MNC’s and poverty alleviation: a conceptual framework

International development institutions appear to accept the role of business in global development challenges such as poverty alleviation. In 2003 the World Bank was reportedly ‘convinced’ that the private sector has a role to play in the fight against poverty (Wolfensohn 2003, p.19). The 2008 ‘Business and the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) report highlights a consensus within the United Nations that the MDGs cannot be met without a diversified and productive private sector that creates wealth and employment, delivers goods and services, and adopts responsible business practices (Nelson and Prescott 2008). The growth of responsibility reporting, and the establishment of organisations such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD, 2011) all promote the view from the business community that it has a role to play in international development issues. Yet critical underlying theoretical questions about the responsibilities of business, and how business responds to international development issues such as poverty alleviation, remain unanswered both within corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Prietto-Carron et al., 2006) and within wider management literature (Steidlmeier, 1993; Bruton, 2010).