Why do firms give – altruism , advertising or stakeholder management? Development of a framework to understand corporate philanthropy and its application to business involvement with the Arts in the UK.

This paper proposes a framework for analysing corporate philanthropy along the dimensions of business/ society interest and internal/ external stakeholder focus. The utility of the framework is then tested in order to understand business involvement with the Arts in the UK. The framework identifies three broad types of involvement – advertisers, legitimisers and stakeholder management – the last group with the potential to be regarded as corporate citizens.