Ongoing Research Topics
We run mid-term research cycles, set through conversations with both academia and practitioners in the field of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability. For the research cycle starting in 2010 we have identified several areas of research as priorities for us to explore over the coming years (2010-12).
We take a three-level approach to our research:
- At the level of the individual, we are focused on the mindsets, behaviours and skills of individual employees, managers and leaders.
- At the level of the firm, we are investigating the obstacles to embedding CR and sustainability, and how these are successfully overcome so that CR is built into business purpose and strategy rather than being a bolt-on to business operations.
- At the system level, we are examining what constitutes an enabling environment for corporate responsibility and the results that derive from this for both business and society. We are also exploring the system that enables markets and investments, and the durability of this system.
For this cycle we are researching across all three of these levels in specific areas of interest. If you are interested in learning more please contact us or visit our Library for relevant publications:
- The individual: engaging employees in CR (sense-making occasional paper, engaging employees how to guide, paper and possible book); social intrapreneurs (who they are and how to enable them, resulting in 2 papers and a book); and the contribution of the individual to the greater good (via teaching case studies created with the Pears Foundation Business School Partnership)
- The firm: embedding CR/sustainability into the firm by helping businesses to understand the business case relevant to them (joint research with BITC); managing knowledge better (how to guide); engaging organisational stakeholders better (Occasional paper and academic paper), marketing internally (occasional paper); embedding into business functions and strategy (how to guide); the role of CR in each discipline (SOM book); SME roadmap (booklet); social enterprises and sustainable growth; and the role of boards and NEDs as individuals as well as a collective leading the organisation
- The system: the interface between entrepreneur, sustainability and ageing: a joint research project with the organization Volans; the system of markets and the impacts this has on society.
Examples of our work:
The individual: Social Intrapreneurs Phase 1
Click here to download "Intersecting Transformations: Business and the Third Sector" from the 2010 CSI International Research conference at the Centre for Social Impact, Sydney. Click here to see a recording of an interview on this topic given by Professor David Grayson in Sydney. We also have an Occasional Paper looking at what and who social intrapreneurs are.
The system: The Second Half Project
The aim of the Second Half Network (click here to view PowerPoint). The Doughty Centre has teamed up with Visiting Professor John Elkington of Volans and Advisory Council member Peter Lacy and Accenture’s global sustainability practice to create the “Second Half Network” – where individuals and organisations interested in the interface between demographic change and sustainability and/or entrepreneurship (social and responsible) can develop thinking and action.
Opening statement from Second Half Network Summary of 2010 Second Half Conversations - Click here to download a pdf version of "The Second Half: Ageing, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability.·
Social enterprise and the Second Half
Corporate responsibility and an ageing society
Wanted: companies helping 'Social Intrapreneurs' drive business innovation
All businesses are interested in innovation. They want to understand how it works, how they can encourage their own people to do more of it and how their companies can benefit from it. The second phase of this research will examine how corporate environments can foster the development of their social intrapreneurs and drive creation of social and commercial value for their businesses and wider communities.
Click here for details of how your company could benefit from participating in this study.