International Conference on CSR in Globalized World: Emerging Issues and Challenges

Last date for registration has been extended to February 15, 2016 based on several requests

International Conference on CSR in Globalized World: Emerging Issues and Challenges

CSR CONFERENCE 2016

Organized by

Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, India

IIM Calcutta, Kolkata, India

February 26-27, 2016

Key Note Address: Mr. Nazeeb Arif, Executive Vice President & Head- Corporate Communications, ITC Ltd.

Various forms of Corporate Social Responsibility have been well known practices in India much before the advent of American academic curricula through Business Schools. Corporate Charity was one of the earliest activities, and as the name suggests, it was voluntary and almost always depended on the charitable instincts of businessmen. After the institutionalization of Business Academia, CSR has come a long way from acts of charity to Strategic CSR that is now inclusive of awareness and concerns for greater social causes like poverty alleviation, education, and access to bare necessities (the problems that developing economies are consistently grappling with). However, the alignment between societal and business goals through CSR practices is not an internalized and universalized reality. Post liberalization, large firms did align their business objectives with societal requirements. However, the Macro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector is struggling to incorporate CSR into their business objectives. Moreover, CSR in India is still further from incorporating sustainable business practices. To add to this existing mesh, CSR enters as a mandatory requirement for some of the corporations. The clauses of the mandate are not necessarily favorable to Strategic CSR – the only CSR that motivates the corporate to incorporate CSR practices into their business goals.

It is time we outgrow the question “Why to do CSR?” Now it is all about “How to do CSR?” CSR is such an all-inclusive umbrella notion that can encompass almost all organizational engagements. Doing CSR now seems to be a way to find a sweet spot between the need to do business and the need to address social and environmental concerns. This conference, situated within academic premises, will reach out to representatives from the industries as well, to discuss CSR practices and reflect on the challenges and opportunities that such engagements continually run into, thus enabling the way forward for CSR discourse in India and the world, and in academia as well as industry.

Bio of the Speakers for Panel Discussion

Sessions

There would be 4 plenary sessions followed by 4 tracks for presentations:

Track 1: CSR – Where are We?

How far are we from the Milton Friedman syndrome? Friedman vehemently argued that the notion of social responsibility would be detrimental to the very objective of business, which is to make profit and/or maximize shareholder value. However, Friedman’s subtle reference to the necessity of ‘business sticking to the rules of the game’ – open and free competition without deception and fraud – gets almost always ignored in the critique of Friedman. The various manifestations of the notion of CSR in business from Friedman to the contemporary era of Conscious Capitalism have added much value, weight, and circumference to the Corporate – its existence, legitimation and sustenance. Corporate philanthropy has provided a competitive edge to corporate houses and as pointed out by Porter and Kramer, businesses now plan a corporate social agenda which “moves from mitigating harm to finding ways to reinforce corporate strategy by advancing social conditions” (2006). The interdependence of corporate and society is now beyond debate. The nature, objective and sustenance of this interdependency is however the contagious CSR deliberation. This track intends to explore the following considerations in this regard:

1. Philosophy and History of Global CSR leading into Contemporary CSR Applications
2. Evolving CSR Schools of Thoughts
3. The Way Forward for the Persistent ‘Shareholder vs. Stakeholder’ Debate
4. Beyond Profit? CSR Today.
5. Models of Inclusive and Sustainable CSR

Track Chair: Prof Nisigandha Bhuyan. Email: nisigandha@iimcal.ac.in

Track 2: CSR and Business Strategy

Corporate Social Responsibility has been understood as consisting of firm’s actions and policies that take into account stakeholders’ expectations and the triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental performance. Research has shown that CSR enhances organization’s performance, and its applicability have now used to reap direct and sustainable competitive advantages. Despite the primary and secondary motivations behind an organization’s CSR activities, there is a growing realization that ‘profitable partnerships’ can be created between global corporations and local communities that can reconfigure the ecosystem in which most organizations work. Besides developing profitable partnerships, and meeting social obligations, especially to gain some socio-political legitimacy for the organization to increase the normative, legal, and ethical acceptance in the society. With these objectives, this track would explore on issues such as:

1. Ways in which Social responsibility pays back to business?
2. Is CSR about stakeholder management?
3. How to leverage CSR for market development at bottom of the pyramid?
4. How to make a business case for CSR?

Track Chair: Prof Ramendra Singh. Email: ramendra@iimcal.ac.in

Track 3: CSR - Financial Performance and Corporate Governance

Today’s globalized world is up at war against environmental, social and governance challenges. Governments and institutions around the globe have joined hands together towards sustainable economic development – the economic development which is equitable and which does not compromise the ability of the future generations in meeting their needs. Companies around the globe have also started taking cognizance of the importance of raising themselves above the short-term goal of profit maximization to long-term goals of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

India has been under immense international pressure towards binding emission targets and disclosure on climate impacts of growth. It is severely distressed with social, economic, governance and environmental problems. Yet there has been lack of awareness among the Indian corporate about responsible business behaviour. CSR in India has therefore moved from being philanthropic and voluntary in nature to being mandated by Companies Act 2013. The focus of this track will be to find answers to the following questions:

1. Whether CSR activities bring in healthier bottom-lines for the companies and higher returns for the stockholders?
2. Whether CSR activities have anything to do with governance of the companies?
3. What are the consequences of making CSR mandatory in India?

Track Chair: Prof Arpita Ghosh. Email: arpitag@iimcal.ac.in

Track 4: Viewing CSR through the Legal Prism

In the present era marked by financial crises, widening income disparities, environmental and other calamities linked to corporations, there is a growing demand for greater corporate social responsibility ("CSR") around the world. Though CSR initiatives are generally perceived as voluntary actions undertaken by corporations, a new CSR model mandated by law is emerging in India which is completely different from the existing models in US and Europe . The move towards mandatory CSR is under the assumption that the private sector has to assist the government in furthering economic growth that is inclusive, with wealth distributed among the Indian population. India’s new CSR model has come at a time when the country is undergoing massive economic and social changes with the objective of entering the ranks of global economic superpowers. The focus of this track will be to deal with the following issues:

1. Legal Challenges involved in CSR Compliance
2. Regulatory Issues in Reporting and Disclosure of CSR Policies
3. Legal implications of excluding activities undertaken in pursuance of the normal course of business of the company
4. CSR in SMEs

Track Chair: V.K.Unni. Email: unniv@iimcal.ac.in

Other sub themes under which papers may be considered:

Understanding CSR in India

1. Philosophy and history of CSR in India
2. CSR: The necessity of collaboration between Academics and Industry
3. Motivation for doing CSR in India
4. Strategic CSR: How best to do it?
5. CSR as a form of marketing
6. CSR and HR policies
7. How would corporations react to mandatory CSR when not applicable to them?
8. CSR and Sustainability
9. The gap between CSR and Sustainability in India
10. CSR Law in India and Application of CSR across Company Verticals
11. CSR Impact Measurement Tool
12. CSR Standards, Framework and Reporting - ISO26000, AA, GRI etc
13. CSR Index and Benchmarking
14. CSR - Corporate Governance Vs International Human Rights
15. CSR and Sustainable Supply Chain
16. CSR Business Case CSR Branding Communication and Reporting (CSR BCR)
17. CSR in Stakeholder Engagement/ Materiality Analysis
18. CSR and Shared Value of Companies

Authors should clearly indicate the Track Name (and Number) on the First Page of the Abstract Document as well as the subsequent paper.

Dates to Remember

Deadlines	Dates
Last Date for submission of Abstracts	October 15, 2015
Last Date for Acceptance of Abstracts to be communicated to you	November 1, 2015
Registration Starts from	November 1, 2015
Full Paper due	December 31, 2015
Last date of Registration	February 15, 2016
Last cancellations by	January 31, 2016
Conference Dates	February 26-27, 2016

Click here to download the Conference Schedule

Click here to download the Conference Brochure

Submission Guidelines

1. All submissions should be made ONLY as a PDF document, with numbered pages.
2. The first page of the submission will be the Title Page, and should contain the Title, Authors’ details (Name, Affiliation(s), and Contact details), and Details of the Track, Author’s name or identification information must NOT be part of the remaining document.
3. The second page should contain the Title and Keywords, followed by the content of the submission.
4. The “Header” of the submission should contain the title of the paper, and the track details (track name, and number), and the “Footer” should contain page numbers in the Page X of Y format.
5. All submissions should be in Times New Roman, 12 point size (except Title of the paper, which should be 15 point size, and Header and Footer should be in Times New Roman, 9 point size), double-spacing, with 1 inch margin on all sides.
6. References and footnotes should be as per the APA style guide. The necessary instructions can be found at https://iimcal.ac.in/guidelines-authors

Abstract:

The abstract submission should be 750-1000 words in length (excluding references, tables, figures and appendices). The abstract should contain separate sections on introduction (including research question(s) and contribution of the study), propositions or hypothesis (if any), research methodology, results and discussion, implications, and references. Authors may want to refer to Pugh, W. 1993. Advice to Authors of Extended Abstracts. SIGPLAN, Vol. 91 (2): 1-4., to understand what to focus on when writing the abstract.

Papers:

On acceptance of the extended abstract, authors must submit the final paper within the deadline. The papers should be 5000-6000 words in length (excluding references, tables, figures, and appendices) The submission should contain an abstract, keywords, and separate sections on Introduction (including research question), Literature Review, Propositions or Hypothesis (if any), Research Methodology, Analysis, Results, Implications, Conclusions (including contribution of the study), Limitations, Future research possibilities, and References. Please note that:

1. By submitting an abstract, authors affirm that their work is original, and that they would upon its acceptance submit either the full paper or an extended abstract.
2. At the time of submitting the full paper by the author/s, they undertake that their paper is not currently under review, accepted for publication, or published elsewhere. The authors need to explicitly mention the above at the time of submitting the full paper/extended abstract.
3. In case an abstract is accepted for the conference, at least one of the authors must attend the conference, or else registration fees will not be refunded.

Abstracts and paper submissions: csr2016@iimcal.ac.in

Publication Opportunities:

Extended abstracts of all accepted papers will be published as part of Conference Proceedings. In addition, select presented conference papers may be considered with an accelerated review for possible publication by the following journals, if the manuscript is successful in the journal’s review process:

• DECISION, IIM Calcutta’s management journal
• Journal of Indian Business Research (an Emerald Journal)
• International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets (Inderscience Publishers)

We have collaborated with International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets (Inderscience) for bringing out a special issue. Selected papers will be published in this edition. Papers not submitted for this conference can also be considered for publication in this issue. Please follow the link for submission guidelines: http://www.abem.ca/cfp-iimc/.

Please note that the author/s can choose ONLY ONE of the above journals, when submitting their selected conference paper/s.

Best Paper Award:

There would be a best paper award chosen by a panel of experts. This award will be announced on the last day of the conference. The decision of the panel will be final and binding. In addition, to encourage doctoral students to participate in the conference, a special separate award will be given for the best paper by a doctoral student at the conference.

Registration Details

Industry/ Non‐participating Delegates	INR 7,000 (Resident Indians)/ USD 500 (Foreign)
Participating Authors	INR 5,000 (Resident Indians)/ USD 300 (Foreign)
Students / PhD Scholars	INR 3,000 (Resident Indians)/ USD 100 (Foreign)

*The Registration fee includes the Conference Kit, two Lunches, two Dinner and Tea/Coffee during session breaks.

Click here to register online

Accommodation

Conference participants have to make their own arrangements for accommodation. Kolkata has many good hotels. Below are links of a few websites that provide online booking facilities for hotels in Kolkata. A limited number of rooms may be available in the executive accommodation on IIMC campus, against payment. For details and booking of rooms, please email your requirement to: shampa@iimcal.ac.in

http://www.indiaprofile.com/kolkata-hotels/

http://www.travelguru.com/cities/kolkata.shtml

http://www.asiarooms.com/search?searchType=&city=Kolkata

http://www.travelchacha.com/hotels/kolkata_hotels.html

Contact Details

In case of any queries, feel free to contact at the Conference Secretariat: csr2016@iimcal.ac.in. Specific queries may also be directed to the individual Conference Coordinators.

About the Institute

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CALCUTTA

The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) was established as the first national institute for Post-Graduate studies and Research in Management by the Government of India in November 1961 in collaboration with Alfred P. Sloan School of Management (MIT), the Government of West Bengal, The Ford Foundation and Indian industry. Over the years, IIMC has grown into a mature institution with global reputation, imparting high quality management education. It has been playing a pioneering role in professionalizing Indian management through its Post Graduate and Doctoral level programs, Executive Training Programs, Research and Consulting Activities. Today, the institute serves as an autonomous body, continually evolving to meet its goals in an ever-changing business environment.

The vision of the Institute is to emerge as an International Centre of Excellence in all facets of Management Education, rooted in Indian ethos and societal values. Over the past four decades, IIM Calcutta has blossomed into one of Asia's finest Business Schools. Its strong ties to the business community make it an effective mechanism for the promotion of professional management practices in Indian organizations. Today, IIM Calcutta attracts the best talent in India - a melting pot of academia, industry and research. The best and brightest young men and women pursue its academic programs.

The City of Kolkata

Kolkata is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in the eastern part of India on the east bank of the river Hooghly. The city has a population of about 15 million and it is the fourth largest city in India. Home to five Nobel laureates: Ronald Ross, Sir C.V. Raman, Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa and Amartya Sen, Kolkata has been the intellectual and cultural nerve centre of the country, where many modern movements in art, cinema and theatre, science and industry began. India’s quest for freedom began in this city.

Kolkata’s recorded history goes back to 1690, when Job Charnock, an official of the British East India Company founded the city of “Calcutta”. Initially, the city was based more or less around the Fort William area and since then expanded phenomenally in all directions. Kolkata is a city of landmarks for tourists. The Howrah Bridge, a 2,150 feet long engineering marvel was constructed in 1942. Some of India’s beautiful heritage buildings and colonial architecture are to be seen in Calcutta. Kolkata has many buildings adorned with Gothic, Baroque, Roman, Oriental and Indo-Islamic (including Mughal) motifs. Established in 1814, the Indian Museum is the oldest museum in Asia and houses vast collection of Indian natural history and Indian art. The Victoria Memorial, one of the major tourist attractions in Kolkata, has a museum documenting the city's history. The National Library of India is India's leading public library. The Ochterloney Monument (nowadays known as the Shahid Minar) is also a prominent landmark.

The city is also renowned for its gastronomic delights. One can experience quintessential Bengali cuisines at the following restaurants, 13 Parbon, Oh! Calcutta, 6 Ballygunge Place, Kewpie’s, Aaheli-Peerless Inn. For multi-cuisine options, one could sample some of the treats at Mainland China, Marco Polo, Silver Oak, Peerless Inn, Peter Cat, Moulin Rouge, Eden Pavilion-ITC Sonar, Grain of Salt, La Terrasse at Oberoi Grand, Sourav’s- The Food Pavilion, The Waterside Café-Hyatt and Aqua at The Park. For shopping, New Market in the city’s business hub promises a unique experience, while others in the likes of Gariahat market and Air-conditioned market provide a peek into the traditional shopping districts of Kolkata. Several large supermarkets like South City Mall, Mani Square, City Centre I & II and Shoppers’ Stop provide excellent brand hunting opportunities.

The winter months of December to February are the best months to visit Kolkata. The weather is pleasurable with temperatures around 20 C. Early mornings are foggy and ideal for leisurely walks.

Conference Organising Committee

Prof Nisigandha Bhuyan | Prof Arpita Ghosh | Prof Ramendra Singh | Prof V.K. Unni

IIM Calcutta