Community and government effects on CSR : case studies of mining on Bolivia's Altiplano

Abstract

While corporate social responsibility has long been used as a business tool for marketing and risk management, more recently the scope of corporate social responsibility has expanded to include the sustainable development of poor countries. However, the development benefits of corporate social responsibility are debated and some observe that the contribution of corporate social responsibility will depend not only on the firm, but also up on a range of other actors that together make up the context in which corporate social responsibility takes place. To explore this idea, the effect of local community and host government dynamics is examined for three mining operations on Bolivia's impoverished Altiplano. It is found that the host government and local communities both encourage and assist and discourage and impede corporate social responsibility's contribution to sustainable development.