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Professional Development Workshop

at the Academy of Management Conference

Aug 3-7. 2012, in Boston, US

Business, Environmental, and Social Issues in the African context

Deadline for abstract submissions: May 25, 2012

Co-organizers

Ans Kolk, University of Amsterdam Business School, The Netherlands

Miguel Rivera-Santos, Babson College, US

Call for Abstracts

The goal of the PDW is to help young scholars develop high-quality research on the African context and to further collaboration around a research agenda on the Continent. With this objective, we will bring together a group of senior scholars, who all agreed to provide individual feedback to young researchers on their research projects / papers in progress. Scholars who accepted to join the PDW include:

-          Frances Bowen, Queen Mary University of London, UK (if scheduling permits)

-          Oana Branzei, Richard Ivey School of Business, Canada (if scheduling permits)

-          Jonathan Doh, Villanova University, U.S.

-          Carolyn Egri, Simon Fraser University, Canada

-          Robert Grosse, George Mason University, U.S.

-          Dima Jamali, American University of Beirut, Lebanon

-          Ans Kolk, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

-          Aldas Kriauciunas, Purdue University, U.S.

-          Alan Meyer, University of Oregon, U.S. (if scheduling permits)

-          Anne Parmigiani, University of Oregon, U.S.

-          Miguel Rivera-Santos, Babson College, U.S.

-          Carlos Rufín, Suffolk University, U.S.

-          Claire Simmers, Saint Joseph's University, U.S.

-          Jim Walsh, University of Michigan, U.S.

-          Duane Windsor, Rice University, U.S. (if scheduling permits)

-          David Zoogah, Morgan State University, U.S.

Participants in this Professional Development Workshop can use the feedback obtained to improve their papers for a possible submission to a special issue of Business & Society edited by the organizers. The submission deadline for the special issue will be April 30, 2013; participation in this PDW will not be required for the submission of a paper to the special issue.

We intend this to be a working session, helping authors develop rough drafts of manuscripts, with a focus on sharpening their questions, framing, and contributions. Participants should send a 3-5 page abstract by May 25 to mrivera@babson.edu. We will accept both empirical and conceptual papers on any topic, as long as it is related to business, environmental or social issues in Africa. Priority will be given to young scholars from African universities. For participants to gain the best feedback from the senior scholars, we will limit the number of participants. The notification of acceptance will be sent by June 15.

The workshop is sponsored by the Organizations and the Natural Environment (ONE) division and is embedded in the activities of the Africa Academy of Management.

The context: Business, environmental and social issues in Africa

Over the last several years, scholarly interest in the environmental / social impact of business and in the specificities of business in developing economies has grown considerably, as illustrated by the fact that three out of the last five Academy of Management meetings had environmental or social themes. The analysis of the environmental impact of business and of the 'greening of organizations' has thus not only become a major line of research in the field of management, but is also highly relevant for practice (e.g., Bansal & Gao, 2006; Etzion, 2007; Kolk, 2000). Similarly, the study of the social impact of business has sparked considerable interest both in the scholarly community and in the popular business press around the world. In particular, a thriving 'business and society' literature has emerged focusing on corporate social responsibility (e.g., Carroll, 1999; Whetten, Rands & Godfrey, 2002), the role of stakeholders (e.g., Laplume, Sonpar & Litz, 2008; Mitchell, Agle & Wood, 1997), the financial implications of being socially responsible (e.g., Ahmed, Nanda & Schnusenberg, 2010; Mackey, Mackey & Barney, 2007; Margolis, Elfenbein & Walsh, 2007), and the Base-of-Pyramid approach (Prahalad & Hammond, 2002; Prahalad & Hart, 2002). Finally, the specificities of business in developing economies has sparked a thriving literature focusing on the degree to which business practices differ in developing and emerging contexts (e.g., Khanna & Palepu, 1997; Peng, Wang & Jiang, 2008). In particular, management scholars' interest in the informal economy and its role in developing economies has been steadily increasing (Godfrey, 2011), leading to AOM 2012's theme.

While business, environmental and social issues exist across the globe, Africa not only provides unique business environments but also seems to accumulate important environmental problems and prevalent social issues. A recent overview of environmental issues in Southern Africa, for instance, points to a long list of environmental problems, including global warming and climate variability, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, desertification-land degradation, waste and littering, population growth, urbanization, pollution, poverty and health hazards (Darkoh, 2009). These are but a few examples of the importance of environmental issues in Africa, and they are compounded by major social problems. The World Bank ranked 26 African countries among the 30 poorest countries in the world in GDP (PPP) in 2009. In parallel, while the number of wars across the continent has decreased since the 1990s, many countries, including Somalia, DR Congo, or Sudan are still mired in conflict, while others, such as Zimbabwe, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya or Nigeria continue to show worrying signs of political instability. These environmental and social issues are further compounded by the fact that African economies are characterized by inefficient formal institutions and by a prevalence of the informal economy (Rivera-Santos, Rufín & Kolk, 2012).

Yet, in spite of the importance of business, environmental and social issues in Africa, very few published papers in mainstream management journals use African data to explore these issues. This applies to both international management and management in general. In international management, recent overview articles presenting the 'state of the art' in corporate responsibility in international management (Egri & Ralston, 2008) and corporate social responsibility, sustainable development and international business (Kolk & Van Tulder, 2010) showed a serious lack of attention for Africa. More generally, very few papers published in leading management journals use African data or focus on the African context, in spite of a surge of interest for research on fast-growing economies and on the role of the informal economy in business. A recent systematic literature search for published papers on Africa in leading management journals using Proquest reveals. We found a total of 27 published papers, of which only 7 were published in the last decade. Among African countries, only three countries appear in more than two papers: South Africa (13 papers), Nigeria (4) and Egypt (4). Interestingly, a main focus on South Africa, and Nigeria to a lesser extent, was also found in overview studies on corporate social responsibility in Africa that included more specialized publications (Kolk & Lenfant, 2010; Visser, 2006).

This dearth of studies suggests two important challenges to research in the African context: the need for a better understanding of publishing standards and requirements for African scholars interested in publishing in high-quality journals, and the need for collaborations with African researchers for Western scholars interested in the African context. The goal of this PDW and of the associated special issue in Business & Society is to start tackling these challenges, by organizing a forum in which African and Western scholars can meet, and in which senior scholars can help younger researchers, especially from Africa, develop and improve their research projects.

References

Ahmed, P., Nanda, S., & Schnusenberg, O. 2010. Can firms do well while doing good? Applied Financial Economics, 20(11): 845-860.

Bansal, P., & Gao, J. 2006. Building the future by looking to the past: Examining research published on organizations and environment. Organization & Environment, 19(4): 458-478.

Carroll, A. B. 1999. Corporate social responsibility. Evolution of a definitional construct. Business & Society, 38(3): 268-295.

Darkoh, M. B. K. 2009. An overview of environmental issues in Southern Africa. African Journal of Ecology, 47(s1): 93-98.

Egri, C. P., & Ralston, D. A. 2008. Corporate responsibility: A review of international management research from 1998 to 2007. Journal of International Management, 14: 319-339.

Etzion, D. 2007. Research on organizations and the natural environment, 1992-present: A review. Journal of Management, 33(4): 637-664.

Godfrey, P. C. 2011. Toward a theory of he informal economy. Academy of Management Annals, 5(1): 231-277.

Khanna, T., & Palepu, K. 1997. Why focused strategies may be wrong for emerging markets. Harvard Business Review, 75: 41-51.

Kolk, A. 2000. Economics of Environmental Management. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Kolk, A., & Lenfant, F. 2010. MNC reporting on CSR and conflict in Central Africa. Journal of Business Ethics, 93: 241-255.

Kolk, A., & Van Tulder, R. 2010. International business, corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. International Business Review, 19(2): 119-125.

Laplume, A. O., Sonpar, K., & Litz, R. A. 2008. Stakeholder Theory: Reviewing a Theory That Moves Us. Journal of Management, 34(6): 1152-1189.

Mackey, A., Mackey, T. B., & Barney, J. B. 2007. Corporate Social Responsibility and firm performance:investor preferences and corporate strategies. The Academy of Management Review, 32(3): 817-835.

Margolis, J. D., Elfenbein, D. W., & Walsh, J. P. 2007. Does it pay to be good? A meta-analysis and redirection of research on the relationship between corporate social and financial performance. Paper presented at the Academy of Management Conference, Philadelphia, August - <http://stakeholder.bu.edu/2007/Docs/Walsh,%20Jim%20Does%20It%20Pay%20to%20Be%20Good.pdf>.

Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. 1997. Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of Management Review, 22(4): 853-885.

Peng, M., Wang, D., & Jiang, Y. 2008. An institution-based view of international business strategy. Journal of International Business Studies, 39: 920–936.

Prahalad, C. K., & Hammond, A. L. 2002. Serving the world's poor, profitably. Harvard Business Review(September): 48-57.

Prahalad, C. K., & Hart, S. L. 2002. The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Strategy+Business, 20: 1-13.

Rivera-Santos, M., Rufín, C., & Kolk, A. 2012. Bridging the Institutional Divide: Partnerships in Subsistence Markets. Journal of Business Research, doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.02.013.

Visser, W. 2006. Research on corporate citizenship in Africa: A ten-year review (1995-2005). In W. Visser, M. McIntosh and C. Middleton (Eds.), Corporate citizenship in Africa: Lessons from the past; paths to the future. Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing.

Whetten, D. A., Rands, G., & Godfrey, P. 2002. What are the responsibilities of business to society? In A. Pettigrew, H. Thomas and R. Whittington (Eds.), Handbook of Strategy and Management: 373-408. London: Sage.

Miguel Rivera-Santos, PhD

Associate Professor of Strategy and International Business

Babson College - Management Division

Tomasso Hall - 321

231 Forest Street

Babson Park MA 02457

Phone: +1-781-239-5325

Fax: +1-781-239-5272

mrivera@babson.edu

http://www3.babson.edu/Academics/faculty/mrivera.cfm