The transnational corporation, corporate social responsibility and the 'outsourcing' debate

Current popular debates in the United States and Australia on the topics of 'jobless recoveries' and the 'outsourcing' of skilled IT jobs to India (most conspicuously) evidence a confusion as to the institutional role of the business firm and its obligations to the broader stakeholder community, as well as to the more specific differences between outsourcing and the spatial restructuring of corporate value-chains. This paper will take up several issues in the hope of clarifying this confusion, including the essential nature of the business firm as an economic, political and social institution; the possibilities for social responsibility and stakeholder management in large internationalised firms; and the critical distinctions between domestic and international outsourcing and spatial restructuring. Data from the 'outsourcing' debate will be referenced to illustrate the differing logics/rationalities of relevant stakeholder groups.