Last Last Waltz for the VELUX Chair of Corporate Sustainability

The last activity of the VELUX Chair took place with an internal workshop on 17th January 2020.  This follows the last public event held, with the Governing Responsible Business research programme in June 2019, From Global Goals to Local Impact: Implementing Corporate Sustainability, and the final funded activities in December 2019. 

This closing workshop provided an opportunity to take stock of our journeys, to learn about and  give feedback on each other’s continuing work, and to consolidate the network.

All of the members of the Chair participated along with Mette Morsing who had made the proposal to the VELUX Fonden for the establishment of the Chair.

Jeremy Moon’s presentation was based on his recent paper, ‘The meaning and dynamics of CSR’ Academy of Management Review 2020 (with Dirk Matten).  Jeremy has now assumed the directorship of the CBS Sustainability Centre.

Mette Morsing introduced her recent paper ‘Cross Sector Partnerships as Capitalism’s new Development Agents. Reconceiving Impact as Empowerment’ Business & Society 2019 (with Anne Vestergaard & Luisa Murphy).  Mette continues to combine duties at: CBS; the Mistra Centre for Susatinable Markets (Stockholm School of Economics); and the UN Principles of Management Education.

Lauren McCarthy talked about her work in the VELUX Chair and beyond under the title ‘Where next for gender and CSR?’.  Lauren is now Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director at the Centre for Research into Sustainability, Royal Holloway University of London.  She won the Business Ethics Quarterly Best Paper Award, 2019.

Maha Rafi Atal introduced the conceptual findings from her recently completed book manuscript, When Companies Rule, in a talk entitled “The Nature of (Corporate) Power: Making Room for Ideology in the study of Corporate Political Authority.”  Maha is now a Post-doctoral fellow in both CBS Sustainability and the Centre for Business and Development Studies, and is mainly working on the ‘Commodifying Compassion’ research project funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research and led by Lisa Richey.

Sarah Castaldi’s presentation, ‘Made in Ethiopia: the role of NGO-led initiatives in sustainable supplier development’ provided the background to her forthcoming research field trip to Ethiopia on this novel issue.  She is pursuing this research under a Carlsberg Post-doctoral Research Fellowship in both CBS Sustainability and the Centre for Business and Development Studies. 
 
Erin Leitheiser’s presentation was on ‘An Analytical Framework for Private Governance: Structure and Strategy’ and it bridged her work within the VELUX Chair and her current responsibilities as Post-doctoral Fellow and Project Manager on the Danida founded ‘Regulating International Supply Chains’ project funded by DANIDA.  She too works within CBS Sustainability and the Centre for Business and Development Studies.  

Luisa Murphy presented some of her concluding thoughts on her nearly completed PhD thesis under the title ‘Is there a role for regional MSIs in the governance of CSR? A case of ASEAN approaches, organizing and interactions for anti-corruption’.  She plans to submit shortly!  Luisa had also been the first Project Manager of the VELUX Chair.

Louise Thomsen, the second Project Manager of the VELUX Chair, spoke about her ‘Experiences of Sustainability Policies & Practices: from CBS to the Nordic Region’. This reflected on her time working at CBS within the VELUX Chair and the Principles for Responsible Management Education initiative, and her first impressions of work as Senior Consultant for Nordic Sustainability. 
 
As the photograph shows, the day was a happy one, and a continued in that mood into the evening.
 
All that needs to be done now is to present the VELUX Fonden with the final budget statement and report, and our final thank you.  Then the Chair will fold but the work live on.