ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the case study approach, the case selection and the research design. The assessment of Corporate Citizenship (CC) at the five Swiss MNCs has been conducted by drawing a fairly clear line between the phase of data collection and its analysis. The five Swiss MNCs that qualify are: ABB, Credit Suisse (CS), Nestle, Novartis and UBS. The Swiss Government, as well as some Swiss MNCs, were among the main supporters of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) initiative from its inception. The assessment tool is applied empirically here to establish the embeddedness of CC at the level of the firm, and so the unit of analysis is individual companies. While the analysis captures corporate structures, procedures, functions and the corporation’s environment, it does not assess CC at the level of individuals. The analysis of Swiss participants would be expected to reveal models of good practice models for CC implementation.
