The Quiet and the Compliant: How Regulation and Polarization Shape Conventional Wisdoms on Corporate Social Engagement in High-risk Settings
For international business scholars and practitioners, the study provides preliminary insights into how regulatory and political contexts influence corporate social responsibility in high-risk environments.
The study surveyed 400 corporate professionals in fragile settings to understand how regulation and polarization shape corporate social engagement. European professionals reported higher strategic integration of social impact, while US professionals cited political polarization as a hindrance, though this did not predict unreported activities.
With the international business landscape becoming more crisis-ridden as risks proliferate, how do the professionals who implement corporate social initiatives in high-risk environments perceive their work, and what can this reveal about the forces shaping business engagement with society in crisis contexts? We present findings from a synthetic survey of 400 corporate professionals working on social impact in fragile and conflict-affected settings to understand conventional wisdoms and best practices on corporate strategy and activity in high-risk settings. Drawing on political corporate social responsibility (CSR), synthetic survey, and international business literatures, we test seven hypotheses about how regulatory environments, political polarization, sector characteristics, and organizational structures shape corporate social engagement in high-risk contexts. The synthetic results suggest that European professionals report significantly higher strategic integration of social impact across all measured dimensions, while US professionals overwhelmingly report that political polarization hinders social initiatives, yet this perception does not predict unreported social activities, complicating the emerging "quiet CSR" narrative. Extractive industry professionals deliver both the highest operational preparedness and the highest complicity awareness, a pattern we conceptualize as presence-dependent reflexivity. These patterns deliver a baseline to detect the theorized dynamics and offer preliminary theoretical propositions for future real-world empirical testing.