The paper discusses multinational enterprises (MNEs) socio-political behavior in a foreign market. In specific, the aim is to increase the understanding of how service MNEs from the ICT (information communication technology) industry, through social innovation projects oriented to improve public service in cities, deal with society and public officials in Brazil. A conceptual framework containing the four concepts cooperation, legitimacy, commitment and knowledge is applied for the analysis. Based on a single case the paper illustrates cross border activities where MNEs from Sweden, Spain and China join effort with local actors to strengthen their competitive market position. Our results reveal that an important strategy used by service MNEs is to get involved in cooperative social innovation projects involving business and socio-political actors. Successful cooperation is partially explained by the managements’ ability to incorporate the business resources with the needs of the socio-political actors. The key implication is that extensive public-private networking is needed even when MNEs enjoy an established position in a foreign market.