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      Blood money: A grounded theory of corporate citizenship; Myanmar (Burma) as a case in point

      Black, Nicola Mary
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      Black, N. M. (2009). Blood money: A grounded theory of corporate citizenship; Myanmar (Burma) as a case in point (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)). The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10289/3577
      Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/3577
      Abstract
      Corporate Citizenship as a social phenomena spans a growing body of

      corporate initiatives, nascent policy frameworks, and global civil society action.

      Corporate engagement with fragile states, and other situations identified as

      contexts of conflict and/or weak governance, is the subject of scholarly and

      practitioner research by those with an interest in Corporate Citizenship. In this

      thesis I represent the corporation as a legal entity with significant political and

      socio-economic impacts. Responsibility for these impacts is the subject of

      ongoing social critique and contest. I consider the corporate form as a site of

      broad protest at the environmental devastation and social dislocation that has

      accompanied the globalisation and intensification of neo-liberal economic

      activity. My analytic focus is the range of social processes involving actors from

      the private, civil and political sphere, through which understandings of

      responsible, potentially 'constructive' corporate engagement in fragile states are

      created, contested and transformed. Further, efforts to embed Corporate

      Citizenship as the normative basis for global business practice broadly reflect

      aspirations for greater social justice. In identifying and describing intentions,

      aspirations and forms of corporate engagement in fragile states, and the social

      process through which these change, I critically examine the discourses of

      development, security and governance which underpin Corporate Citizenship

      efforts.

      In this thesis I offer a grounded theory of Corporate Citizenship in Fragile

      States I have developed through an empirical case study of the oil and gas

      industry in Myanmar (Burma). Working within a social constructivist perspective

      in the grounded theory research tradition, I have employed an iterative analytic

      process to develop the theory presented. In this process the sampling of data was

      undertaken to challenge and develop concepts in the emerging theory, concepts

      identified using a method of constant comparison within and between sets of data.

      I continued these concurrent processes of data-collection, analysis and theoretical

      development until I judged the theory to be a sufficiently complete description of

      the focus of inquiry. A total of seven broad sets of data informed the

      development of the theory presented. These datasets include over a hundred

      interviews in seven countries with stakeholders in three joint-venture offshore

      exploration and production projects in Myanmar (Burma) undertaken from July

      2006 to August 2009. The datasets also draw from an extensive body of corporate

      and advocacy group publications regarding foreign investment in Myanmar, along

      with other secondary data sources.

      In this inquiry I have explored the multiple interactions between corporate,

      state and civil society actors through which understandings of 'responsible'

      corporate engagement in Myanmar are created, enacted and transformed. I have

      identified and conceptualised four social processes at work in these interactions,

      which I describe in the grounded theories of:

      (1) Commercial Diplomacy (describing the use of enterprise as a conduit

      for foreign policy by states, particularly as it relates to 'ethical' business

      activity)

      (2) Stakeholder Activism (critiquing the aims and strategies of

      transnational civil society organisations who advocate for 'responsible'

      corporate engagement)

      (3) Corporate Engagement (explaining variation in the motivations and

      terms of corporate engagement, specifically different forms of divestment

      or engagement, as strategic responses to stakeholder activism, commercial

      diplomacy and other factors which influence the enterprise context)

      (4) Constructive Corporate Engagement (a conceptual framework,

      grounded in multiple stakeholder-views and drawing from the

      international development discourses of state fragility and human security,

      for considering the potentially constructive impacts of corporate

      engagement).

      Working within and between these four theories, I generated an overarching

      grounded theory of (5) Corporate Citizenship in Fragile States. From these

      theories I offer a critical analysis of Corporate Citizenship as the normative basis

      for a new articulation between the economic, social and political spheres in

      pursuit of a more equitable global order.
      Date
      2009
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Name
      Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
      Publisher
      The University of Waikato
      Rights
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