企业社会责任与跨国公司政治风险管控

Corporate Social Responsibility and Political Risk Control of Multinational Corporations

跨国公司在海外从事经营活动时,因政治风险而利益受损的事件时有发生。这些政治风险可按照其风险来源划分为东道国政策不稳定、东道国政治不稳定、国家间关系不稳定以及跨国公司与东道国社会关系不稳定四类。在跨国公司管控政治风险的过程中,母国政府、东道国政府以及国际私营安保产业均发挥了重要作用,但又都带有一定的局限性。因此,本文旨在从企业管理相关理论出发,探索一种研究跨国公司政治风险管控问题的不同视角。作为国际社会中的重要行为体,跨国公司既是母国国家利益的创造者,也是母国国家形象的承载者,这样的身份决定了其风险管控策略,既要维护企业经济利益,又应符合社会伦理规范。企业社会责任恰好能够兼顾以上两个方面,为跨国公司管控政治风险提供了新的思路。然而,作为一种企业行为,企业社会责任活动无法对所有政治风险都发挥同等作用,它对来源于跨国公司与东道国社会关系不稳定的政治风险管控效果最佳。在此类政治风险中,企业社会责任不仅能够通过管理社会问题规避或降低部分风险,而且即使在风险爆发后,企业社会责任仍可以在一定程度上减少跨国公司经济利益和社会声誉的损失。

Multinational corporations often suffer from political risk when operating overseas. Political risk may come from the policy shift of the host country, unstable political situation, the uncertainty of international relations, or the precarious relationship between multinational corporations and local society. In the process of enterprise risk management, the home government, the host government and the international private security industry have all played important roles. However, each role has its limitations. This paper attempts to utilize corporation management theories to study the political risk control of multinational corporations from a different perspective. As a crucial actor in the international community, multinational corporations are both the promoters of national interests and the carriers of national image. Such status determines that their strategies of risk management should not only achieve economic goals, but also conform to social ethical norms.Corporate social responsibility (CSR) gives careful consideration to exactly these two points, and hence provides a new path for multinational corporations to control political risk.Nonetheless , CSR activities cannot play an equivalent role in controlling every kind of political risk. In fact, they work best for the political risk which comes from the precarious relationship between multinational corporations and local society. Faced with such political risk, corporations can carry out CSR activities to manage social problems and mitigate risks. Even if a risk leads to an unpleasant result eventually, corporations can still utilize the CSR to cut their losses in economic interests and social reputation.