Cross‐sector alliances in the global refugee crisis: An institutional theory approach

• Author: Wenlin Liu,Rong Wang,Aimei Yang
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12288
• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Date: 01 July 2020

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  wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/beer Business Ethics: A Eur Rev. 2020;29:646–660.© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

1 | INTRODUCTION

According to the Uni ted Nations Refuge e Agency (2017), th ere are

over 40 million ref ugees worldwid e. Although th e refugee crisis in

Europe captiv ated internation al attention in 2015 , the crisis has

evolved to become a gl obal problem . Refugees curre ntly living in

Europe only accou nt for 17% of the global refugee populati on, and

the situation is m uch direr in region s such as Africa (3 0%), Middle

East, and Nor th Africa (26%). For millions of refugees , their forced

displacement jo urneys may be fat al. Between 2015 a nd 2017, the

annual refugee fatality rate kept reaching records (Missing Migrant

Project, 2018). In 2 016 alone, over 8,000 re fugees died from drown-

ing and vehicle acc idents during m igration. Even whe n refugees

reach resett lement camps , many still str uggle with acce ss to basic

living resourc es and face chall enges such as langu age barriers ,

poverty, and cros s-cultural adap tation (Dougl as, Levitan, & K iama,

2017).

The scope and mag nitude of the global refu gee crisis are unprec-

edented. This cr isis has posed seve re challenges to so cial stabilit y

and sustaina ble developmen t around the worl d. Yet, most govern-

ments are ill-prepared for this global humanitarian crisis, or their

actions are mired by polarized domestic public opinions and nation-

alist movement s. Cross-secto r alliance is an eff ective way for so ci-

eties to address w icked problems su ch as the global re fugee crisis

that spills over sec toral and natio nal boundari es (Jamali, Yia nni, &

Abdallah, 2011; Sels ky & Parker, 2005). T hese types of i nterorga-

nizational relationships are also known as multi-stakeholder collab-

oratives, social alliances, cause-based partnerships, social service

partnerships, and business-community partnerships (for an exten-

sive review, see Koschma nn, Kuhn, & Pfa rrer, 2012). While many

NGOs and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) advocate on be-

half of refugees, o ur initial assessme nt reveals considerabl e disparity

when it comes to cor porate particip ation in refugee relief e fforts and

their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

Received: 10 Octo ber 2018 

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  Revised: 5 April 2 020 

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  Accepted: 16 April 20 20

DOI: 10 .1111/bee r.12288

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Cross-sector alliances in the global refugee crisis:

An institutional theory approach

Aimei Yang1 | Wenlin Liu2 | Rong Wang3

1Annenberg School for Communication

and Journali sm, University of S outhern

California , Los Angeles, CA , USA

2Jack. J. Valenti S chool of Communic ation,

Universit y of Houston, Houst on, TX, USA

3Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact,

School of Comm unication, Nor thwestern

Universit y, Evanston, IL, USA

Correspondence

Aimei Yang, Ann enberg School for

Communication and Journalism, University

of Southern C alifornia, 3502 Wat t Way, Los

Angeles, C A 90089, USA.

Email: aimei.yang@usc.edu

Abstract

The global refugee cr isis has posed severe challenges to social st ability and sustaina-

ble development arou nd the world. While the busine ss sector is expected to sho ulder

social responsibili ty in crisis relief efforts, o ur initial assessment shows that refugee-

related corporate so cial responsibilit y (CSR) signific antly diverged across t he Global

Fortune 500 co rporations. To advance scholars and manager s' understanding of this

complex CSR issue, t his study draws upo n National Business System Theory to ex-

plore how country-leve l factors influe nce the multinational co rporations' CS R com-

munication about t he refugee issue. Spe cifically, the study f ocuses on the str ategic

cross-sector alliance s between corpor ations, NGOs, an d IGOs. The analysis sh ows

that in this controversial g lobal crisis, the following fac tors of corporations' countri es-

of-origin can significantly affect the level of c ross-sector CSR all iances: democrac y

levels, economic ineq uality levels, and u nemployment rates . Findings of this stu dy

provide practi cal guidelines th at can help managers to anticipate societal ex pecta-

tions when dealing wi th controversial social is sues in an internationa l setting. Our

findings could also assist policymaker s, NGOs, and IGO s to better design st rategies

to mobilize the corporat e resources.