International Governance Workshop

 

Sustainability is a Governance issue
11-12 June 2019 – Barcelona

CALL for PAPERS

The dismissal of the French minister of Environment can be considered a political epiphenomenon but it underlines the necessity of considering sustainability at a global governance level. This event might also point at the sustainability of corporate governance as intimately linked to the global sustainability.

The increasingly uncertain and complex global environment highlights the urgency of a governance for sustainability. For this purpose, corporate governance debates have extended beyond corporations, but within the same traditional paradigms and models as if all organisations, institutions, social and political entities are economic enterprises. Such complexity necessitates rethinking the nature of corporate objectives and concepts such as organisational purpose and, accordingly, organisational strategy, structure, mechanisms, and processes, within an emerging new transnational order.

Governance and sustainability are fundamental to the continuing operation of any corporation. They moved from being fashionable concepts to being complex and intertwined. While it is relatively clear what is generally meant by corporate governance it is much less clear what is meant by sustainability. However, built through the analytical lens of Western interests, the well-beaten paths of mainstream corporate governance models, guidelines and reforms, without comprehensive, encompassing and innovative theories, have not engaged adequately with contemporary and evolutionary debates for equitable and sustainable new global development. Global economic and social turmoil undermine the old global system.

Many initial assumptions about the appeal of global development and governance have run aground on the shoals of countervailing realities. Understanding the hegemony of formal markets reveals the hidden domination of ‘new’ old elites who are deeply involved in driving the growth of all types of markets. Formal and informal markets are becoming intertwined in such a way that only focused analysis can shed light on what is truly contributing to societal well-being or standing in its way.

Many scholars focus on value creation in all types of markets but less is done for value distribution. For that aim, the concept of value itself has to be examined more critically to develop an alternative way of thinking about the marketable appeal of (corporate) governance best practices. Management literature has begun to question these issues and to call for a deeper understanding of the dynamics of political, social and corporate changes. Not only scholars in management, but also those in political science and law urge rethinking of governance definitions and frameworks for markets as a unique arbiter. Distinctive calls to rethink the purpose, form and value of organisations are converging upon the broad concept of ‘corporate’ governance to better grasp the changing interplay of governments, civil society actors and corporations. Accordingly, studies are needed that examine these dynamics from multiple perspectives, and critical thinking is required to build knowledge for generating new creative, alternative approaches to corporate governance.

This workshop aims to establish a foundation for building “local” theories and methodologies: in this call for papers we invite academics (but not exclusively) to present cutting edge research and thought leadership dealing with emerging directions for corporate governance sustaining sustainability. We seek empirical and conceptual papers which address a diverse set of issues that include but are not limited to the following debates:

• How could new collaborations between national states, corporations and NGOs promote policies and actions to meet the global/local sustainability?
• Are transnational corporations, organisations or similar institutions, in their present form, able to promote and implement sustainability?
• How could local governance practices for the ‘big south’ growing economies help to enlarge the picture and address a new (corporate) governance with regard to global sustainability?
• What happens to governance mechanisms when the new factors of production, such as knowledge, intelligence, and digital, become central to overall ‘social well-being’?
• What new socio-political arrangements are needed to help corporations address the climate change challenge?
• Are concepts such as gender, ethnicity or identity still central to corporate governance? Are they part of the problem or part of the solution to governance evolution?
• Is it the role of corporations (and their governance) to be called upon to provide solutions to sustainability issues? What main features characterise the sustainability challenge?
• What is the effective role of all the reporting guides and directions in preventing bad “governance” of sustainability?
• Is the triple bottom line theory gaining space and notoriety enough to impose parity of treatment to the economic, social, and environmental dimensions.

Keynote speakers

Prof. Alessandro Zattoni, LUISS Business School – School of Management
co Editor-in-Chief of Corporate Governance: An International Review

Full professor of Strategy and Dean of the Business and Management Department at LUISS University Rome. Previously he was Associate Dean for Executive Education and Life-Long Learning and Director of the XI and XII edition of EMBA at LUISS Business School. He has been visiting scholar at the Wharton School of Pennsylvania University, at the Queensland University of Technology, and at the WIAS (Waseda Institute for Advanced Studies) of Waseda University. He published more than 100 articles and books on corporate governance. He received a best paper award from Corporate Governance: An International Review, Economia & Management, and SDA Bocconi School of Management.

Jo Iwasaki, Head of Corporate Governance – ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants)

She leads ACCA’s thinking on corporate governance, including governance principles, board responsibilities, and corporate culture and governance. She has presented and lectured to various audiences, including directors, academics, and students. She is a fellow chartered accountant and was qualified while working in the tax and audit departments at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In addition to corporate governance, she also has extensive experience in auditing and assurance.

Scientific committee

• Xavier Castañer, HEC Lausanne, Switzerland
• Thomas Clarke, University of Technology, Sydney
• Coral Ingley, AUT University, Auckland
• Lotfi Karoui, École de Management- Normandie, France
• Wafa Khlif, Toulouse Business School Barcelona, Spain
• Morten Huse, BI Norwegian Business School, Norway
• Silke Machold, University of Wolverhampton Business School, UK
• Sabina Nielsen, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
• Konan A. Seny Kan, Otago Business School, University of Otago
• Sibel Yamak, University of Wolverhampton Business School, UK

Important dates

• Workshop: 11-12 June 2019
• Deadline for submission of CAAG 10-page proposals: 31 March 2019
• Notification of acceptance: 22 April 2019
• Deadline for full text CAAG submission: 26 May 2019
• Early bird/author registration: 24 May 2019

Workshop fees* in euros (VAT incl.)

• Early Bird Fee (up to 24 May 2019): 200€
• Regular Fee (25 May – 08 June 2019): 310€
• On-site Registration Fee: 350€
• (Phd) Student reduction: 50%

* are included: documentation, coffee breaks, lunch, dinner gala.

For further information please contact:

Submissions should be sent to:

Organizing committee

• Wafa Khlif, Toulouse Business School Barcelona, Spain (
  )
• Lotfi Karoui, École de Management- Normandie, France (
  )
• Anderson Konan Seny Kan, Otago Business School, University of Otago, New Zealand (
  )
• Coral Ingley, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand (
  )