NGO-Business Partnerships: Implications for Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Change Communication

Abstract

The past decades have witnessed a rapid transformation in the relationship between businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from antagonists to collaborators as a strategy to foster social change. The pressing need for public and private sectors to work together is often codified in corporate efforts to implement their social responsibility (CSR) programs; though these partnerships have consequences around practicability, accountability, reputation, identity alignment, and operations, among others. In this chapter, we review communication, public relations, and management scholarship on collaborative communicative relationships between NGOs and business around social change agendas. With particular attention given to the role of communication in these efforts, we illuminate the main strands of research that help explain factors that facilitate or constrain NGO-business collaborations. To illustrate, we also draw on cases of NGO-business partnership on CSR in western and non-western contexts, spotlighting the particular challenges in addressing oil spills in Nigeria.