The Contested Corporation: how right-wing populism reframes CSR discourse in the Netherlands Discourse analysis on right-wing populism and CSR policies of businesses in the Netherlands using a topic modeling approach
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2025-06-23
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en
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Against the backdrop of rising right-wing populism in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, this thesis investigates how this political shift influences the discursive construction of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by large corporations. Employing a longitudinal design, this study uses Structural Topic Modeling (STM) to analyze a corpus of 842 Dutch news articles from 2000-2024 concerning ten AEX-listed firms.
The findings reveal a significant increase in the volume of CSR discourse over time. However, this discourse is not uniform; instead, it has crystallized around highly specific, often conflict-driven, and nationally-bound corporate narratives, such as Shell's climate lawsuit and ASML's geopolitical challenges.
The study argues that these patterns evidence a reframing of CSR, moving it from a voluntary, global ideal to a politicized and contested field. This process involves the nationalization of CSR conflicts and the potential silencing of broader, traditional themes. This research contributes to Political CSR (PCSR) theory by empirically demonstrating how corporate responsibility becomes an inescapable political act in a polarized era. It provides crucial insights for managers navigating an increasingly complex political landscape.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen