Value(s) for whom?
The Changing Role of Business in Society
25 – 27 May 2016 in Hamburg, Germany
Conference Organization: Prof. Dr. Timo Busch
 
 
The Group for Research on Organizations and the Natural Environment (GRONEN) is an open network of engaged scholars focused on innovative thinking in order to generate transformative ways of protecting the Earth.

The field of business sustainability continues to wrestle with an unsolved tension. On the one hand, firms continue to thrive and extend their business capacity. On the other hand, there is now decades of accumulated evidence that many industries’ production patterns are not sustainable. While experts call for more sustainable business practices, many business leaders still believe that being environmentally and socially sustainable comes at a cost to their shareholders.

What can be done to solve this tension between economic self-interest and societal-beneficial action? How can we extend our narrow understanding of creating economic value towards a broader understanding of creating values for different stakeholders? How can research support businesses in realizing a transformation from shareholder to stakeholder orientation? In asking critical questions about how firms create value and values and trying to offer potential answers, the GRONEN 2016 conference intends to advance research in the following two related focal areas:

1. Creating value(s): A new role of the corporation in society?
2. Valuing impacts: How relevant and reliable are sustainability measures?