Call for abstracts

Corporate Responsibility Research Conference CRRC 2013
>> CSR – Making the Number of Options Grow! <<

The Institute of Systems Sciences, Innovation and Sustainability Research, University of Graz (Austria) in association with Euromed Management School (Marseille/France) the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds (UK) organise the 2013 Corporate Responsibility Research Conference (CRRC)

from 11th – 13th September 2013
at the University of Graz, Graz (Austria)

Click here to download a PDF file with the Call for abstracts. [157 KB]

For both, enterprises and society as a whole, strategically implemented Corporate Social Responsibility can contribute to making the number of options grow. Creating options is considered as an important feature of sustainable development just as well as creating adaptive capacities (Holling 2001). Fostering enterprises’ and the society’s adaptive capacities to meet with disturbances also means to increase their resilience. Both, adaptive capacities and resilience, open up options for re-evaluating the current situation, triggering social mobilization, recombining sources of experience and knowledge for learning, and sparking novelty and innovation (Walker et al 2004).

These options are also what the European Commission CSR strategy (2011) claims to be the benefits of CSR on the enterprise level - in terms of “risk management, cost savings, access to capital, customer relationships, human resource management, and innovation capacity.” In addition, the options are able to add shared values concerning the economic, environmental, and social prosperities of society. Due to this close relationship of CSR, sustainable development, resilience, adaptive capacities, and the creation of new options we chose “CSR – Making the number of options grow!” to be the 2013 CRRC main motto.

The tradition of CRR is to focus on participants and the debate. We aim to create an environment that is welcoming and friendly yet challenges the existing knowledge base and drives the debate around corporate responsibility forward. We are keen to invite a wide variety of participants from across disciplinary backgrounds and from a variety of academic departments.

CRRC is the ideal place to test new ideas and to experiment with new formats.
Therefore we also welcome suggestions for special workshop streams and innovative ideas.

Topics include but are not limited to:

Initial abstracts of a maximum of 600 words should be emailed to abstracts@crrconference.org by 12th April 2013 (extended deadline). Files should be sent in MS Word format, and the file name should be first author’s surname. Please include names, affiliations and contact details of all authors. Please use a maximum of 600 words, answering the following questions:

• Research Question(s): What is the submission's goal?
• Theoretical Framework: What main concepts, models or theories are used in the paper? Include 3-4 central references.
• Method: Which method is used for the research work?
• Findings: What are the main outcomes and results?

Abstracts will be reviewed and selected by the scientific committee of the conference. Authors will be notified of acceptance by 10th May 2013.

The conference papers of a maximum of 6,000 words including references should be emailed to papers@crrconference.org no later than 15th August 2013. Please note that papers will not be accepted unless speaker(s) have registered in full for the conference.

Our popular pre-conference PhD Workshop will be held on the afternoon of 11th September 2013. It will appeal to first-time attendees as well as those who have attended throughout their PhD career. This annual workshop provides a relaxed environment to allow lively exchange and discussion between PhD students as well as the opportunity to gain helpful advice and feedback from a panel of experienced PhD supervisors in the field. We’ve expanded the PhD workshop last year and we want to continue talking about Post PhD opportunities and we will of course cover needs of PhD students throughout their studies. Be sure to join us and have your voice heard in setting a course for the future of CSR research.

The scientific committee of the conference will review all papers presented and award two prizes for the CRRC best overall paper and the CRRC best PhD paper at the conference dinner. Criteria for the selection process are contribution to the research field, quality of the research, innovativeness, and diversity of views.

The conference fees include participation, caterings, conference dinner, PhD dinner (after PhD Workshop participation), and social events. Not included is accommodation. We will provide information on that in time.

Copyright of the picture Presse und Kommunikation University of Graz