Why Governments Intervene: Mixed Motives for Public Policies on CSR

Why are national governments increasingly adopting policies on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? What is the rationale and purpose of these policies? Scholars from various disciplines including Political Science, International Relations and Management Studies have offered explanations for this phenomenon. Research has tended either to rely on cross-country comparisons that generalize tendencies within given countries; or to over-generalize global trends. The current paper analyzes particular CSR policies in two countries – Denmark and the United Kingdom. We find that the rationales for government initiatives on CSR are neither consistent across countries or within them. Instead, CSR policies are utilized to address multiple issues crossing various areas of governance, including domestic social policy, global competitiveness policies and foreign policy.