Centre for Responsible Business

Presentation

 

As a number of major crises have already broken out (not only in the financial sphere) and others are still before us (e.g. the effects of climate change, the consequences of the peak in oil supply, the shortage of food and water resources), numerous voices question the relevance of corporate policies, and suggest that the business community should adopt new roles beyond its economic functions.

While consumer groups increasingly expect companies to adopt socially responsible behaviours, new regulations and extra-financial rating agencies invite them to take environmental, societal, governance and ethical issues seriously into account.

Doing business in a responsible way meets the demands of all these stakeholders and may generate a competitive advantage for proactive companies; on that assumption, ESC Rennes School of Business decided to launch the Centre for Responsible Business in 2007.

 

Dr François Lépineux - Head of the Centre for Responsible Business

 

Vision

 

The CRB pioneers responsible ways of doing business in order to contribute to a more sustainable world.
By “responsible business”, we mean balancing economic, social, ethical and environmental aspects of doing business.

 

Mission

 

The Centre for Responsible Business links a global approach to corporate responsibility and performance with a forward thinking orientation regarding the challenges which businesses will face in the coming decades.
Contributing to excellence in both theoretical and applied research, the CRB has a vocation for helping organizations devise and implement sustainability policies and processes in a global environment. It also nurtures the School’s pedagogy to include responsibility in all its educational programs.

 

Activities & Areas of expertise

 

Activities

 

1) Fostering academic research

 

As the fields of business ethics, business and society or sustainability are undergoing rapid changes, research is necessary to produce both theoretical and applied knowledge that can be used in the School’s educational programs as well as in organizations of all kinds.


2) Raising awareness and developing skills for responsible management

 

Courses dealing with sustainability, CSR, ethics and diversity are gradually being incorporated in all programs taught at ESC Rennes, in order to increase the awareness and understanding of students on these matters. Through their microenterprises, students are also given the opportunity to participate in the greening of the institution; besides, conferences and roundtables connect them with executives from various companies to discuss responsible business.

 

• Executive MBA Leadership for sustainable competitiveness.

For more information, please visit the following page on the School’s website
Programme Executive MBA

3) Providing businesses with sustainable strategic solutions

 

In these times of turbulence and upheaval, businesses will realize that the best way for them to proceed is to reorient their policies and strategies towards corporate responsibility and sustainability. Specifically, the CRB at ESC Rennes School of Business can help both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations make the right decisions and accompany them during the implementation process.

• Example of an action-research contract: Diana Naturals

4) Cooperating in regional and international networks with academia, business, civil society and government

 

• The Centre for Responsible Business is creating a network of partner organizations, including academic institutions, public authorities, international institutions or initiatives, research centres, business networks, multi-stakeholder forums, NGOs and student associations.

• In cooperation with Rennes’ Chamber of Commerce, the CRB has set up the Responsible Business Club, bringing together about 40 regional and national companies which exchange on their policies and practices and discuss various topics of interest.

 

Areas of expertise

 

1) Responsible leadership and organizational change

• Responsible leaders develop and implement policies and strategies which balance economic, social, ethical and environmental imperatives
• Values-driven leadership: there are many examples of CEOs who endorse and translate into action certain values
• The leader can play the role of a change agent : experience shows that his commitment is necessary to set the organization in motion and support its progress at the operational level.

2) Business and the environment

• Many multinational corporations and companies of all kinds are trying to reduce their ecological footprint, and have already implemented environmental management systems
• However, much still has to be done before the concern about the state of the planet percolates the whole business sphere
• Which levers can be used to raise the awareness of top executives and managers on that issue?
• Green business opportunities: can environmental challenges lead to the development of innovative business solutions?

3) Managing stakeholder relationships

• Stakeholder management is as a tool for analysing and understanding the complexity of an organisation’s social and natural environment
• From the perspective of strategic management, companies that handle their stakeholder relationships efficiently by establishing fruitful partnerships can gain a competitive edge
• A more normative approach to stakeholder management implies that managers engage in a dialogue with their company’s stakeholders, listen to their concerns and respond to them in an adequate manner
• Today we face social and environmental problems that need to be approached in cooperation. This is done more and more often in multi-stakeholder initiatives

4) Corporate social performance

• The implementation of a CSR or sustainability approach can only be successful through a process of organizational learning which involves all the managers and employees in all the countries or locations where the company operates
• This process requires that the evolutions regarding ethical, governance, societal and environmental aspects be measured on a regular basis according to relevant criteria and indicators, in order to ensure steady progress towards multi-dimensional performance

5) New business models contributing to sustainable development

• The quest for sustainable development offers a wealth of opportunities to create innovative business models
• For instance in the field of green technologies: solar energy, wind turbines, biomass, new engines, autonomous buildings…
• But also as regards socially responsible investment, fair trade, and all the mechanisms that can empower the “bottom of the pyramid”…

6) Diversity management

• The workforce is getting more and more diverse, and this trend will continue over time
• Organizations are increasingly leveraging differences to enhance creativity and performance
• Innovative companies are shifting away from a quota system and embracing a more inclusive approach where differences are not only accepted, but used as the basis for a sustainable competitive advantage

Professors

 

Dr Claire-Lise ACKERMANN | Faculty member, Strategy and Marketing Department

 

Focus Areas:

 

• Implicit cognition

• Innovation

• Design management

Dr Ahmed ATIL | Faculty member, Finance and Operations Department

 

Focus Areas:

• Information systems for the environment and sustainable development

• Environmental commitment in SMEs: information system and learning process

 

Dr Jens BLUMRODT | Faculty member, Management and Organisation Department

 

Focus Areas:

 

• Brand image applied to SLT area

• Sports policies

• Sports and society

• Sports and gender

 

Dr Carole BONANNI | Faculty member, Strategy and Marketing Department

Focus Areas:

 

• Ethics in e-business

 

Ms Irena DESCUBES | Faculty member, Strategy and Marketing Department

 

Focus Areas:

 

• Consumer behaviour: frugal consumer modes, sustainable consumption, downshifting

• Marketing for non-profit sector

 

Mr François-Marie FERRE | Faculty member, Management and Organisation Department

Focus Areas:

• Diversity issues in France
  

 

Dr Sarah HUDSON | Faculty member, Management and Organisation Department

 

Focus Areas:

 

• Technologies and sustainable development

• Corporate social responsibility in small and medium enterprises

• Corporate social responsibility and employee attitudes and behaviour

• Corporate social responsibility and consumer attitudes and behaviour

• Ethics in e-business

 

Mr Simon LAWDER

Focus Areas:

• SME social responsibility and leadership

• Development of a network of CEOs committed to sustainability

 

Dr François LÉPINEUX		| Faculty member, Strategy and Marketing Department
		| Head, Centre for Responsible Business

Focus Areas:

 

• Corporate citizenship

• Business and the common good
• The shift in the social contract

• Globality, foresight and governance

 

Dr Marco MICHELOTTI | Faculty member, Management and Organisation Department

 

Focus Areas:

• International business

• Strategic HRM, workplace and industrial/employee relations.

• Strategic management

• NGOs and globalisation

• Theories of regulation and labour law

• Globalisation, political economy and international trade

• Corporate social responsibility and human rights

 

Mr Don MINDAY | Faculty member, Management and Organisation Department

Focus Areas:

• Sustainable development

Dr Petya PUNCHEVA | Faculty member, Strategy and Marketing Department

 

Focus Areas:

 

• Corporate social responsibility and human rights

• Stakeholder relationship management

• International marketing management

• Cross-national corporate reputation measurement and management;

• NGO-business relationships and corporate reputation

 

Dr Julia ROLOFF | Faculty member, Management and Organisation Department

Focus Areas:

 

• Business ethics

• Stakeholder management

• Social standards in supply chains

• Social change

 

Dr Ismaël SENE | Faculty member, Management and Organisation Department

Focus Areas:

• Change management and business ethics

 

Dr Damir TOKIC|  Faculty member, Finance and Operations Department

 

Focus Areas:

 

• Energy policy
• Globalization and environment
• Speculation in commodity futures

 

Ms Cyrlene CLAASEN | Doctoral student

Focus Areas:

 

• Corporate social responsibility in Africa

 

PhD dissertation:

"Corporate social responsibility and legitimacy of 50/50 mining joint ventures between governments and multinationals: The case of Namibia and De Beers"

Ms Sophie HENNEKAM | Doctoral student

Focus Areas:

 

• Knowledge management and culture

 

PhD dissertation:

 

PhD dissertation dealing with the role of perceived age discrimination and HR practices on organizational commitment, job performance and retirement intention of older employees

 

Ms Joanna PAWLIK | Doctoral student

Symposiums

 

Biodiversity and CSR

On May 20, 2009, the CRB has co-organized a Conference on “Biodiversity and CSR” in partnership with various local actors; about 100 persons from different professional backgrounds have attended. A new tool designed to involve companies of all kinds in the preservation of biodiversity – the FIPAN – was launched on this occasion.

For more information: Visit the website

Social Responsibility, Entrepreneurship and the Common Good

On January 7-8, 2010, the CRB has organized an International Symposium on “Social Responsibility, Entrepreneurship and the Common Good” in cooperation with EBEN and the European SPES Forum; more than 50 researchers originating from 20 countries have participated. A book is now in preparation, including the best papers that have been presented; it should be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2011.

For more information: Visit the website

ISO 26000

On November 29, 2010, ESC Rennes School of Business co-organized and hosted a Conference for the launch of the ISO 26000 standard in France, in cooperation with AFNOR (the French standardization agency) and the Ecole des Métiers de l’Environnement. About 300 participants attended this important event.

For more information: Download programme