Corporate social responsibility initiatives: issue-specific in the context of Lithuania

ENCorporate social responsibility (CSR) is still an evolving paradigm in new European Union (EU) member states. Despite the same half-of-a-century experience of Soviet planned economy, different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds of new EU community members propose respective cases for discussion of newly developing businesses and CSR. Soviet business in Lithuania had been addressed as a phenomenon, which seemed inconsistent with the political and economic system, but certainly used to be characterized by business terms from the free world. The originators of capitalism of the planned economy, based on prior Lithuanian traditions and concepts, supported by their self and shaped by the environment, had brought many imperfections in the early post-Soviet economic development processes, sometimes without realizing it in line with shortcomings next to the benefits. This research aims to elucidate the issue specific context of Lithuania, which has historically formed particular fundamentals of the very first CSR initiatives even before the “top-bottom” pressure from the EU. On the other hand, there is proposed a discussion on tremendous input made by international organizations, .i.e. EU and UNDP, which firstly occurred on institutional agenda and afterwards was followed by number of CSR initiatives, implemented together with government, business and NGOs. Final discussion and conclusion emphasize the crucial importance of the continuity of key CSR initiatives in Lithuania and gives several insights for future CSR development.