International corporate social responsibility: Assessing United States-based multinationals' location and globalization of operations

Multinational enterprises have received notable attention for their impacts on society, with a focus on the negative effects. Stakeholders are market-driven forces who seek to improve corporate social responsibility (CSR). This secondary research study analyzes the location of multinationals' global operations and the extent to which firms are global with regard to corporate social responsibility. In addition, the study links to prior corporate social responsibility studies by researching the association between corporate social responsibility and financial performance.; Ultimately, responsibility belongs to both multinationals and host countries of foreign direct investment to behave ethically and set up guidelines and policies to enable such conduct. The results of this study showed that the location and the extent of international operations influence corporate social responsibility. However, the findings regarding international corporate social responsibility were not straightforward. Firms with operations in developing countries tended to have positive associations in terms of community and diversity CSR ratings, but negative associations with product and human rights CSR ratings. Furthermore, positive relationships were established between the globalization of operations and corporate social responsibility in terms of environment, product and community ratings. Nonetheless, negative relationships surfaced for globalization of operations and human rights and corporate CSR ratings. The study concurs with prior studies in that it found that corporate social responsibility linked positively with financial performance.