Friday, January 5, 2024: 8:50 AM
Franciscan C (Hilton Union Square)
The presentation focuses on the explicit cooperation that crystallized between foreign
capital and domestic entrepreneurs to confront the existential threat of communist
insurgency in the 1960s. The Creole Petroleum Corporation, Venezuela's biggest oil
producer and the main subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey in the
country, considered corporate social responsibility as the best line of action for the
private sector to confront political radicalism in Venezuela. By addressing the social
problems faced by Venezuelans, businesses would re-legitimize the role of the free
enterprise system in any modern society. To achieve that end, Creole exerted direct
influence over the successful adoption of corporate social responsibility policies by
Venezuelan entrepreneurs. In turn, domestic company leaders like Eugenio Mendoza
galvanized the business class behind this corporate social agenda. He and other
business owners guaranteed its success in the long-term through the creation of the
Voluntary Dividend for the Community in 1964. The non-profit became the first national
corporate social responsibility association in the world, spreading its organizational
model to other continents. The institution also offers an innovative perspective on the
mechanisms that Latin American business owners employed to combat perceived
threats during the Cold War. In the case of Venezuela, the Voluntary Dividend
contributed to strengthening democracy by supporting reformist administrations and
combating political extremism through private social investments. Finally, the Voluntary
Dividend constituted the crowning achievement of the Creole Petroleum Corporation's
agenda of promoting the socio-economic development of Venezuela. The firm began
cultivating this business philosophy in the mid-1930s through investments in the social
welfare of its workers, as well as the communities surrounding the petroleum camps.
capital and domestic entrepreneurs to confront the existential threat of communist
insurgency in the 1960s. The Creole Petroleum Corporation, Venezuela's biggest oil
producer and the main subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey in the
country, considered corporate social responsibility as the best line of action for the
private sector to confront political radicalism in Venezuela. By addressing the social
problems faced by Venezuelans, businesses would re-legitimize the role of the free
enterprise system in any modern society. To achieve that end, Creole exerted direct
influence over the successful adoption of corporate social responsibility policies by
Venezuelan entrepreneurs. In turn, domestic company leaders like Eugenio Mendoza
galvanized the business class behind this corporate social agenda. He and other
business owners guaranteed its success in the long-term through the creation of the
Voluntary Dividend for the Community in 1964. The non-profit became the first national
corporate social responsibility association in the world, spreading its organizational
model to other continents. The institution also offers an innovative perspective on the
mechanisms that Latin American business owners employed to combat perceived
threats during the Cold War. In the case of Venezuela, the Voluntary Dividend
contributed to strengthening democracy by supporting reformist administrations and
combating political extremism through private social investments. Finally, the Voluntary
Dividend constituted the crowning achievement of the Creole Petroleum Corporation's
agenda of promoting the socio-economic development of Venezuela. The firm began
cultivating this business philosophy in the mid-1930s through investments in the social
welfare of its workers, as well as the communities surrounding the petroleum camps.