Journal of International Business Ethics Vol.2 No.1 2009 59 REFORMING THE INTEGRATION-RESPONSIVENESS FRAMEWORK: A BUSINESS ETHICS PERSPECTIVE Johanna Kujala Department of Management Studies, University of Tampere, Finland Pasi Sajasalo School of Business and Economics, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Abstract: This article examines adverse effects of multinational enterprises’ global strategy on a local community utilizing recent developments of a Finnish electronics manufacturing service firm as an illustrative case. The shortcomings of one of the most recognized global strategy frameworks, the integration-responsiveness framework are discussed from an ethical viewpoint, and an extended view of responsiveness in the global strategy context offered. Keywords: integration-responsiveness framework, entrepreneurship, multi-national enterprise, corporate social responsibility, business ethics OWNERSHIP CHANGE AND EFFECT ON COMPANY CSR At the beginning of the twenty-first century, globalization and internationalization are praised in the boardrooms of large enterprises as the motors of present and future success, and the ideology of shareholder value provides both the underlying motivation for international expansion as well as the prime means of measuring success. However, the shareholder value thinking provides only one perspective on business in today’s world. In this paper, we will take a very different viewpoint springing from lines of thought found within business ethics literature (e.g. Barnett & Ronald, 1974; De George, 1993; Donaldson, 1989), stakeholder thinking (Carroll, 1981; Freeman, 1984; Freeman & Gilbert, 1987; Näsi, 1995) and corporate social responsibility discourse (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2003; Zyglidopoulos, 2002). Consequently, we will examine ownership change and its effect for the acquired firm as well as outcomes for the local community, the operating base of the acquired firm. Our story may well turn out to be a typical one in the future: an entrepreneurial firm (Mintzberg, 1989) expands rapidly while remaining deeply rooted in its home base. Getting acquired by a multinational enterprise (MNE), however, changes the setting of the acquired firm drastically. For the new foreign owner, the history of the acquired firm, its hero stories, the culture or the connections to the surrounding local community bear less significance. Thus, it is easy to send dismissal announcements to employees, which indirectly affect the whole local community. This paper describes the transformation process of a locally-oriented yet regionally expanded firm, into a part of a global firm (Ghoshal & Nohria, 1993) as a result of strategic acquisitive move of a MNE, and the consequent mounting of pressures related to corporate globalization formerly unknown to the acquired firm. The adverse effects of the globalization of business and especially the effects of the central actors’ actions driving the globalization development, the MNEs and their global strategies on local peripheral communities are discussed.