CSR Policies and Global Labor Violations in MNCs: The Impact of Home Country Labor Regulation and Labor Union Strength
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2025-06-25
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en
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This thesis investigates whether the adoption of formal Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies by multinational corporations (MNCs) is associated with improved labor practices across their global operations. It further examines how this relationship may be moderated by institutional factors in the MNC’s home country, specifically labor regulation and union strength. Using a panel dataset of 3,880 firm-year observations from OECD-based MNCs between 2015 and 2020, the study applies random-effects Tobit regression models to account for the censored nature of labor violation data.
Contrary to expectations, the presence of CSR policies is positively and significantly associated with the number of reported labor violations, suggesting symbolic adoption or increased transparency rather than improved outcomes. The interaction effects of home-country labor regulation and union strength were both statistically insignificant, indicating no clear moderating influence. Robustness checks confirmed the reliability of these findings.
These results point to a persistent implementation gap between corporate commitments and labor conditions on the ground, highlighting the need for stronger enforcement mechanisms and further research into institutional constraints on CSR effectiveness.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen