Track 5b
Corporate Social Investments

Track Chair
Dr. Pramod B. Shrestha, Professor (Engineering Management), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

Concept, Goals and Objectives
Globalization and the mass expansion of educational opportunity and technological developments are all creating a changing environment for organizations across the world. This competitive environment is, in its turn, creating pressure for strategic and concerted action by business organizations within and across countries to improve the way they approach Corporate Social Responsibility and Investment (CSRI) initiatives in the society. In this new shifting competitive environment, societal challenges are also becoming huge business opportunities. Organizations that wish to survive should be able to demonstrate that, in the "new shifting" competitive environment, stakeholder value built on a company's economic, ecological, and social impact will become an effective way to achieve ‘competitive advantage.'

Different countries will have different approaches to dealing with CSRI and that there is no single prescriptive model to suit every country and organizations. There is also no international agreement on definitions of Corporate Social Responsibility and Investment used to assess the sustainability of these initiatives. Effective and efficient CSRI should successfully integrate sustainability into their core activities as they respond to issues such as climate change, ecosystem health, and global poverty-not only from a sense of moral correctness, but because it makes good business sense.

When we discuss about Corporate Social Responsibility and Investment, we generally think about charitable donations and public relations. I think, we all have to move beyond this simple notion and try to come up with a framework that integrates sustainability principles with everyday business operations and policies and then translate and integrate all of this into day-to-day corporate activities and corporate performance. Sustainability corporate performance is the effect of corporate activity on the social, environmental, and economic fabric of society. A balance between economic progress, social responsibility, and environmental protection, sometimes referred to as the triple bottom line, can and will lead to competitive advantage.

Let us for a moment imagine that we could change the world according to our wishes. We all wish that economic equality and universal human rights become a reality. Two billions Plus people look forward to a life without poverty, hunger, and violence. This was the aim in 2001, when United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and in 2015, when the MDGs expire and the UN adopts a successor framework for environmental and development policy. The coming set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will aim to protect ecosystems, conserve resources, and, as with the MDGs, lift millions of people out of poverty. A fundamental question that is always coming up in my mind is - Is time bound commitment to ‘Economic Growth' at all costs the only answer to the question of how ‘inclusive development' can be balanced against the limits of our planet and the fact that billions of people live in poverty. In this finite world, infinite growth is impossible, and raising just outputs will not put food on everyone's table if the benefits of economic growth are not fairly distributed. I optimistically hope that the new SDGs will be an opportunity for every country and organizations to establish truly new and innovative priorities and goals for environmental and development policy in the twenty-first century.

In this track, we will discuss conceptual framework on CSRI and outline a sustainability architecture to creating and managing value for stakeholders in a broad range of sectors in today's shifting competitive environment. The focus is on societal innovations that will value the autonomy of organizations while insisting on accountability and ‘value and trust for money', thus providing them the means to build broad ‘sustainable value' and compete effectively and efficiently in the shifting competitive environment. . This session also seeks contributions that address these important aspects of sustainable development and organizational sustainability that articulate what CSRI sustainability is, develop processes to promote sustainability throughout the corporation, measure performance on sustainability, and ultimately link this measurement to corporate financial performance.
Contributions from the followings areas (but not limited to) are sought-after:

  • Conceptual framework on Corporate Social Responsibility and Investments (CSRI) Sustainability Model: Input - Process - Outputs - Outcome;
  • Performance measurement on CSRI;
  • The shift from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to CSRI - Is this necessary;
  • The critical role of leadership in developing and implementing CSRI;
  • Sustainability Indicators (both qualitative and quantitative) within the context of corporate responsibility on CSRI;
  • Methods to define the thematic scope of CSRI assessment, monitoring and reporting;
  • CSRI Sustainability Model: The Concept of value for all stakeholders;
  • Moving from MDGs to SDGs in 2015: Implications for the CSRI Sustainability Model

Contact: pshrestha1952@gmail.com

You may submit your abstract by visiting the Ex Ordo abstract submission system (you will be required to setup an account first): http://isdrs2015.exordo.com/

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10th - 12th July
2015
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