ABSTRACT
Just as Chapter 3 exposed caricatures of the poor, so too are there caricatures of business in general, and multinational for-profit enterprises (MNEs) in particular, that skew our thinking about their roles in poverty alleviation. Distancing the for-profit venture from such biases is, therefore, crucial to imagining new and innovative solutions. In this chapter, we will show that making a profit while simultaneously and effectively working to alleviate poverty are not contradictory. By appealing to the phenomenon of mental models, an idea we developed in Chapter 3, we will show how the separation thesis and some contemporary conceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have conspired to render inconceivable the idea that for-profit institutions could address global poverty. Only when we overcome these biases will we be able to explore productively the concept of profitable partnerships between MNEs and communities, institutions and other local and global partners seeking similar solutions. If MNEs continue, instead, to be characterized solely as exploiters or commoditized donors, and if they internalize that characterization (Gioia & Thomas, 1996) rather than defining themselves as innovative partners invested in a shared future, long-term outcomes for those enterprises and for those in poverty will not be promising.
