Conference Information

Speaker Biographies and Abstracts

Krzysztof Dembek - Krzysztof is a research fellow at the Department of Management and Marketing, and the Asia Pacific Social Impact Centre. Krzysztof has an interdisciplinary education and experience in both academia and industry. Krzysztof's work focuses on how organisations can create value for multiple stakeholders and have positive social and environmental impact. His areas of research include business models, hybrid organisations, social entrepreneurship, shred value, and bottom of the pyramid. Krzysztof also serves as Director of Industry Engagement at the Academy of Management Practice Theme Committee and works extensively bridging research and practice.

Title: Creating Value at the Base of the Pyramid: a Business Model's Perspective. Abstract: Business at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) is viewed as socially responsible and is believed to be an important factor in economic growth and poverty alleviation. However, very few ventures succeed in either of the two goals. While appropriately designed products and services are crucial for success at the BoP, we propose to go beyond the product-service focus to explore value creation potential of BoP ventures more broadly. Taking a business model perspective we find ways in which organization can create value for itself and the society. We provide a framework outlining three business model foci that organization can adopt to enhance their value creation potential: access to product/service focus, project-based focus, and complex problem-solving focus. We explain their specific characteristics, value creation logics, and value capture mechanisms. The findings suggest that the greatest value creation potential at the BoP is in linking different business models in a way that allows for addressing complex problems in a comprehensive way; not as currently proposed in delivering single products and services.

Matthew Grimes - Matthew Grimes currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, where he teaches in the areas of both strategic management and entrepreneurship. He completed his graduate studies at Vanderbilt University and Oxford, and spent the past three years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta. He was recently appointed as an International Research Fellow at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University. Matthew's research focuses on idea-stage entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and business incubation. His work in these areas has been published in top management journals such as the Academy of Management Review and the Academy of Management Journal, and he currently serves as a member of the editorial review board at the Academy of Management Journal.

Title:Lost in the Crowd: How Limited Category Alterity affects Promotional Restraint among Socially Responsible Organizations. Abstract: Organizations strive for optimal distinctiveness, seeking to simultaneously fit it and stand out relative to comparable organizations. One way organizations do so is by promoting their association with particular CSR-related categories that are perceived to offer distinction. Examples of such associations might include certifications such as Fair-trade, LEED, and the new B Corporation certification.  Yet, limited research addresses how differences between organizations' environments might affect the extent to which organizations promote or restrain the promotion of their CSR-related category membership.  This paper offers a theoretical model of promotional restraint among organizations engaged in CSR that predicts why those members' might opt into a CSR-related category yet choose to minimize their promotion of that membership. To test our hypotheses, we developed a proprietary web-based software toolset to gather data on Certified B Corporations' web-based promotion of their membership, supplementing this with over 30 interviews of B Corporation founders. Our findings contribute to ongoing scholarship on category membership and category currency as well as emerging scholarship on CSR and B Corporations.

Prakash Singh - Dr Prakash J. Singh is a Professor with the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Melbourne in Australia. He is currently the Deputy Head of Department (Teaching and Learning) and co-Director of the Social Investment Research Group. He has served as the Department's PhD and MCom program director previously. Prakash's expertise is in operations and supply chain management fields. His studies have been based in transport and logistics, healthcare, manufacturing, public sector as well as the not-for-profit and voluntary sectors. His research has been published in many leading journals including Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Business Ethics , and Int. Journal of Operations and Production Management . He has obtained Australian Research Council Discovery, Linkage and Industrial Transformation Training Centre grants to support his research. He has been awarded two Dean's Certificates for Excellent Research in recognition of the high quality of his research. Prakash has supervised numerous PhD students and postdoctoral research fellows.

Title: Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Dimensions of Firm Value: Some Evidence from Hong Kong and China. Abstract: There has been significant discussion in the literature on the impact of investments in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on a firm's market value. Little consensus exists, however, on which specific practices impact a firm's market value and the direction of their impact. In this paper, using independent assessment data on 42 mainland Chinese and Hong Kong firms listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, we empirically evaluate the impact of six core CSR dimensions of these firms, derived from some of the popular CSR indices, on their adjusted stock market value, over a three-year time period. We also explored the motives for investments in these CSR dimensions from three theoretical perspectives, namely legitimacy, institutional and stakeholder theories. Analysis of the data showed that of the six core dimensions we examined, only CSR practices focused on community investment and, to a lesser extent, CSR practices focused on enhancing workplace quality, were significant predictors of firm value. Furthermore, their impact on firm value displayed an inverted U-shaped temporal relationship, in that it took a few years for the impact to become significant, and then it subsequently faded away in the latter years. Our findings suggest that "soft" social and relational dimensions may be more impactful than "hard" technical and instrumental dimensions. Furthermore, since none of these CSR dimensions were significantly negatively related to firm value, there was no evidence to support the premise that CSR investments erode firm value. Overall, our findings provide clearer guidance to firms on the dimensions of CSR they should focus on, and advance our knowledge about the specific CSR dimensions that contribute to firm value.

Xueji Jessie Liang - Xueji Jessie Liang (xuejiliang@u.nus.edu) is an assistant professor at the Business School, Sun Yat-sen University. Jessie received her Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore. Her research interests lie in the intersection of international business and corporate strategy, including issues related to corporate social responsibility, internationalization and corporate entrepreneurship.

Title: Internationalization and Corporate Social Performance: an Institutional Approach. Abstract: Building on the institutional approach that national institutions are important determinants of corporate social performance (CSP), the study posits that according to the level of institutional diversity and institutional convergence, CSP can be categorized into two dimensions: social dimension and regulatory dimension. As firms internationalize, institutions that relate to the social dimension of CSP diversify across nation. While in its regulatory dimension, institutions tend to converge with internationalization. To the extent that institutional diversity decreases CSP while institutional convergence increases CSP, internationalization is expected to have a positive effect on the regulatory dimension of CSP, but a negative effect on the social dimension of CSP. Hypotheses were tested with a sample of 2,138 U.S. public firms from 2003-2011. Results from the analyses confirm that internationalization has a negative effect on the social dimension of CSP, but a positive effect on the environment and governance domains of CSP. Additionally, the findings indicate that country-level institutional diversity and country-level CSR are two moderators of the relationship between internationalization and CSP, confirming the mechanisms proposed in the study.

Haibin Yang - Haibin YANG, Professor in Strategic Management at City University of Hong Kong, received his Ph.D. from University of Texas at Dallas. His research interests include strategic networks, alliances, acquisitions, innovation, entrepreneurship, and transition economy. His teaching interests are strategic management, international business, and China business. His research works have appeared in some top-tier management journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, and Journal of Management, etc.

Title: Corporate Philanthropy and Corporate Financial Performance: The S-Curve Relationship. Abstract: The relationship between corporate philanthropy (CP) and corporate financial performance has remained inconclusive after decades of research. This study advances our understanding by contending that stakeholders may react differently to a firm's various levels of corporate philanthropic giving. The relationship between CP and firm performance could be better captured using an S-curve shape in that either a low or high level of CP will decrease, while a moderate level of CP will increase, firm performance. We further argue that stakeholders may have higher expectations for the social performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) versus private-owned enterprises (POEs), resulting in a lower performance effect for SOEs with the same amount of corporate philanthropic giving. Our analyses of listed firms in China during the period from 2001 to 2010 largely support these arguments.

Anoop Madhok - Anoop Madhok is a Professor of Strategy and holds the Scotiabank Professorship in International Business & Entrepreneurship at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Vrije University, Amsterdam. His research spans topics in strategy, international business and entrepreneurship, and his current work focuses on strategic alliances, acquisitions and the competitiveness of emerging market multinationals. His work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of International Business Studies, among many others.

Title: Think Globally, Act Cooperatively: Local Milieu Dynamics, the Inv-MNE Interface and Firm Internationalization. Abstract: This paper is driven by the following two questions: (1) At the broader level of the milieu, what are the temporal and spatial dynamics underlying the transformation of a new venture's local relationship with multinationals into one that is cross-border and multi-faceted? (2) At a more specific level of the actors involved, what is the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the international new venture (INV) internationalization process? Based on three longitudinal cases in the Bangalore software industry, we identify three distinct internationalization pathways: passive, active and co-creation, which exhibit increasing levels of new ventures' technological innovation and MNEs' partnering innovation. The particular pathway adopted results from co-alignment between these two innovation levels, which reflect these actors' respective strategies and the "effortful" nature of MNE-INV engagement. Such coalignment coevolves with the local milieu, which comprises both INVs and MNE subsidiaries among other actors and provides enabling conditions for these pathways.

Hari Bapuji - Dr. Hari Bapuji is an Associate Professor of strategic management and international business at University of Manitoba. His current research is focused on the effect of economic inequality on organizational performance. He has published two books and numerous scholarly articles in leading management journals, including Harvard Business Review, Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Operations Management, Management and Organization Review, Management Learning, and Strategic Organization. Dr. Bapuji's research has been widely cited by hundreds of print and electronic media outlets, including New York Times, Huffington Post, Financial Times, Business Week, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN, China Daily, USA Today, and CBC. More on Dr. Bapuji can be found at www.haribapuji.org 

Title: MNEs and Economic Inequality. Abstract: Strategies and practices of MNEs have recently come under scrutiny in the wake rising economic inequality. However, international business scholarship has rarely paid attention to the relationship between MNEs and economic inequality. This paper provides a conceptual framework to study how MNEs contribute to economic inequality in a society and are in turn affected by it. 

Nattavud Pimpa - Dr Pimpa is a researcher, author, teacher and advisor in international business and society. His research focuses on multinational corporations (MNCs) and society, international mining MNCs in Mekong countries, and international business, gender equity and poverty alleviation. He has published a number of journal articles in this topic.More recently, his focus has expanded to international leadership and management of MNCs in Southeast Asia. Prior to joining RMIT, he worked in various academic projects with Monash University, Burapha University, the Thai Ministry of Education, British Council, and the World Bank. 

Title: CSR and Women Empowerment: Lessons Learnt from Mining Industry in Laos. Abstract: This presentation reports key findings on how mining multinational corporations affect and promote women in the community. Our team collected data from 76 community members from Villabouly in the Southern of Lao PDR where an international mining company has been operating in the last two decades. Data confirm that with proper CSR actions that engage various actors in the community, women can be empowered through various social schemes in terms of public health, education and training, and professional skills. More importantly, CSR strategies focusing on empowering women can also promote equity and flexible roles among men and women in the mining community.

Charlie Huang - Dr Huang is Senior Lecturer at School of Management, RMIT University.  He focuses his research on international business and strategic management.  His publications appear in Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Small Business Management, International Small Business Journal, and R&D Management.  Dr Huang is also co-author of two books: Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) in Australia (Huang & Austin, 2011), and Managing Chinese OFDI: From Entry Strategy to Sustainable Development in Australia (Huang & Zhu, 2015). He has received several research grants from industry and government, including two recent grants: Community Engagement by Chinese Firms in Australia (2013-14), Regional Australia Engagement with China's Opportunity (2015-16), from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.  Dr Huang has provided consulting services and training programs to many Australian firms, such as Rio Tinto, BHP, and Atlas Iron.  He was the Founding Director of China-Australia Business Research Centre at Edith Cowan University and Dean of International College at Wuhan University of Science and Technology.

Title: Stakeholder Salience, CSR Strategy and their Impact on the Community Engagement Performance by Chinese-controlled Mining Companies in Australia.Abstract: Salient stakeholder has been identified as a key driver of firms' CSR behaviours. However, there has been less consideration how such relationship affected by firms' CSR strategic stances.  This is particularly true in the case of MNCs from emerging multinational corporations (EMNCs).  In this paper, we focus on the community engagement practices and performance of three Chinese-controlled mining companies operating in Australia.  We conducted interviews with 17 managers and 11 community representatives from three mining communities and made two field trips to the mining sites.   Measurements of community engagement performance were developed based on literature review.  The findings show that stakeholder salience drives the performance of corporate community engagement programs.  Additionally the relationship between stakeholder salience and community engagement performance is moderated by the firm's CSR strategic stance, which is partly affected by the role it plays in its parent company.  These findings were validated with six interviewees from three mining companies and their communities and extend our understanding of the factors influencing community engagement performance in EMNCs.