New Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Caribbean

This paper aims at shedding light on the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Caribbean region. Two main reasons make this effort worthwhile: firstly, through the practice of CSR, the private sector can play a decisive role in addressing some of the development challenges that we currently observe in the region, and secondly, there has been relatively little research to date on CSR in the Caribbean, considering that most of the existing literature on Latin America and the Caribbean deals mainly with the former. In the first part of the paper we provide an overview of the practice of CSR by the private sector in three of the main economies of the region (Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados), highlighting the existing gaps. In the second part, based on these results, we draw some conclusions at the regional level and identify some key elements that would increase the effectiveness of CSR as a development tool for the region. We refer to these elements as Strategic Drivers of CSR in the Caribbean.

Keywords: Corporate Social Reponsibility, Sustainable Development

JEL Classification: M14, O18

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Balboni, Fabio and Balboni, Fabio and Charles-Soverall, Wayne and Levy, Brigette, New Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Caribbean (Dec 2007). Caribbean Development Review, No. 1, pp. 17-36, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1348278