Uneasy Alliances: Lessons Learned from Partnerships Between Businesses and NGOs in the context of CSR Dima Jamali Tamar Keshishian ABSTRACT. Interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has proliferated in academic and business circles alike. In the context of CSR, the spotlight has tradi- tionally focused on the role of the private sector partic- ularly in view of its wealth and global reach. Other actors have recently begun to assume more visible roles in the context of CSR, including Non-governmental organi- zations (NGOs) which have acquired increasing promi- nence on the socio-economic landscape. This article examines five partnerships between businesses and NGOs in a developing country context that fall in the realm of CSR. The article starts with a literature review, delin- eating foundational underpinnings that have to be care- fully designed and crafted to promote the success of collaborative ventures. An empirical study of five selected partnerships between businesses and NGOs in Lebanon is then presented, allowing to derive interesting insights into types of existing alliances, their relational characteristics as well as salient factors considered most determinant of success or failure in this regard. KEY WORDS: Corporate social responsibility (CSR), collaborative ventures, business nonprofit alliances, part- nerships, developing countries, Lebanon Introduction In a dynamic and complex milieu, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has attracted increasing atten- tion in academic and business circles. Corporations have become powerful because of the increase in their size, the large number of people they employ, the buying and selling power they have in relation to suppliers and distributors, respectively, and the impact they have on customers through pricing strategies/ practices and quality of their products. The outcomes and processes of the operations of these corporations, such as environmental impact, various depictions of employee maltreatment/injustice (as in the case of Wal-Mart), and the bearing they have on the societies where they operate have come under scrutiny, par- ticularly in the wake of large scale scandals in Europe and the USA – e.g., the scandals of Parmalat, Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and Tyco (Greenfield, 2004). At the same time that corporations have gained power, their stakeholders have also become influ- ential. Efficient financial markets allow investors to buy and sell their stocks freely, customers have become informed and demanding, and free trade and anti-trust regulations have intensified competition. Stakeholder advocacy groups have also gained visi- bility in different contexts. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have in specific been active in recent years, more attuned to CSR, and more willing to collaborate with businesses in pursuit of common goals. They have attenuated their con- frontational adversarial style, exhibiting a more favorable collaborative inclination in the context of CSR (Conley and Williams, 2005). Their role has specifically been accentuated/brought to the fore at a time when governments have failed to solve social problems and have diminished in scope (Smith, 2003). Globalization on the other hand has given rise to multinationals that have revenues larger than the GDPs of the developing countries where they operate and that are more powerful than the gov- ernments of those countries. Hence, the impact these companies can have, constructive or destruc- tive, on the communities where they operate. In most developing countries, governments are either absent, corrupt, or lack the resources necessary to act in favor of the ‘‘greater good’’. With dwindling Journal of Business Ethics (2009) 84:277–295 Ó Springer 2008 DOI 10.1007/s10551-008-9708-1