Woke-washing and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Global South: A Structured Literature Review

Sammanfattning: Woke-washing gives companies the possibility to take advantage of the consumers social, environmental, and political values to improve business. In contrast to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and green-washing, woke-washing is a new term in the global north andthere is a lack of understanding to what extent it is relevant to the global south contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore how, and to what extent woke-washing arguments are usedwithin the published peer-review literature focusing on CSR discourse among business firms with operations in developing countries. The study was conducted through a structured literature review and an interpretative content analysis, and the results were discussed with thehelp of intersectionality and the decolonial approach of border thinking. This study concludes that arguments related to woke-washing are to be found within the literature on companies CSRoperations in developing countries. However, the power structures that affects who conduct the “washing” vary across developing countries. The woke-washing phenomenon that connects to the arguments in the literature shows that through CSR-initiatives companies, operating indeveloping countries, try to satisfy consumers. Since the values of the consumer in the global north differs from the values in the global south, the consumer from the global north alsocontributes to woke-washing. This is not true for all CSR-operations by businesses in the global south, however, it is a large enough occurrence that the discussion needs more attention in future research.