In October & November 2005 the Irish organisation Business in the Community conducted a survey of consumer attitudes towards corporate responsibility. The findings are based on answers from a representative sample of 1,002 adults in the Republic of Ireland. The survey concludes that it is only when individuals are in possession of knowledge on responsible business practice that they can differentiate between one company and another. “Companies who go the extra mile will be chosen over those whose efforts remain unseen”. By being more responsive to the views of customers, investors and employees, and being seen to be more responsive, companies unlock potential for value creation, innovation, growth, risk avoidance and an enhanced reputation. In this way, corporate responsibility becomes a driver for better business performance, drawing attention to the leaders in the field and increasing profit share, while contributing to sustainable development at the same time.

Business in the Community Ireland is a non-profit organisation specializing in advice and guidance to leading companies in Ireland on corporate responsibility and corporate community involvement.

For further information on the survey, contact Darina Eades, Principal Consultant on CR.

In Europe today, 20 million people are unemployed and more than double this number are economically inactive because of disability and early retirement. To build a more dynamic economy, Europe needs to be able to utilise the energy and talent of these people.

Microsoft is a founding member of the European Alliance on Skills for Employability. The Alliance shares a strong commitment to support the EU’s Jobs and Growth Partnership and has pledged to spend more than €60 million to help train and provide access to technology to 20 million Europeans by 2010. By promoting business-to-business partnerships and collaborations for sustainable growth, jobs and competitiveness the goal is to facilitate the provision of skills training for employability to disadvantaged groups: unemployed workers, older at-risk workers, and people with disabilities.

With each partner contributing its core competencies, programmes and resources toward a common goal, the Alliance has the potential to offer new opportunities to millions of people throughout Europe.

The Alliance partners are the e-Skills Certification Consortium and its members Microsoft, Cisco, European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) Foundation and EXIN, together with CompTIA, Randstad and State Street Corporation.

Click here to learn more.

The Danish Commerce and Companies Agency has decided to launch a Research Panel on CSR in SMEs as part of its People & Profit project. The Panel will be headed by Mette Morsing, Director of CBS Center for Corporate Values and Responsibility. A benefit to be gained from the Research Panel is access to one of the most comprehensive European collections of data on CSR in SMEs so far. The Research Panel consists of 13 Danish researchers who were selected because of their research interest in CSR or SMEs or both. The members represent various CSR disciplines as well as different university environments in Denmark. The main objective of the People & Profit project is to train 12,000 managers and employees in Danish SMEs in CSR and hence increase their competitive advantage in international markets.

For more information on the People & Profit project, please visit the website.

The EABIS network continues to attract members from both academia and business, further underlining its collective profile as Europe’s leading alliance on research, education and training on CR. This quarter, EABIS was delighted to welcome Nestlé, currently the world's biggest food and beverage company. Nestlé is deeply committed to helping to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals around the world and believes that a business strategy based on high-quality food and beverage products can only be maintained by business practices based on the principles of long-term sustainable development. EABIS was also pleased to welcome the University of South Australia International Graduate School of Business (UniSA) as our first associate academic member from Australia. Currently the fastest growing MBA programme in Australia, UniSA offers different programmes in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. UniSA’s close link with business andthe community and its leadership role in Australia and Asia will add strong value to EABIS Network.

EABIS is pleased to launch a call for papers and contributions for the 5th Annual Colloquium “Corporate Sustainability, Strategic Management & the Stakeholder View of the Firm”, to be held on 11 and 12 September 2006 in Milan, Italy, hosted by the SDA Bocconi School of Management.

This event will showcase insights from academics and reflections from practitioners on the links between corporate sustainability, strategic management and stakeholder management and the extent to which companies can move from tactical or defensive reactions to an integrated strategic management approach. Focal points are indicated below:

- Strategic Management - Strategy links companies with their market (economic, financial and technological) and non-market (social, political and cultural) environments.

 - Stakeholder View of the Firm - Companies are inextricably linked to a diverse set of stakeholders in these environments and the boundaries between market and non-market factors become increasingly blurred

- Corporate Sustainability - Corporate sustainability is based on the ability of firms to generate long-term value through mutually beneficial relationships with stakeholders.

Contributions are welcomed from academics as well as reflective practitioners in business, government and civil society. Please find the Call for Papers here.

Deadline for proposals is 30 April 2006 (earlier submissions welcomed). Further information: Francesco Perrini

Microsoft South East Europe has joined CEEMAN as a new corporate member. Both Microsoft and CEEMAN have global reach, but they also believe in local specificities and the value of the potential embedded in people, their knowledge, skills and talents, and their culture in general. While business education is aimed at the improvement of managerial and leadership capabilities, Microsoft focuses on technology that is aimed at providing people with the right tools to do new and exiting things. These things are closely related and go hand-in-hand, the technology makes people more powerful, creative and innovative, while people make technology, and business in general, more human, more responsive and more responsible