ACG proudly hosted the 4th International Conference on Social Responsibility, Ethics & Sustainable Business (ICSR) on October 8 and 9, organized by the ICSR team and DEREE’s School of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
An annual event, the ICSR has the specific objective of creating a networking environment for practitioners and researchers, nurturing an open dialogue in regard to new insights on socially responsible practices, both in the non-profit and for-profit spheres.
The ICSR: Why is it Important?
An opening statement from Patrick J. Quinn, the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, set the tone of the conference, and solidified the need for such a forum; to discuss, debate, and take small steps towards unraveling and examining the interconnectivity of the far-reaching issues at hand.
Dr. Quinn explained that higher education needs to take on a more forceful role in preparing key players for the added accountability and “social complexities that graduating students entering the business world will face.” He emphasized the need to go further than simply training MBA students to be effective in their jobs, arguing that they must also “be armed with a set of values which ensure that the corporations or businesses they work for are sensitive to the expanding responsibilities in this unstable contemporary economic situation.”
Keynote Speakers
The opening keynote was delivered by the distinguished professor CB Bhattacharya, Director of the Center for Sustainable Business at ESMT European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, Germany. He also created the ESMT Sustainable Business Roundtable, a forum which has grown to include 20 multimillion businesses including McDonald’s and Nestlé.
The second keynote speaker Dr. Nick Travlos, Dean of ALBA Graduate Business School, holds the endowed Kitty Kyriacopoulos Chair in Finance, and has been recognized as one of the most contributing authors in the Journal of Finance, among other leading academic journals.
For more information on the keynote speakers, please click here for Dr. Bhattacharya, and here for Dr. Travlos.
The ICSR Conference
The 4th conference was a busy 2 days, including 12 presentations and talks, publication opportunities, and several opportunities for networking and informal discussions with lunch and coffee breaks, and a splendid Gala Dinner at the Benaki Museum.
In previous years the conference was held in Barcelona, the University of Bournemouth, and the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. An immense honor for the ACG community to partake and host this conference, we hope this fruitful collaboration will grow to be a long-standing tradition.
