Previous editions

Hosting institution: The Sustainability of Business in Society (SBS) Chair and the IESEG Center for Organizational Responsibility (ICOR) at IESEG School of Management,

Dates: June 18-19 

Link to the website event

Theme:  Business, peace and sustainability : navigating systemic challenges.
The complex interplay between business, peace, and sustainability forms a multifaceted system. This involves the interconnection of economic activities, ecological care, intergroup cohesion, and social stability. Comprehending and effectively navigating these interrelated components is crucial for promoting enduring well-being and prosperity at local, regional and global level.

In violence-affected areas and post-conflict zones, companies and entrepreneurs can contribute to foster economic growth and societal development, contributing to community upliftment and peace, while also addressing sustainability challenges, including the provision of support to vulnerable populations like refugees and the maintenance of local ecosystems. However, under the guise of economic development, there is also a risk of negative impacts associated with business practices in conflict-affected areas, such as misusing resources, exacerbating inequality, deepening social divides, and fuelling conflict through exploitative practices or 'peacewashing' initiatives, where businesses claim positive contributions despite evidence to the contrary.

For scholars in management and organization studies, these dynamics offer an important ground for investigation. In this context, emerging research is increasingly directed towards how businesses can navigate these complex environments, adopting strategies and practices that are not only economically sound but also ethically, socially, and environmentally responsible. This includes a focus on business practices that can generate sustainable value and empower or support refugees and other marginalized stakeholders, ensuring that business operations contribute constructively to the regions and social and environmental ecosystems they operate in. Such research is vital for improving our understanding of the systemic challenges at the crossroads of business, peace and sustainability and for developing frameworks and guidelines that help businesses make responsible decisions, contributing positively to both economic welfare and societal wellbeing in violence-affected regions and in other areas directly or indirectly impacted by conflicts. 

Keynote speakers:

Professors John KATSOS (American University of Sharjah) and Jay JOSEPH (American University of Beirut), addressed the “Roles of business in peacebuilding”.

Farah KODEIH (IESEG School of Management) and Rashedur CHOWDHURY (Essex Business School (EBS)) shared their learnings on their research “Studying marginalized stakeholders: Learnings from doing research in ‘extreme’ context” 

Hosting institution: Rotterdam School of Management, Rotterdam (The Netherlands) 

Dates: June 22-23

Link to the event website.

Theme:  How to make the world a more inclusive place? At the beginning of a winter during which, even in rich countries, many families will have to choose whether to heat or to eat, we need more attention to inclusive prosperity. Under the umbrella term inclusive prosperity, we aim to enable as many people as possible to benefit from increasing prosperity, whilst addressing the negative consequences for the planet. Considering the undeniable tensions between some of the Sustainable Development Goals we are facing with our mission, there are no easy solutions to the increasingly complex puzzle humanity is facing.

Keynote speaker:

Constanze Binder, is an associate Professor in Philosophy at the Erasmus School of Philosophy, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, (The Netherlands). His research focuses on interface of philosophy and economics, with a particular focus on the analysis of freedom, responsibility and distributive justice in political philosophy and welfare economics, as well as on the ethics of individual and collective decision making in politics and economics. 
 

Hosting institution: Audencia, Nantes (France) 

Dates: June 20-21

Programme: available here.

Theme: A conference about how to change the world? There are no easy or instant solutions to the global challenges we are facing. Real and equitable transition to a more sustainable world necessitates continued and accelerated actions in multiple domains. It requires shifting behaviors and thinking, building new infrastructure and systems, and keeping the pressure on businesses, policymakers and transnational entities to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. To build a sustainable future, we need to call upon our imagination and creative skills. We need to think differently, see problems in new ways, and develop innovative
responses.
This year’s seminar wants to examine the art of sustainably in all its aspects, forms and meanings. It is a call for boldness and imagination but also a call to reconnect to our emotions and to nature, and move towards the system changes that are required. 

Keynote speakers: 

Everything you wanted to know about organization theory and were afraid to ask Joseph Beuys By André Spicer, Professor of Organizational Behavior and the interim Dean of Bayes Business School in London, UK.

Nomadic Discourses: The Role of the Humanities in Posthuman Epistemology By Douglas Atkinson, Free University of Brussels, Belgium

Hosting institution: University of Namur, Namur (Belgium) 

Dates: June 17-18

Clla to application: available here.

Theme: Business and Society in Times of Crises: (Re)searching for New Directions? Global societal and environmental problems like climate change, inequality, and mass-migration, as well as digitalization and dematerialization of human relationships, all call for attention. Given the increasing power of business in a globalized world and the resulting societal impacts - both positive social, environmental, and political engagement and negative externalities-, there is an urgent need to scrutinize the role of business in terms of contribution to the transition of society towards sustainability. To address these critical challenges, new ways of thinking and doing are required. Therefore, there is an urgent call for research to develop bold ideas and adopt less conventional methodologies involving social sciences, management and technology. This year’s seminar wants to explore novel approaches across the corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, and social innovation agenda to understand how the aforementioned issues might redefine responsibilities, roles and opportunities of both business and society.

Keynote speakers: 

 Prof. Jean-Pascal Gond, head of ETHOS at Cass Business School, UK

 Dr. Thomas Roulet  from University of Cambridge

Hosting institution: VU Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Business Research Institute 

Dates: June 19-21

More information about the programme here.

Theme: Corporate Social Responsibility, Grand Challenges and Sustainability: The Business of Society?!, Production, and Consumption. 

Keynote speakers: 

• Prof. Mette Morsing from Stockholm School of Economics
• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

Hosting institution: The Chair of Corporate Social Responsibility of the University of Mannheim Business School 

Dates: June 20-22

Link to the website event.

Theme: The Transformation towards Sustainable Business: Empowering Stakeholders for Sustainable Innovation, Production, and Consumption. Given the increasing power of business in a globalized world and the resulting consequences which include both positive social, environmental, and political engagement as well as negative externalities, there is an urgent need to rethink the role of organizational stakeholders. Social innovation by empowered stakeholders in terms of more sustainable production and consumption is required and the question of how these empowerment processes can be supported moves center stage. This year’s seminar will have a specific focus on novel approaches across the CSR, sustainability, and social innovation agenda by different types of business-related actors that lead to a redefinition of their responsibilities, roles, and opportunities for businesses and their constituencies to foster the emergence of meaningful, renewed forms of prosperity.
 

Keynote speakers: 

• Andrew Crane, Professor of Business and Society as well as Director of the Center for Business Organizations and Society at the University of Bath School of Management discuss about the seminar’s theme “transformation towards Sustainable Business: Empowering Stakeholders for Sustainable Innovation, Production, and Consumption”

• Sankar Sen, Lawrence and Carol Zicklin Professor of Corporate Integrity and Governance at Baruch College spoke about the seminar’s theme “transformation towards Sustainable Business: Empowering Stakeholders for Sustainable Innovation, Production, and Consumption”

• CB Bhattacharya, Zoffer Chair of Sustainability and Ethics at the Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration, University of Pittsburgh, gave a dinner speech on the topic “Engaging Employees to Create a Sustainable Business

Hosting institution: IÉSEG Center for Organizational Responsibility (ICOR) at IÉSEG School of Management (France)

Dates: June 7-9

Programme: available here.

Themes: Corporate Social Responsibility in Uncertain Times. In the face of damage or shocks to the current socio-political and economic system, businesses and their multiple constituencies are faced with increasing social, environmental and political challenges. In these uncertain times, novel efforts across the CSR, sustainability and social innovation agenda by different types of business-related actors are required to lead to a redefinition of the responsibilities, roles and opportunities for businesses and their constituencies to foster the emergence of meaningful, renewed forms of prosperity.

Keynote speaker: 
Jeremy Moon, Velux Professor of Corporate Sustainability at the Copenhagen Business School Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (cbsCSR) discussing about “Visible Hands: Government and International CSR”.

 

Hosting institution: ICHEC Brussels Management School, in Brussels, Belgium. 

 
Dates: June 23-24

Programme: available here.

Themes: With this interdisciplinary seminar, we aim at bringing together scholars sharing a common interest for corporate responsibility and business & society and originating from various business-related research fields including strategy, organization studies, marketing, accounting, finance and sociology.

Keynote speaker:
Frank Boons, professor at the University of Manchester, UK made a session on responsible business models and inspired participants to question the capacity of these new models to overcome the limitations and dysfunctioning of existing tools and models.

 

Hosting institution:  IÉSEG and ICOR

Dates: June 11 - 12

Programme: available here.

Keynote speaker: 
Rodolphe DURAND, professor at HEC Paris, France  speaking about “Organizations, Strategy and Society: The Orgology of Disorganized Worlds “
 

Hosting institution: Audencia School of Management, Nantes (France)

Dates: June 12 - 13 prior to a Doctoral Summer School  from June 10 to 11.

Theme: Global Responsibility, CSR, and Business & Society.

Keynote speakers discussion about "Laser, Torch, or Floodlight? Choosing Your Tools to Examine CSR "

• Franck De Bakker, VU Amsterdam 
• Andrew Gershoff, University of Texas, McCombs School of Business 
• Katerina Nicolopoulou, University of Strathclyde 

Hosting institution: The Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School and the Louvain CSR Network of the Louvain School of Management with the support of La Fondation Bernheim and EABIS in keeping with the CSR Days organised in 2010.

Dates: February 15-16,  

Programme: available here. 

*An Executive seminar on Leadership for sustainability was also organized on February 16.
**This seminar was followed by the 2012 Philippe de Woot Award Ceremony. 

Theme: Shaping the Future of CSR research. The common point between all topics discussed was Corporate Social responsibility (CSR), considered from various disciplines (including but not limited to management, law, sociology, philosophy, economics, political science, and social psychology).
Programme : available here  .