“Corporate Sustainability, Strategic Management and the Stakeholder View of the Firm” European Academy of Business in Society 5th Annual Colloquium 11 & 12 September 2006 SDA Bocconi School of Management Milan, Italy www.sdabocconi.it/eabis With special thanks to: 5°EABIS Colloquium Sponsors EU Commission FP6 Angelo Provasoli Alberto Grando Viscount Etienne Davignon Gilbert Lenssen Rector of Bocconi University Dean of SDA Bocconi Chair of EABIS President of EABIS Welcome We are very pleased to invite you to attend the 5th Annual Colloquium of the European Academy of Business in Society. This year on 11-12 September the Colloquium is hosted by the SDA Bocconi School of Management and the Università Bocconi in collaboration with Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, ENI Corporate University, ISTUD, Politecnico di Milano and Sodalitas with the support of the European Commission Sixth Research Framework Programme (FP6). A special PhD conference will take place at the Università Cattolica on 13 September. Building on the four successful previous Colloquia, the theme of this year's conference focuses on "Corporate Sustainability, Strategic Management and the Stakeholder View of the Firm”. It will tackle questions faced by managers and policy-makers in attempting to achieve sustainable growth. In particular it will explore how corporate responsibility issues affect and impact business strategies and how corporate sustainability can contribute to the strategic management of stakeholder relationships. The EABIS Annual Colloquium continues to attract high-level company representatives, academics, policy-makers and other stakeholders. The 2006 Colloquium welcomes some internationally renowned thought leaders: Mario Monti, George Soros, Thomas Donaldson and David Vogel, among others. This year's event will again aim to stimulate debate and deepen knowledge on the role of business in society as well as provide a platform for people with different backgrounds to share ideas, initiatives and experiences and to strengthen relationships, visions and practices. Demand was enormously high last year and we had to limit participation. We have identified members of the business, academic, policy-maker and stakeholder communities to whom we would like to offer early registration so as to ensure their input in shaping the changing role of business in society. At the time of producing this programme, we had already allocated more than 150 of the 250 places. With this in mind, we would encourage you to book early. We look forward to welcoming you at this event! Yours sincerely, Introduction to the Conference The 5th EABIS Annual Colloquium on 11-12 September 2006 aims to explore the link between Corporate Sustainability and Strategic Management through a strategic approach to Stakeholder Management. The debate on “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) is on-going and refuses to fade away as a short-lived fashion. Many contributors have stressed the strategic importance of a proactive corporate response to rising expectations and developments in society. Corporate Responsibility programmes and policies are often merely tactical and defensive corporate reactions to challenges by activists; top managers need to retake the initiative and develop a strategic approach on business and society, based on a new social contract. Strategy is what links a company with its market (economic, financial and technological) and non-market (social, political and cultural) environments. Any company is inextricably linked by a dynamic process of interaction with a diverse set of stakeholders in these environments, where the boundaries between market and non-market become increasingly blurred. Therefore, Corporate Sustainability is based on the capability of the firm to generate long-term value through mutually beneficial relationships with its entire network of stakeholders, ‘business stakeholders’ and ‘socio-political stakeholders’. This year’s Colloquium supports the goals of the EABIS “CSR Platform” by providing a forum for research and reflection on the place of business in society in business disciplines. Linking strategic management with stakeholder management is an important contribution to mainstreaming corporate responsibility into the heart of business theory and practice. The conceptual framework for this call for papers and for the 5th EABIS Annual Colloquium is a combination of the Resource and Knowledge, Industry Structure and Societal Institutional perspectives of the firm. It emphasizes the vital importance of the relational networks of stakeholders that sustain the firm’s processes of organizational wealth creation. However, apart from building relational capital, strategic stakeholder management also enhances a firm’s resources and capabilities, which along with relations are at the heart of current strategic management concerns. We are using the conceptual framework of Strategic Stakeholder Management as the thematic framework for the Colloquium. We have also included special attention to themes concerning small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This is an increasingly important issue in Europe and around the world and a topic of growing interest amongst EABIS members. It is also particularly fitting as SDA Bocconi is the founding partner in EABIS tasked with leading knowledge development on SME issues. Conference Chairs Francesco Perrini Antonio Tencati _________________________________________________ The Colloquium is part of the EABIS-led “CSR Platform" project, which is supported by the European Union Commission's Sixth Research Framework Programme. The “CSR Platform” aims to strengthen links between Europe’s academic researchers and those facing the practical challenges of Corporate Responsibility in Europe. By providing an interdisciplinary forum for research and reflection on the role of business in society, this year's Colloquium helps the “CSR Platform” achieve one of its key objectives. Conference The Colloquium will include a balanced program, blending presentations and thought leadership with interactive debate. ■ Keynote Speeches * Mario Monti*, President of Università Bocconi, Milan, and Former European Union Commissioner for Competition * George Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management and of the Open Society Institute. Chairman of the Central European University Board of Trustees. ■ Academic Thought Leaders * Thomas Donaldson, Professor of Ethics and Corporate Responsibility and Director of the PhD Program in Ethics & Law and European CSR Initiative, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania * David Vogel, Chair of Business Ethics, Professor of Political Science and Founder of the Center for Responsible Business, Haas School of Business, University of California (Berkeley) * Jay B. Barney, Chair of Corporate Strategy and Professor of Management & Human Resources, Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University ■ Business Leaders * Michele Calcaterra, CEO, ECPI® - E. Capital Partners Indices * Fulvio Conti, CEO, ENEL * Lex Holst, Global Vice-President for Sustainable Development, Shell Group * Umberto Paolucci, Senior Chairman (EMEA) and Corporate Vice- President, Microsoft Corporation * Massimo Scaccabarozzi, Managing Director, Janssen Cilag (Italy) and Chair, Italian-American Pharmaceutical Industry Group * Simone Russo, Managing Director and Head of Institutional Derivatives Marketing (South Europe), Goldman Sachs ■ The 2nd EABIS European Education and Training Exchange on Corporate Responsibility ■ Workshops and Research Tracks with Academic and Business Papers and Input ■ Gala Dinner at “I Chiostri dell’Umanitaria”, via Daverio 7 Who Should Attend? In order to contribute to the theory and practice of sustainable growth and the development of human capital, the Colloquium aims to attract actors from the following communities: Business representatives Policy-makers and governmental actors ■ Board members ■ Ministers / ministerial aides ■ Senior executives ■ Senior civil servants ■ Functional business representatives, ■ Policy advisors particularly in HR and Strategy Academics Labour organisations, NGOs, civil society actors ■ Deans & Senior management ■ Directors ■ Functional Professors, especially Strategy Professors ■ Senior management ■ Specialist Professors (CR, business ethics, etc.) ■ Senior research and policy teams ■ Senior research team members ■ PhDs with specific functional research interests 2nd EABIS European Education & Training Exchange On Corporate Responsibility Successfully launched in 2005 at EABIS’ 4th Annual Colloquium in Warsaw, the Education and Training Exchange on Corporate Responsibility attracted more than 60 initiatives from Companies, Business Schools and Universities, Training Providers and International Organisations and Networks (see www.eabis.org/education to learn more). The aim was to provide a platform for interactive and creative exchange of successful education and training initiatives from the academic and business sectors. The feedback we received was very positive and participants expressed the wish to actively engage in further discussions on education and training in Corporate Responsibility. We have therefore slightly modified the format of the Exchange, introducing a Symposium Series that will immediately follow the 2nd round of presentations, giving the following outline: Format The Exchange is set up like a ‘fair’ or ‘market place’. Each presenter / presenting team has an independent stand where printed materials can be displayed to showcase the initiative. Rounds There will