Multinational corporations and global poverty reduction

Abstract

Finding ways to alleviate global poverty poses a major challenge for political leaders and intellectuals worldwide. The contributors to this volume, top scholars of international business, examine the effects of globalization on the developing world and address ways in which multinational corporations (MNCs) can play a positive role in the fight against poverty. The essays illustrate how, by creating new business models, multinational enterprises are best equipped to relieve global poverty. By making investments among the poor - in pursuit of profit and shareholder wealth rather than as charity - the economic activity generated by investments would go a long way towards reducing poverty. The contributors show how following this strategy would lead to today's poor becoming part of the economy and emerging as visible customers for MNCs. They address the many facets of this plan in chapters on: MNCs and host environment and policies, strategies and their impact, governments and civil society, international business models, and global institutions and social responsibility. This unique solution to poverty reduction will be of great interest to scholars of international relations and business, international corporate managers and executives, government officials, and NGO executives dealing with global matters.