The expanding role of corporations in general and multinational corporations in particular has helped rekindle a discussion on the social role of business. Although reminiscent of the social advocacy of the 1970s, the current debate is fundamentally different in many respects. Today the focus is more on issues of corporate responsibility, with multinational corporations increasingly seen not as mere agents of profit and technological change, but as the driving force behind globalisation itself.
Globalisation is a two-sided question.
On the one hand, it holds out the prospect of a sustained cycle of economic growth and development, with great benefits for developed and developing countries alike. But on the other hand, globalisation also highlights the basic asymmetries between developed and developing countries. In fact, it is often of immediate benefit to the former more than to the latter. Developing countries, in particular the major emerging market economies, have undertaken far-ranging reforms in recent years, mostly so as to be able to take advantage of globalisation. Hitherto inaccessible markets have opened up to foreign direct investment and protected industries have embraced competition as essential to a healthy, growing economy.