Corporate Social Responsibility in Indonesia: Historical Experiences, 1900s-1950s

This paper queries the general view that CSR perceptions and practices were entirely new to Indonesia until the country’s 2007 Corporate Law made CSR compulsory. The paper finds that foreign-owned firms already experimented with forms of CSR during 1905-1911. There are few indications of the motivations of foreign firms and their managers in Indonesia to engage in CSR, but the principal factors seem to have been practical reasons and humanitarian concerns. From the 1910s to well into the 1950s, foreign-owned firms extended CSR-type social benefits and amenities to their employees and to the communities in the areas where they operated. It is unclear whether locally-owned companies replicated such practices. After 1958, most foreign firms were nationalised and converted to state-owned enterprises and it is unclear whether they continued their CSR-type practices. The paper concludes that CSR was only new to Indonesia during the 2000s as a concept, not as a management practice.