Corporate Social Responsibility in Cuba

Abstract

This chapter draws upon data collected over several research trips to Cuba undertaken between 2013 and 2017 that evidences how the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is understood there. Firstly, some background on Cuba is provided, describing the island nation’s economic journey from the status of a free enterprise oriented US ‘neo-colony’ in the first half of the twentieth century, through several decades of strong Soviet inspired state control after the 1959 revolution, before it gradually adopted what has been termed a ‘market socialist’ model after Fidel Castro left the Presidency in 2007. The chapter then presents a snapshot of the fledgling state of CSR in Cuba as understood and practised in newly licensed private small and medium-sized enterprises and state-business partnerships. The kinds of practices that are seen as belonging under the CSR umbrella are compared. The chapter acknowledges the unique political and economic conditions in Cuba and the problems that arise in applying concepts, measures and definitions which have been formulated in the context of Western economies. The chapter therefore provides an insight into how CSR is constructed in a country that has adopted cultural norms of solidarity and collectivist ethics. This is contrasted with the way the concept is understood and operationalized in liberal capitalist countries with paradigmatically ‘neoliberal’ and individualist values, where the norm of self-interest prevails in economic discourse. Finally, we argue that this case study of CSR in a highly regulated economy offers a valuable input to the on-going debate over the merits and demerits of strong state regulation in terms of achieving socially and environmentally responsible business practices.