# What is the purpose of responsible business? > In 2019 the British Academy and 181 American chief executives said within months of each other that a company exists to serve society, not only its shareholders. STAKES asks what that promise has been worth in the seven countries where it is hardest to keep. | | | | --- | --- | | Funder | Research Council of Norway | | Project number | 353416 | | Scheme | FRIPRO Researcher Project for Scientific Renewal | | Term | 1 Jul 2025 to 29 Jun 2029 | | Host | Centre for Global Sustainability (GLOBE/SUM), University of Oslo | | Lead | Jason Miklian | ## The seven cases - **Colombia: Industrial technology** (Fieldwork 2026). Colombian firms paid farmers to leave coca and hired ex-combatants. Ten years on we ask whether the peace dividend reached anyone outside the project maps. - **Lebanon: Pharmaceuticals** (Fieldwork 2026). Lebanese firms are woven into the parties and sects that govern where the state does not. This case follows what social repair looks like when a company is buying back trust it spent itself. - **DR Congo: Brewing and beverages** (Fieldwork 2026). A Dutch parent company's Congolese subsidiary paid illicit taxes to rebel groups for years. We ask whether the policy that followed changed the conflict footprint or only the reporting. - **Bangladesh: Apparel sourcing** (Fieldwork 2027). A Swedish retailer has argued publicly for a living wage inside a sourcing structure that makes the wage unenforceable. The case asks whether one large buyer can move an industry it does not own. - **Mozambique: Liquefied natural gas** (Fieldwork 2027). The clearest case in the study of what an unmet corporate promise costs the people who believed it, and of how a company manages the fallout when its presence becomes part of the conflict. - **Ukraine: Consumer goods** (Fieldwork 2026). Business ethics scholars once argued that firms present on both sides of a war are the ones best placed to broker peace. Ukraine is where that argument meets a full-scale invasion. - **Indonesia: Palm oil** (Fieldwork 2028). A German discount grocer is among Europe's largest buyers of Sumatran palm oil, on a seam where one EU regime restricts imports and EU trade negotiators work to expand them. ## Eight questions 1. How do varied interpretations of business purpose influence corporate action in fragile societies? 2. How are corporate social purpose initiatives understood and evaluated by local communities? 3. How do European regulators set the corporate purpose agenda, and to what ends? 4. What societal ventures do companies deliver, and how do they land on communities? 5. What do CEOs, boards and country managers actually decide, and why? 6. Where is the corporate purpose agenda gender sensitive, and where is it not? 7. Can heightened social purpose improve a firm's strategy in fragile settings? 8. What does an expanded stakeholder theory tell us about grand challenges? ## Who is doing this - Jason Miklian, Principal investigator, University of Oslo - Sarah Cechvala, Postdoctoral fellow, University of Oslo - Angelika Rettberg, Professor of political science, Universidad de los Andes - John Katsos, Professor of sustainability and law, American University of Sharjah - Harry Van Buren III, Patten Chair of business ethics, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga - Jamal Maalouf, Assistant professor, American University of Sharjah - Mark van Dorp, Research fellow, London School of Economics --- URL: https://stakesproject.org/ Language: en Updated: 2026-08-02 Supported by the Research Council of Norway, project 353416 (FRIPRO). Hosted at the Centre for Global Sustainability (GLOBE/SUM), University of Oslo, 2025 to 2029. CC BY 4.0.