Abstract

Heightened interest in business-conflict linkages has materialized with the advent of globalization and the rise of multinational corporations (MNCs). We examine business-conflict linkages in this article both theoretically and empirically. Theoretically, we examine three streams of the relevant academic literature: the academic business and society literature, the practitioner business and society literature, and the international business political behavior literature and argue that there is room and indeed need for their cross fertilization and integration in research on business-conflict linkages. We then consolidate the three streams into a matrix that reconciles relevant dimen- sions and which can serve as a typology of intervention strategies of business firms in conflict zones. Empirically, the article makes use of the integrative matrix in the context of an interpretive research methodology to examine the perceptions and behavioral orientations of a sample of MNCs in Lebanon in an actual conflict context.