5b. Corporate Social Responsibility and Investment (CSRI)
Track Chairs
Pramod B. Shrestha. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. pshrestha1952@gmail.com
Concept, Goals and Objectives
Globalization, increased educational opportunities and technological developments are all creating a changing environment for organizations across the world. This competitive environment creates 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 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 this 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 organization. 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 CSRIs 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 CSRI, we generally think about charitable donations and public relations. Moving beyond this simple notion, we should come up with a framework that integrates sustainability principles with everyday business operations and policies and then integrate all of this into day-to-day corporate activities and corporate performance. 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.
In this track, we will discuss conceptual frameworks on CSRI and outline a sustainability architecture 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. This session also seeks contributions that address these important aspects of sustainable development and organizational sustainability, develop processes to promote sustainability throughout the corporation, measure performance on sustainability, and ultimately link this measurement to corporate financial performance. Contributions could include the following areas (but not limited to):
- Performance measurement on CSRI;
- The shift from 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.
You may submit your abstract by visiting the Ex Ordo abstract submission system (you will be required to setup an account first): http://isdrs2017.exordo.com
Dr. Pramod Shrestha is Professor in Engineering Management within the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. In 2010, he introduced a new Masters' Program in Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) at the Institute of Engineering with the support of the Norwegian Government. He is interested in the study of impact of technology on society. Currently he studies the relationship of "modernity" and "development" with special focus of cultural/social underpinnings of these term and the ethical implications of "who benefits".
