Group for Research on Organizations and the Natural Environment (GRONEN) Value(s) for whom? The Changing Role of Business in Society

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1 Group for Research on Organizations and the Natural Environment (GRONEN) GRONEN Research Conference 2016: Value(s) for whom? The Changing Role of Business in Society May 2016, Germany University of Hamburg School of Business, Economics and Social Science Conference venue: AMERON Hotel Speicherstadt Conference Theme The field of business sustainability continues to wrestle with an unsolved tension. On the one hand, firms continue to thrive and extend their business capacity. On the other hand, there is now decades of accumulated evidence that many industries production patterns are not sustainable. While experts call for more sustainable business practices, many business leaders still believe that being environmentally and socially sustainable comes at a cost to their shareholders. What can be done to solve this tension between economic self-interest and societalbeneficial action? How can we extend our narrow understanding of creating economic value towards a broader understanding of creating values for different stakeholders? How can research support businesses in realizing a transformation from shareholder to stakeholder orientation? In asking critical questions about how firms create value and values and trying to offer potential answers, the GRONEN 2016 conference intends to advance research in the following two related focal areas: 1

2 1. Creating value(s): A new role of the corporation in society? Many governments struggle in finding suitable solutions to environmental issues that emerge through unsustainable business practices. The indecisiveness and non-effectiveness of current international climate policy demonstrates that we should probably not wait for a global political solution alone to stop climate change. This raises the question of how non-governmental institutions or businesses should instead step in - or more broadly speaking: Is there a new role of the firm in society? Research questions in this focal area may cover (but are not limited to): What are our logics of value creation and creating values? How can we transform corporate management towards focusing more on long-term value creation? How do the values of corporations evolve over time? How can corporations develop their values to embrace sustainability? How can corporations learn to decouple their value creation from their resource consumption? What do entrepreneurial managers in firms perceive as their responsibility? How do they induce change towards sustainability in their own firm? 2. Valuing impacts: How relevant and reliable are sustainability measures? For a long time managers and management researchers have used aggregated measures of corporate sustainability that are limited to a gate-to-gate focus. Just recently organizational researchers and corporations have begun to develop measures that assess processes along the value chain. This resonates with the literature on Industrial Ecology which has developed largely separately from research on Organizations and the Environment. Little is known about how to implement life cycle thinking in strategic corporate planning and how controlling and external data providers can measure corporate performance with respect to it. Thus, research questions in this focal area may cover (but are not limited to): How do organizations interpret and measure value creation and the creation of values? Are (eco)efficiency measures actually good measures of corporate performance? How can and should life-cycle thinking be fostered in the management of the firm? How accurate are corporate sustainability ratings; where are the differences? How reliably do firms report on their environmental footprint, e.g. their GHG emissions? How trustworthy do voluntary programs measure and report about sustainability? What do differences and limitations in measurement tools entail for managing environmental and social issues? 2

3 The Group for Research on Organizations and the Natural Environment (GRONEN) is an open network of engaged scholars focused on innovative thinking in order to generate transformative ways of protecting the Earth. The conference is open to papers addressing a variety of topics relating to organizations and the natural environment. We particularly would like to invite papers that contribute to the conference theme and to one of the two previously described focal areas. Session Formats GRONEN 2016 will bring together a range of session formats. We aim to provide a suitable platform for academic exchange for research at differing stages. The conference will start with a session discussing and reflecting on our role as researchers for business practice. This was debated at the last GRONEN conference in Helsinki. The question was raised in the final session: How can we actually move forward towards a more sustainable world and even more importantly what is and what should be the role of business scholars for this? With the next GRONEN conference we continue this debate in our opening session with an in-depth discussion of the Research-Practice Gap. This session will start on May 25 th with entry statements by: Corporate representative Tima Bansal, Ivey Business School / Network for Business Sustainability Frances Bowen, Queen Mary University of London On May 26 th, we extend the discussion to the role of the individual manager. We ask how entrepreneurial managers can help transform their own firm from shareholder management to stakeholder management. The session will start with entry statements by: Corporate representative John Ehrenfeld, Executive Director of the International Society for Industrial Ecology Ed Freeman, University of Virginia The following program consists of both full paper and research development sessions. Full paper sessions are organized as a single track, with the research development sessions being organized as parallel tracks. 3

4 Full paper sessions provide a platform for the presentation and discussion of fully developed papers. Sessions are grouped topically and authors have a 20 minute time slot to present their work, followed by a 10 minute discussion. The full paper sessions are not limited to focal areas of the conference theme. They are introduced and chaired by thought leaders in the field who serve as scientific committee (see GRONEN web page). Research development sessions offer a platform for scholars to present work-inprogress based on shorter papers. Presentation time is shorter with more time allocated to discussion. Development sessions are facilitated by several senior faculty members of the GRONEN community. Review Process All submissions (to full paper sessions, research development sessions, and doctoral consortium) will undergo a double-blind review process prior to acceptance. Full papers will be assessed with regard to their rigor and quality similar to submissions to an academic journal. Short papers submitted to research development sessions will be selected based on their potential contribution and novelty. The scientific committee will review all accepted submissions and award prizes for the Best Conference Paper and the Best PhD Paper. Special Issue of Organization & Environment A special issue of Organization and Environment will be associated with GRONEN Scholars who submit their work to the conference are also invited to submit their work to this special issue. Furthermore, authors will benefit from the opportunity to exchange with the special issue editors and numerous members of the scientific committee of GRONEN 2016 who are editorial board members of Organization and Environment. Participation in the GRONEN conference however is not necessary for submission to the special issue. The call for papers can be downloaded here: Schedule The deadline for all submissions to GRONEN 2016 is 20 st January Submissions are to be in electronic format (doc or pdf files) and should be sent to GRONEN@wiso.uni-hamburg.de 4

5 Please state in both the paper and in your the type of submission you would like to make (i.e. paper to full paper sessions or research development sessions). Please note that your submission should consist of two separate files with a title page indicating author information (name and affiliation) and a manuscript excluding author information. Further, the manuscript should not exceed 40 pages including references, tables, and appendices. The selection process, notification of authors, and registration of participants follows the schedule below: 1 st January 2016: Registration opens 20 st January 2016: Deadline for submissions 1 st March 2016: Notification of acceptance 1 st May 2016: Deadline for registration 25 th -27 th May 2016: GRONEN 2016 Research Conference We look forward to welcoming you in Hamburg in 2016! The GRONEN organization-team: Timo Busch (University of Hamburg) Jens Hamprecht (ETH Zurich) André Martinuzzi (Vienna University of Economics and Business) Contact: Timo Busch University of Hamburg, Germany School of Business, Economics and Social Science timo.busch@wiso.uni-hamburg.de 5