Thesis
Business strategy and Innovation partnerships for Sustainability: a guide on how to build a responsible corporate strategy
I. IDENTITY
II. DESCRIPTION
III. FILTERS
Laetitia arises from a very varied educational background, as much in term of its content (Finance, Management, Economics, Strategy) as in term of its location (Morocco, Cameroon, England, France). In December 2012, she was awarded a Master in International Business Management by the Bradford Business School in England. Strong of her diverse experience, she then built up a research project on Eco - innovation and Corporate Social Responsibility which would be integrated into the REEDS doctoral programme from November 2013 under the theme "Business strategy and Innovation partnerships for Sustainability: a guide on how to build a responsible corporate strategy". The work is aimed at unveiling a more responsible and still as efficacious way of doing business, to be incorporated from the very conceptualization of that business.
The PhD research will draw an initial impetus from Donna Wood’s approach to corporate social performance (1991), one of the major academic contributions to the evolution of CSR concepts. The researcher will exploit Wood’s model of CSR as a core concept for business strategy, through the following confrontations:
- A reappraisal of the application and pertinence of the Wood model, in consideration with the events and other changes which have occurred in the world since 1991;
- An appraisal of the AASHES Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Ranking System (STARS) which is currently used in a world-wide network of higher education institutions and which can be considered as a leader for the implementation of sustainability responsibility principles into corporate strategies of the research and higher education community;
- Lessons gained from the scrutiny of some remarkable businesses, either recognized by stakeholders and consumers for their CSR practice (based on the Reputation Institute survey, 2012 for example) or identified as high performing members of the Climate – KIC network of business and other innovation partners.
The confrontation of findings from each of these three domains will provide for an “updated” vision of CSR and for the design and implementation of business strategy development procedures responding to current climate challenges in the light of 20 years of experience since Wood’s performance model.
The results of the research undertaken will constitute a learning and management resource for company managers on the notion of corporate responsibility and on options for application of the concept at the core stages of elaboration of the firm's strategy. Concretely, the work is destined to produce an innovative management tool destined to help managers build an efficient corporate strategy in respect with the exigences related to today's fast degrading socio - environmental situation.