Sustainable and Responsible Business

The Sustainable and Responsible Business SIG aims to act as a wide forum where issues may be debated, whether defined in terms of CSR, publicise developments in CSR, generate high quality papers for the CSR track, provide networking opportunities for those interested in issues of CSR, act as a resource base for members who wish to develop their interests and develop links with research centres, NGO’s and policymakers to make research activity relevant to all members.

About the SIG

The last 10-15 years have seen a dramatic rise in interest in the social aspects of business activity. Concerns about climate change have escalated over the last five years to a point where few now dispute the scientific evidence that commercial activity is the greatest contributory factor in global warming.

Throughout Europe especially, but also in other parts of the world, governments have set up initiatives to promote notions of sustainable development and social responsibility. Indeed, it could be argued that the biggest initiatives are ‘supra-national’ involving UN led prerogatives in financial reporting (the Global Reporting Initiative), and in wider societal issues (e.g. the Global Compact and Millennium Goals etc).

In the UK, the government continues to urge companies to adopt responsible strategies and has funded a number of initiatives through the DTI and DEFRA (e.g. the CSR Academy) and increasing amounts of research output is appearing in articles, monographs and books. This whole area has provided a rich area of research over recent years, and the subject is now on the curriculum at about 50 UK academic institutions, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Researchers cover topics ranging from fair trade to green marketing, from sustainable tourism to emissions trading.

SIG Events 2022-2023

SIG Committee Members

SIG Co-Chair -  Dr Polina Baranova

SIG Co-Chair - Dr Simon M. Smith

Treasurer - Dr Simon M. Smith

 

Track Co-Chairs 

  • Dr Dongemi Cao, Nottingham Trent University, UK
  • Dr Naheed Roni, Teesside University, UK