Corporate Social Responsibility in Bolivia: Corporate Social Responsibility in Bolivia: Context, Policy, and Reality

Nowadays, Bolivia is experiencing big social and economic changes. Due to strong economic growth and deep political changes, the Bolivian society has high expectations for a better future. However, historical social injustices, weak government institutions, corruption, poverty, unenforced regulations, low industrial productivity, and high economic informality are hindering that future. In developing countries where weak institutions do not address social problems sufficiently, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can serve as an alternative way to address social problems through corporate actions, rather than government actions, that seek to minimize harm to, and maximize benefits for, both disadvantaged social groups and the environment. Currently, private and public firms are attempting to use CSR practices to improve Bolivian people’s lives. However, as a developing country, CSR practices still are developing from philanthropy to sustainable practices. In this chapter, we argue how Bolivia’s specific country-specific context has shaped CSR practices in Bolivian private and public firms. Our analysis of contextual influences takes into consideration Bolivia’s situation along political, historical, socio-cultural, geographical, environmental, regulatory, institutional, business, economic and technological dimensions. Amongst other results, we find that most public and private firms use philanthropy as their main type of CSR practice. However, as we find through interviews, some firms are moving towards sustainable business practices as a more comprehensive type of CSR practices. We discuss Bolivian cases of successful CSR initiatives undertaken by private and public firms and outline future challenges for the success of CSR programs.