مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

Throughout much of R. Edward Freeman’s work on stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984, 2000; Freeman, Harrison, & Wicks, 2007) and Timothy L. Fort’s work on peace through commerce (Fort, 2007; Fort & Gabel, 2007; Fort & Schipani, 2007), there is a particular theme which scholars must face: Times have changed and there is a need to rethink the way we have viewed business in the past. A new approach is necessary because the landscape of business has changed due to globalization and technology. The field of business is known for its cutting edge innovation, allowing firms to stay ahead of the established competition and excel as risk-taking entrepreneurs. Peace through commerce is just that: innovative, timely, and quite possibly the key ingredient for a firm to gain competitive advantage.

Multinational corporations have the resources and power to help improve the economic, social, and political systems in which they operate (Goodwin, 2005; Lawrence & Weber, 2014). In fact, 53 of the 100 largest economies in the world are MNCs (Carroll, 2004). There is a need for more research into corporate responsibility (CR) actions that are beneficial to business while effectively contributing to the communities abroad in which they operate (Visser, 2008). By viewing society as the ultimate stakeholder, MNCs can capitalize on emerging markets in any developing country through poverty alleviation actions (Steen, 2007) and thus contribute to peace building (Fort & Schipani, 2004). Additionally, CR actions such as poverty alleviation can build trust in firm-stakeholder relationships with the result of improving firm performance (Fort, 2007). This article explains why peace through commerce is a topic worthy of study, and sets out an empirical approach to operationalize it. The implementation of that approach remains in the future, butin this article, Iseek to examine the contours of a possible approach.