Global and Multicultural Public Relations

9Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Multisector Partnerships

Keywords

corporate social responsibility; sustainability; community building; multisector partnerships; multinational corporations; multilatinas; strategy; participatory communications

Central Themes

• In today's global marketplace, corporations are members of the worldwide community rather than merely members of their city, town, or state.
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices are essential and present an easy way for multinational corporations (MNCs) to use corporate power as a catalyst for social intervention and change.
• Joint interventions of organizations and professionals from multiple sectors, utilizing their joint resources and expertise, are required to accomplish common goals and make an impact on a large scale.
• There are three stages of collaboration in partnership building, which define the process: philanthropic, transactional, and integrative.
• A multipronged approach is used to conceptualize the concept of strategic participatory communications for social change and development.

Introduction

Founded in 1960, the Chilean CENCOSUD is the third‐largest publicly‐traded retail conglomerate in Latin America, with more than 140 000 employees in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. Since the opening of its first grocery store in Santiago, Chile in 1976, the Latin American multinational corporation (MNC), or multilatina, has developed different lines of business, such ...