Combining Corporate Expectations with People’s Needs: Hewlett-Packard’s Social Investment Program in Asia
Patrick Kilby, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University
Corporate Social Responsibility takes many forms, including compensation for actual or perceived wrongs, the sourcing of supplies from certain groups and communities (as Body Shop does), and philanthropic programs (like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). This paper will examine the evaluation by applied anthropologists of a Hewlett-Packard social investment program that supports the training of micro-entrepreneurs in ten countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The key issues that emerge are: differing expectations on the part of the company and the local community; the relevance of the investment and flexibility of approaches; and the evaluation paradigm itself.
