Poverty Reduction through Empowerment for Sustainable Development: A Proactive Strategy of Corporate Social Responsibility

Targeting the serious poverty problem of the world, this study proposes a proactive strategy for enterprises to fulfill their corporate social responsibility (CSR). The study interprets the cause of poverty from the perspectives of human capital theory and labor market theory, and examines the business functions that can be deployed in helping the poor from an empowerment theory perspective. The study includes the development of a model for enterprises to help poverty reduction and illustrates how this model has been implemented using the case study method. The results show that from an individual perspective, corporations can enhance the working abilities of the poor by sharing technologies and resources and providing skills training and education. From a social/structural perspective, corporations can establish poverty reduction businesses to provide poor people with job opportunities, or introduce social network resources to assist poor people in starting a business. Copyright (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment