­The Danish Companies and Commerce Agency (DCCA), in co-operation with Hewlett-Packard, has published a new set of guidelines for multinational companies designed to help them promote strong CSR practices, particular among smaller suppliers. The guidelines feature in the ‘Small Suppliers in Global Supply Chains - How multinational buyers can target small and medium-sized suppliers in their sustainable supply chain management’ report by the DCCA, financed by the EU Commission.

The publication was presented at a final conference in Prague, 17 January, 2008, in the framework of the European Alliance for CSR/CSR Europe's supply chain lab. The report, which assessed 15 of HP's smaller Eastern European suppliers, all 2nd tier suppliers to HP, also highlights the need for multinationals to develop a specific strategy for ensuring the cascading of CSR practices down the supply chain.

To download the full report please click here.

A group of World Economic Forum business leaders issued on Friday, January 25, a call to their peers to join collaborative efforts to strengthen public governance frameworks and institutions as a core element of their approach to corporate citizenship. Fourteen global CEOs and chairmen, representing a range of industries and regions signed a ­leadership statement calling on businesses to engage in public-private partnerships to strengthen public policies and institutional capacity at the national, regional and global levels as part of the Forum’s Global Corporate Citizenship Initiative in partnership with EABIS Affiliate Member AccountAbility, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative and the International Business Leaders Forum.

Signatories of the leadership statement include the Chairman/CEOs of Microsoft Corporation, Ayala Corporation, Diageo, Merck & Co., Pakistan State Oil Company (PSO), Tata Industries, The Coca-Cola Company and the big four accounting firms, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The outcome of the project, entitled Partnering to Strengthen Public Governance – The Leadership Challenge for CEOs and Boards, is a CEO-signed leadership statement and supporting report, which provide a roadmap for business leaders seeking to work with governments and other stakeholders to improve the enabling environment for sustainable economic growth and development.

In launching this effort, the signatories call for a new frontier in corporate global citizenship and a new era in public-private partnership, recognizing the increasing convergence of public and private sector agendas.

To download the Partnering to Strengthen Public Governance report please click here.

To read the Press Release from AccountAbility please click here.

­The ­organisers of the 2008 joint conference of the International Conference on Advances in Management and the International Conference on Social Intelligence (July 16-19, 2008 in Boston) invite interested participants to submit summaries of their papers (1200-1500 words) by February 15.

The annual series, Current Topics in Management (now Vol. 13) will publish selected papers from the conference.

For additional information please visit the ICAM website www.ICAM1990.COM.

While attention to the social and environmental impacts of international business is not new, the past years have seen renewed interest due to pressing global problems such as climate change, poverty and HIV/Aids, in which firms are called upon to play a positive role, and thus contribute to more sustainable development. This applies most notably to multinational enterprises (MNEs), given their global influence and activities in which they are confronted with a range of issues, stakeholders and institutional contexts, in both home and host countries.

For MNEs, this is part of a balancing act of what can be called corporate social responsibility (CSR), in which they consider their various responsibilities: economic, legal, ethical, environmental and social. In the European context, the term triple P, or People, Planet, Profit, has also been coined to likewise point to the need for managers to focus concurrently on the social, environmental and economic dimensions of corporate activity, in order to help shape the (sustainable) future of societies worldwide. It is sometimes suggested that MNEs’ CSR activities are becoming increasingly strategic, in the sense that they affect the core business of the firm and its growth, profitability and survival. In other words, CSR is moving from public affairs to a core strategic activity. However, even if true, this is likely to be applicable only under certain conditions, depending on issue, stakeholder, country, industry and firm specific factors.

The international dimension of these questions is extremely relevant, but has not yet been addressed systematically in international business research. Corporate social responsibility and sustainable development provide fertile areas in which both existing international business theories can be tested, and from which new insights into the dynamics of the interaction between MNEs and their national and international contexts can be induced.

This includes for example, the exact workings of the interactions between Ownership or Firm-Specific Advantages, and Locational or Country-Specific Advantages, and whether or under what conditions CSR (components) may create competitive (dis)advantages at different locations. This special issue aims to publish papers on CSR and sustainable development that are embedded in international business literature, and aim to contribute to our field as indicated above.

Editors welcome innovative papers, both conceptual and empirical, both qualitative and quantitative, on CSR topics in relation to, for example:

• Degree and spread of internationalisation/regionalisation
• Headquarter-subsidiary relationships and subsidiary roles
• Competitive advantage, growth and development
• Firm performance
• Foreign direct investment
  
• Convergence/divergence
  
• Supply chain management, offshoring/outsourcing
  
• Networks and alliances • Mergers and acquisitions
  
• Marketing in consumer and business-to-business markets
  
• Issue management, reputation and brands
  
• Codes of conduct and labelling programmes
  
• Business-government relationships
  
• The provision of global public goods
  
• International stakeholder management
  

Submission guidelines

All paper submissions should conform to International Business Review’s standard guidelines for authors, details of which can be found at the IBR website: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ibusrev

Deadline: Manuscripts must be received by 1 June 2008

Papers for this special issue can only be submitted electronically via online submission site at http://ees.elsevier.com/ibr/ and select this “Special Issue: Sustainable Development” as the article type.

Questions about the special issue can be directed at the guest editors via e-mail: Ans Kolk, University of Amsterdam Business School, akolk@uva.nl  or Rob van Tulder, Erasmus University Rotterdam, rtulder@rsm.nl   ­

On Thursday 24th January, the wiki-platform for the revision of AccountAbility’s non-financial AA1000 Assurance Standard (AA1000AS) opened for editing and the first draft of the new edition of the AA1000 Assurance Standard (AS) was uploaded onto its wiki-platform. This starts the collaborative drafting process of the second edition which follows an extensive period of research and a series of consultations in more than a dozen countries.

AA1000AS is used by over 200 companies annually to assure their sustainability and corporate responsibility reports; it provides the basis for leading sustainability report awards programs and rating systems; and is compatible with the most used sustainability reporting frameworks. ­ Sustainability Reporting and Assurance Standards, like AA1000AS, are responding to increased demand for credible, fair and balanced information on organisations’ management and understanding of non-financial issues, information that is needed to make informed decisions about who to invest in, who to do business with, who to work for, and whose products to buy.

AccountAbility has chosen to use a collaborative wiki drafting process in order to address the key issues prevalent with all standards development processes - namely transparency and accessibility. The wiki-platform will increase the transparency of the process - as it allows users to see who has contributed what and when - but it will also guarantee the accessibility and participation from all interested parties. This online approach will reduce costs associated with participation e.g. travelling, and will ensure the process is open to thousands of individuals and organisations.

To sign-up to the wiki-process and to help set the practice benchmark for non-financial assurance for the next 4-6 years, please visit accountability.opendemocracy.net. 

There will be three periods of 60 – 90 days each for public participation where all users are able to add their comments and suggestions. The first one will run from January 24 – April 4, 2008.

­Issue 28 of the Journal of Corporate Citizenship is a special themed issue "Is Corporate Citizenship Making a Difference?", guest-edited by Ralph Hamann, Environmental Evaluation Unit, University of Cape Town/Unisa Centre for Corporate Citizenship, South Africa. All but one of the articles in this special edition were chosen from the Unisa Centre for Corporate Citizenship 2nd international symposium, which had as its theme the same question.

Corporate citizenship protagonists - whether academics or practitioners - are increasingly being challenged with regard to the relevance of corporate citizenship as a driver for global change. This special edition of directly addresses this challenge, focused on the theme 'Is corporate citizenship making a difference'?

A limited number of individual copies of are available for purchase at the price of GBP25.00/USD50.00/EUR35.00. Postage worldwide is gratis.

For more information please click here.

The Palgrave Macmillan Access All Areas campaign offers unrestricted online access to all Palgrave Macmillan journals until February 15th. A list of more than 60 journals, but also to a selection of our reference and books content is available to the public.

To access the journals please visit the Palgrave website http://www.palgrave-journals.com/accessallareas/index.html   ­

A new study by Professor David Grayson, Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility and Dr Mark Lemon, Centre for Resource Management and Efficiency (Cranfield University), Professor Sarah Slaughter, Sloan Management School ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Dr Miguel Angel Rodriguez, IESE Business School, Professor Zhouying Jin, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Professor Simon Tay Singapore Institute of International Affairs has identified three key measurements of business success for corporations in light of climate change. The study, “A New Mindset for Corporate Sustainability,” concludes that shareholder value should no longer be the only the measure of success for businesses.

The report indicates that organisations need to become sustainability-drive innovators by following a new approach, which the researchers have dubbed, S2AVE, or Shareholder and Social Added Value with Environmental Restoration.

S2AVE emphasises the role of sustainability in increasing innovation across the business and maintains that sustainability should be a strategy rather than an objective. The study concludes that the achievement of sustainability goals does not require extensive re-engineering of the corporate structure. Instead, it requires conviction and vision at the very highest levels of the organization so that a set of values coherent with corporate responsibility and sustainability are instilled throughout.­

The study is aimed at offering business leaders, concise advice based on a systematic appraisal of case studies, including Cemex, Marks & Spencers and Shenzhen Water.

To download a copy of the study please click here.

The Organizing Committee of the EURAM 2008 Conference ((CEEMAN, University of Ljubljana, IEDC - Bled School of Management, 14 – 17 May, 2008, Ljubljana, Bled) has decided to extend the paper submission deadline until 27 January 2008 24:00 Brussels time (CET).

Management researchers, scholars ­and practitioners are invited to submit papers for the 38 tracks that will take place at the conference.

For a list of the tracks and track descriptions please click here.

The guidelines and formatting instructions to help you prepare and submit your paper are available online here.

UNITAR-Yale Conference on Environmental Governance and Democracy “Institutions, public participation and environmental sustainability: Bridging research and capacity development” (10-11 May 2008, Yale University, New Haven, USA).

The organisers are looking for a scholar who may be interested in preparing a brief (10 page) discussion/agenda setting document on the topic of "Public participation in corporate environmental governance" for the dedicated track. They also anticipate to select 2 case study presentations for the session. Travel costs will be covered. Expression of interest is due January 25. Submissions of 1-2 page synopsis of a Case Study Papers are invited by 31 January 2008. The organizing committee will select by mid-February 2008 case study papers for presentation at the conference. All selected papers will be included in the conference proceedings.

The Conference on Environmental Governance and Democracy will take place at Yale University in the margins of the 16th Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). The event brings together academic experts and practitioners from governments, inter-governmental organizations, civil society and the private sector. Participants will take stock of contemporary research and knowledge gaps at the intersection of institutions, public participation and environmental sustainability.

The objective of the Conference is to develop a research program and network to strengthen institutional approaches for effective and context-sensitive public participation in environmental governance. Discussions will cover various levels of environmental governance, including international, national, regional, local, and corporate governance.

Scholars and practitioners interested in participating in the event should submit an Expression of Interest Form by 25 January 2008. For details concerning conference papers consult the conference website http://www.yale.edu/envirocenter/envdem/callforpapers.htm   ­

­Corporate Responsibility (CR) is “an inescapable part of doing business” in to-day’s world. That is the conclusion of a new Occasional Paper from the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility: “The Business of business is..?”

The paper’s authors: Chris Marsden and David Grayson argue that Corporate Responsibility “is legitimised by the current governance deficit, both globally on some issues and in many states; and by companies’ power to make a positive difference, within their spheres of influence, on environmental and human rights issues where they operate.”

The paper is an attempt to refine and clarify some of the areas of disagreement between proponents of CR and opponents – particularly those from a free market perspective.

Marsden and Grayson argue that Corporate Responsibility should be seen as part of an evolving movement to more effective global governance. They suggest that in part Corporate Responsibility can be an effective alternative or precursor to better regulation.

The paper can be downloaded for free from: http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/research/centres/ccr/downloads/BusofBus.pdf 

­A new occassional paper “Small is sustainable (and beautiful!) – encouraging European smaller enterprises to be sustainable” from the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at the Cranfield School of Management by David Grayson, Director & co-author Tom Dodd, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission was launched yesterday during the World Entrepreneurship Summit at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, Westminster, UK.

Policy-makers and business development agencies are encouraged to re-think their approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for smaller firms, in this new Occasional Paper. Doughty Centre director David Grayson and co-author Tom Dodd argue that many of the factors making CSR more important for big business, are affecting smaller firms just as much. They particularly emphasise the competition for skilled workers; the importance of trust, reputation and relationships in the networked economy; and the rise of ethical and green consumers and employees.

Grayson and Dodd also highlight the growing number of initiatives across Europe from chambers of commerce, local authorities and trade associations, to help small firms to make sense of CSR. They review what is now known from academic studies and pilot projects across the EU about small firms and corporate responsibility; and suggest a number of critical issues for further efforts to promote CSR amongst small firms. They suggest a change of language from “CSR” to “sustainability” or “sustainable enterprise.”

As well as changing the message, Grayson and Dodd argue for care in selecting the messengers. “It matters who delivers the message,” they argue. “Credibility in the eyes of the SME owner-manager is crucial. Governments and politicians are generally not the most credible messengers for SMEs.” They go on to suggest that the most credible messengers are other SMEs – “businesses like us” – and call for some innovative thinking about how to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and influence between small businesses.

They also suggest that better targeting of messages is needed, and a more sophisticated understanding of the “journey” and the behaviours that owner-managers and small firms might typically take in embedding ideas of responsible business practice and sustainability in the way that they run their businesses.

Finally, they predict that supply-chain pressures for more sustainable business practice will intensify but that this needs more sharing of “know-how” and “know-who” and more facilitated learning within supply-chains. The paper is now publicly available to download as a pdf file here.

The oikos foundation for economy and ecology at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, is inviting qualified applications for two PhD Fellowship positions. Oikos PhD Fellows receive a grant for three years to conduct research in the field of Sustainability Management at the University of St. Gallen and contribute to international oikos projects.

The annual stipend will be CHF 36,000 (USD 32,000). Additional travel funds are available. Fellows will have the opportunity to build upon an excellent research platform at the University of St. Gallen, and make use of the global oikos network.

Application deadline is March 15, 2008. Please follow the link here for more information on oikos, the fellowship programme and the application process.

Presentations and other information material from the December 7th European Commission Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility ‘CSR at the global level: what role for the EU?’, organised by the Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the European Commission are now available online here.

Among others, the material features presentations from Commissioner Vladimir Spidla and Mr John Ruggie. ­

The European Academy of Management (EURAM) has invited contributions to the 2008 EURAM Conference on ‘Managing Diversity: European Destiny and Hope. The conference in Ljubljana and Bled will be the first EURAM Conference organized in the CEE region. EABIS Affiliate Member, CEEMAN in cooperation with the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, and the IEDC-Bled School of Management, aims to bring a perspective from the CEE region.

Contributions from management researchers, scholars and practitioners from all over the world are invited. Research Papers will be presented in 46 most interesting parallel tracks. The deadline for paper submission is 18 January 2008. The Conference program is structured in such a way as to have also special tracks which address the key management research issues in transition and emerging economies.

More details on EURAM 2008 are available at www.euram2008.org.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Readings and Cases in a Global Context By Andrew Crane, Dirk Matten and Laura J. Spence (eds). Modern business is obliged to meet increasingly demanding ethical, environmental, legal, commercial and public standards as defined by wider society. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has therefore become an important consideration for managers at all levels, as well as one of the most vibrant areas of study and research in the field of business and management.

This book provides a comprehensive and student-centred introduction to the key themes and issues currently being addressed in CSR around the world. The book brings together material by teachers and scholars working in CSR today, as well as many cited and important articles, and is clearly structured in three parts:

• Understanding CSR
  
• Applying CSR
  
• Managing CSR 

Each section includes an extensive and accessible editorial commentary that introduces the key debates and themes contained in the articles, as well as clearly defined learning objectives to guide the reader and challenging and thought-provoking study questions to consolidate learning.

The book also includes three major case studies to enable the reader to relate theory to the real world, focusing on Nike in Asia, Vodafone in South Africa and ABN AMRO in Brazil. 

The publication is available from: Routledge UK/Europe: http://www.routledge.com/books/Corporate-Social-Responsibility-isbn9780415424295   ­

The deadline for papers submissions for the Summer Academy "Creating a New Future for Business" in Berlin (Akademie Schmöckwitz, Germany 19-22 June 2008) has been extended to 21 January 2008 due to several individual requests.

The Summer Academy is organised by the International Research Network on Social and Environmental Aspects in Business and Management (SEABUS), a research consortium project on the social and environmental innovation and aspects in Business and Management, with which EABIS is partnering since 2007. This project is being led by IZT in Berlin and is funded by the German Federal Government.

Paper submission are electronic. Please follow the instructions on the website www.seabus-research.net . Only submissions sent via the website will be considered (not by fax, mail or e-mail). Papers will undergo a review process and authors will receive feedback on their papers. The selection process will consider quality, innovativeness, and diversity of views. Notifications of acceptance of papers will be sent out by the latest at the end of March 2008.

For more details please visit our website or download the call for papers at http://www.seabus-research.net/downloads/iztsummeracademy.pdf.

We are very much looking forward to seeing you in Berlin in summer 2008.

EABIS is pleased to announce its official support for the upcoming Ethical Corporation ‘Climate Change Summit 2008’ whic­h will take place in London on 12-13 February. The event will profile and discuss how some of the world’s largest companies are managing climate change strategies and communications with their consumers and stakeholders.

In line with our network’s role as a Supporting Partner for the event, EABIS members will receive a special £100 discount. If you book before the 18th January you also receive a £150 discount. As both previous Climate Change Summits sold out in advance, we encourage interested participants to book their place here in the days to come.

Key Conference Information

The Ethical Corporation Climate Change Summit promises to be one of the leading events in Europe in 2008 to advance public understanding of the business response to climate change. Featuring high-level executive speakers in many of its 17 sessions, the conference will address core business issues including:

• Strategies for successful risk management
  
• European and international legislation
  
• Carbon offsetting and trading
  
• Industry responses to climate change
  
• Consumer engagement
  
• Climate change reporting
  
• Climate change and internal communications 

Partnerships with NGOs Among the leading companies who will provide input in London are: IBM, ABN AMRO, HSBC, ASDA, Lehman Brothers, Walkers, Co-operative Group, Tesco, Procter & Gamble, Timberland, CEMEX, AXA Insurance, and more besides.

For more information and the conference programme please visit: www.ethicalcorp.com/climate/13  

Click here to download the conference brochure.

Further Enquiries­
EABIS Members who wish to benefit from the special discount please contact Charis Desinioti, charis.desinioti@eabis.org to receive the necessary code.

If you have any additional questions, we recommend that you contact: Ekaterina Kvasova, Project Director, +44 (0)20 7375 7226
ekaterina.kvasova@ethicalcorp.com 

Geneva-based Covalence published yesterday its third annual ethical reputation ranking, giving the best ranked companies as well as those companies which have made the most progress in 2007. Emerging topics in 2007 have been: Environmental Impact of Production, Eco Innovative Product, Waste Management and Anti-corruption Policy, while the following criteria have lost importance: Social Impact, Social Sponsorship, Labour Standards and Human Rights Policy.

Click here to read the press release.

For more information please visit the website http://www.ethicalquote.com/.