share their experiences and values, coordinate their efforts and exert influence in the social and political environment.     

PRIVATE POLICING: A VIEW FROM THE MALL

In many Western democratic societies the primacy of the police has begun to diminish with a proliferation of alternative service providers, particularly within the private security sector. This raises questions about how such bodies can best be mobilized and integrated within policing. This paper reports findings from three ethnographic case studies of private security teams operating within areas of semi‐public space, to advance understanding of their nature and operations. It shows how the character of security work is determined by vastly differing structural arrangements to those of the police, but by a similar heterogeneity of function. While private security is seen to have a valid place within the ‘extended police family’, it is depicted as a low status sector whose authority in undertaking policing derives from the autonomy of other more powerful players. Future ethnographies, it is therefore argued, need to focus on the corporate users that govern its activities.     

Corporate Social Responsibility,Public Service Motivation and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Public Sector

This article examines the mediating role of public service motivation (PSM) on the relationship between employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). A sample of employees working in public sector banks in Egypt completed a structured questionnaire comprising of questions regarding CSR perceptions and PSM. Immediate supervisors rated the OCB of employees who responded to the survey. Results reported in the paper found the following: a) Employee perceptions of both internal and external CSR had a positive influence on the development of employee desire to serve the public; b) PSM partially mediated the relationship between internal CSR perceptions and employee OCB; c) PSM fully mediated the relationship between external CSR perceptions and OCB. This study extends current knowledge of the theoretical foundations surrounding CSR at the individual-level of analysis and offers practical implications by stressing the importance of employee desire to serve the public.     

Corporatized Public Land Development Bodies in Australia: Who Are the Stakeholders and Why Are They Important?

This study examines post-corporatization activities of public sector organizations, which are expected to act according to commercial principles, but, at times, are also asked to undertake projects that are not profitable: community service obligations (CSOs). Managers of government-owned corporatized entities in land development are interviewed, and a focus group at a state Treasury department conducted. We determine, when undertaking CSOs, who are the stakeholders, as perceived by management, and why they are considered important. The stakeholders are government, community, treasury (as separate from government) and the relevant private sector. Values, in addition to power, urgency and legitimacy, influence stakeholder prioritization.     

Worker Empowerment Through Private Standards. Evidence from the Peruvian Horticultural Export Sector

In this paper we analyse the impact of a variety of private standards on worker empowerment in the horticultural export sector in Peru. Empowerment is defined as workers’ knowledge of their own rights and workers’ perceived agency to improve employment conditions. We use data from a company and a two-round employee survey, and difference-in-difference propensity score matching methods. We find positive effects of private standards on worker empowerment, with core labour standards having a more pronounced effect than standards with a small focus on labour, and thus complement previous evidence on the effects of standards on tangible employee wellbeing.     

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND THE PUBLIC SECTOR: SOME ISSUES AND EVIDENCE FROM THE NHS

The 1990s have been marked by a resurgence of interest in questions of corporate governance in both public and private sector settings. The 1990 reorganization of the NHS is taken as an example of a recent attempt to‘reform’arrangements for corporate governance in the public sector based on a board of directors’model. The policy background is reviewed and the salient features of the NHS reorganization outlined. Empirical case study evidence is adduced which enables us to make an assessment of the advantageous and disadvantageous effects of the 1990 reorganization. Some unresolved questions are outlined in the concluding discussion.     

Network Governance of Private Sector Development Policy Implementation in Singapore

The discussion examines private sector development policy implementation in Singapore, examining the new role of the government's economic development agencies from the point of changing relationships among public and non-state actors in the policy arena. Singapore's model of private sector development consists of an exclusive network of partnerships among economic development agencies and between these agencies and private sector actors, such as business and organized labour, as integral policy stakeholders. As Singapore has moved within the past 15 years towards its articulated goal of becoming a knowledge-based economy and an industrial hub in the Asia Pacific region, the country's model of network governance is undergoing a gradual reconfiguration to include a greater role for local enterprises in the policy process. The changing institutional mechanics of network governance surrounding the new model of private sector development in Singapore are examined, along with the highlights of some implications surrounding this shift.     

Does the Millennium Challenge Corporation reinforce capitalist power structures or empower citizens?

In development practice, how does ‘mutual benefit’ accrue, and to whom? China criticises America for perpetuating capitalist power relations and claims it can seek a new geopolitical order based on South–South cooperation. Meanwhile, there has been an extraordinary shift of emphasis towards the private sector as a driver of development, but this shift is attracting increasing criticism. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) – the only development agency to grow in influence under the Trump administration – is evaluated in the light of these two key themes. Neither China nor the private sector is successful in achieving ‘mutual benefit’ for ordinary citizens – both replicate existing power inequalities. As with the rise of both China and the private sector, the MCC also enmeshes developing countries further into the existing neoliberal capitalist structures. However, the advantages of the agency should not be dismissed outright, as its Ruling Justly and Investing in People indicators can enhance the capacity of citizens to challenge these power structures themselves.     

The slow violence of corporate social responsibility: the case of mining in Peru

Drawing on fieldwork in three Andean regions of Peru, this article analyses the capacity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to reduce mining-related violence in rural communities in developing countries. Within Peru, to some extent CSR has stabilised short-term relationships between mining corporations and nearby communities, although tensions remain high in others. While effects are varied and locally-contingent, the findings support a theoretical understanding of CSR as deeply embedded in legitimising the violence of capitalism, including the slow violence from degrading local environments.     

The European Union's role in networks on removal of fossil fuel subsidies and disclosure of climate change information

This article deals with newly emerging international collaborative initiatives around two issues connected to climate change: removal of fossil fuel subsidies and improving climate information disclosure practices in the business sector. While networked initiatives on the gradual removal of fossil fuel subsidies and a multi-actor network on disclosure of climate change information do not explicitly mobilize collective actions around climate change, they supplement and reinforce a wide array of other transnational initiatives and partnerships around climate change mitigation efforts. Analysed networks equip transnational policy processes around the climate change issue, initially formed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's member states, with new policy tools to mitigate human-induced climate change and hugely expand the membership of policy-making at the international level. Newly emerging transnational networks in the area of fossil fuel subsidies removal and improving climate change information disclosure practices in the corporate world also strive for harmonization of policy methods and instruments across international boundaries. The experience of the European Union (EU) in promoting climate change actions among its member states and in sustaining collaboration with private actors can serve as an exemplary and learning tool for transnational policy networks across continents. And the size of the EU's market together with its governance structure provides it with a common legitimate voice at the international arena for climate change decision-making.     

The Political Economy of the Growth of the Liberian Public Sector

Using a political economy approach, this study examines the nature, dynamics, and causes of the expansion of the Liberian public sector. The findings show that the major causes for the expansion of the Liberian public sector did not fit those provided by the literature—citizens’ demands for new services, and other issues that emerge from state-building. Instead, the politico-economic interests of the Liberian ruling class (both the internal and external wings) are the major causes for the increase in the size of the government. These interests include serving the interests of corporate capitalism, and the private accumulation of wealth.     

The Virtual Value Chain and E-Government Partnership: Non-Monetary Agreements in the IRS E-File Program

Abstract

Electronic government (e-government) models generally espouse the principle of partnership with the private sector. What is not always clear is what is meant by partnership, though, and how public organizations should organize and manage such relationships to support e-government initiatives. The paper relies on a conceptual framework of the virtual value chain to understand how a new form of collaboration emerged in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) e-file program in 1999 and what dimensions helped to make it a success. As part of a larger, multi-nation study of public–private partnerships in e-government, this paper examines IRS e-file program, one of the largest, longest-standing (dating back to 1986), and most successful US e-government programs with tens of millions of users each year.

The IRS e-file program experienced dramatic changes in its long-standing partnership with the tax preparation and related software development industries in 1999 and 2000. It is possible, using the concept of the virtual value chain, to understand how the IRS rethought its relationship with its private-sector partners. A combination of conditions in the market place, in US society, within the IRS, and among the private-sector partners helped to make this new model of collaboration quite successful. The paper concludes by examining how the dimensions of partnership in the IRS e-file case and the concept of the virtual value chain might enable other public organizations to reconceptualize their e-government partnership arrangements with the private sector using a new model of collaboration.     

Microfinance and Gender: Issues,Challenges and The Road Ahead

Abstract

This special collection examines the claim that microfinance promotes gender equality. The focus is on three areas of the debate: first, the question of how successful microfinance has been in empowering women; second, whether and how negative gender discrimination operates within the sector; third, how power relations within and beyond the household shape the context and outcomes of microfinance initiatives. The papers in this collection demonstrate the divergence of circumstances and emphasise the need to go beyond the past searches for a simple narrative regarding the impact of microfinance. Rather, as the sector evolves and is incorporated into the mainstream financial system, the challenge ahead for researchers is to marshal the evidence on gendered dynamics to ensure that the gains made are built on through deeper understanding of why impact outcomes and processes differ and use this to inform new initiatives to further gender equality.     

Humanitarian mine action and peace building: exploring the relationship

Focusing on the humanitarian mine action (hma) sector, this article argues that rooting peace building in concrete activities carries considerable promise, diversifying the repertoire and enhancing the robustness of peace building. However, the assumption that mine action necessarily contributes to building peace is problematic and permits the neglect of harmful effects and a failure to capitalise fully on the potential for positive ones. If peace building is seen in terms of three major domains—security, development and politics—the current tendency is to emphasise security primarily, development secondarily, and the political only marginally when addressing the impact of hma on peace building. Several examples indicate that mine action may have a significant impact on the political aspects of peace building, including confidence building, conflict resolution and reconciliation. At the same time, linking mine action to peace building creates certain dilemmas, and a rigid subordination of mine action initiatives to a centrally directed peace building strategy is unlikely to be productive. Ultimately, a focus on the peace building role of mine action carries a dual promise for the sector: it documents impacts that are currently unacknowledged, while encouraging new and refined practices.     

TQM and labor-management cooperation-- a noble experiment for the public sector

Recent initiatives by the Clinton Administration to promote labor-management cooperation and to reinvent government suggest reconsidering the efficacy of total quality management (TQM) and labor-management cooperation initiatives in the public sector. Key elements of both initiatives, for example, process improvement/innovation, focus on the customer, and employee empowerment, are inherent parts of the National Performance Review (NPR) and, as such, are critical to the achievement of NPR outcomes. Achieving these outcomes involves the simultaneous transformation of agencies and unions. This is no small task. The challenges and risks involved in such a large-scale transformation are identified, as well as the factors that make the public sector an appropriate (and safe) place for the American labor movement to experiment with new ways to manage relationships.     

Knowledge management and communities of practice in the private sector: lessons for modernizing the National Health Service in England and Wales

The National Health Service (NHS) in England and Wales has embarked upon a radical and far–reaching programme of change and reform. However, to date the results of organizational quality and service improvement initiatives in the public sector have been mixed, if not to say disappointing, with anticipated gains often failing to materialize or to be sustained in the longer term. This paper draws on the authors' recent extensive research into one of the principal methodologies for bringing about the sought after step change in the quality of health care in England and Wales. It explores how private sector knowledge management (KM) concepts and practices might contribute to the further development of public sector quality improvement initiatives in general and to the reform of the NHS in particular. Our analysis suggests there have been a number of problems and challenges in practice, not least a considerable naïvety around the issue of knowledge transfer and 'knowledge into practice' within health care organizations. We suggest four broad areas for possible development which also have important implications for other public sector organizations.     

Minimum wage effects across the private and public sectors in Brazil

Most of the available evidence on the effect of minimum wages concerns the private sector of developed countries. In this paper, we examine minimum wage effects in both private and public sectors for a key developing country. We use monthly data from a Brazilian household survey from 1982 to 2000. We find a strong compression effect in the wage distribution for both the private and public sectors. However, we find no evidence of adverse employment effects in either sector at the aggregate level or for vulnerable groups such as teenagers, women and the low educated. Hence, minimum wage policies in Brazil appear to be a potentially viable anti-poverty instrument.     

Corruption and reforms: A case of Poland's medical sector

This study focuses on the effects of Poland's reforms in the period 1990–2005 on corruption in the health care system. In the last 15 years Poland has transformed its economy drastically, introducing market-oriented reforms into almost every aspect of its economy. In this study we consider how different reforms changed incentives and mechanisms facilitating corruption in the medical care sector. Our conclusion is that corruption in Poland's medical sector has worsened since the onset of the marketization reforms. We support this conclusion primarily by analyzing changes in incentives for corruption and the number of mechanisms facilitating it. In addition, where available, quantitative data are provided, though we recognize that numerical estimates of corruption are subject to substantial error. We focus on three major forms of corruption: patient payments to secure medical treatment or improve its quality, payments from industry (mostly pharmaceutical and medical equipment producers), and the use by physicians of free public facilities for private patients.     

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR MANAGERS OVER 20 YEARS: A TEST OF THE ‘CONVERGENCE THESIS’

This paper sets out to test the ‘convergence thesis’ in respect of managers in the public and private sectors in Britain. New Public Management (NPM) initiatives have had the objective of making managerial behaviour in public sector organizations more similar to that in the private sector. Based on unique national surveys undertaken in 1980, 1990 and 2000, using quite large random samples of fellows and members of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), comparisons are made to investigate whether ‘convergence’ between public and private sector managers has actually occurred. The patterns are found to be complex and, although there are some signs of convergence, the two sectors continue to exhibit similarities, persistent differences and parallel movements evident in managerial attitudes, behaviour and experiences.