Pure Business for a better World?

Abstract: The pressure on businesses to “give something back to society” has increased considerably in the last decades and concepts like Corporate Social Responsibility gained enormous populari-ty. While for many years companies have been distributing cash and goods to charity, attach-ing to the CSR agenda a philanthropic nuance, many companies have recently started to shift away from philanthropic giving towards a more business-like CSR policy approach. This so-called strategic CSR is increasingly seen as the solution to achieve development goals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the shift away from philanthropic CSR using the ex-ample of two multinational oil companies operating in Uganda, where oil has been recently discovered. The companies’ strategies were analysed drawing on eight core economic multi-pliers. Furthermore the potential effect of stakeholders on the multipliers was scrutinized and the characteristics of strategic CSR mapped. The findings outline that the two companies have shifted to a strategic approach, whereas not all multipliers are manifested equally. It can be seen that each company interprets strategic CSR differently, which challenges the positive impact on society, whereas best practices confirm the potential of strategic CSR to create long term economic opportunities.