March 3, 2006
Is Corporate Social Responsibility Serious Business?
Start: Friday, March 3, 2006 9:00 AM
End: Friday, March 3, 2006 4:30 PM
Location: Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth
Floor, AEI
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
See the Event Video Here
See the Event Summary Here
See the Speaker Biographies Here
A decade ago, corporate social responsibility (CSR) was a trendy idea promoted by quirky entrepreneurial companies like Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Now more than 50 percent of the Global 250 corporations issue corporate responsibility reports, and the public expects visible CSR initiatives from businesses of all sizes. Many companies use CSR as a way to burnish their image, generate brand equity, and increase employee loyalty. Corporate critics and "socially responsible investors" have developed CSR measures to promote wide-ranging policies, including labor rights and curbs on global warming.
But is CSR really a win-win situation—as its promoters claim—for both corporations and the public? Corporate leaders struggle with determining to whom their social responsibilities extend: to shareholders, employees, local communities, the environment, humanity as a whole, future generations?
This conference, organized by NGO Watch—a project sponsored by AEI and the Federalist Society— will examine the complex global CSR phenomenon and take an in-depth look at Wal-Mart, which has been under fire for some of its corporate, social, and environmental practices. It will also draw upon the views of a wide range of CSR advocates and critics from academia, the corporate and public relations worlds, and the media.
8:45 am
Registration and Breakfast
9:00 am
Welcome: Jon Entine, AEI
9:10 am
Panel I: Does Corporate Social Responsibility Make Good Sense?
Panelists:
Elaine Sternberg, Leeds University and Tulane University
David Vogel, Haas School of Business and Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
Moderator:
Mark A. Cohen, Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University; Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies
10:30 am
Break
10:40 am
Panel II: CSR in a Globalized World
Panelists:
Aron Cramer, Business for Social Responsibility
Philip H. Rudolph, Ethical Leadership Group
Barbara Shephard, Doe Run Company
Moderator: James K. Glassman, AEI
12:15 pm
Luncheon
12:30 pm
Introduction: Jon Entine, AEI
Keynote Address: Clive Crook, Atlantic Media Group
1:30 pm
Panel III: Wal-Mart in the Crosshairs
Panelists:
Roger Ballentine, Green Strategies
Arindrajit Dube, University of California, Berkeley
Michael Hicks, Air Force Institute of Technology, Marshall University
Chris Holling, Global Insight
Moderators:
Mark A. Cohen, Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University; Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies
Jon Entine, AEI
3:30 pm
Panel IV: Lessons from Wal-Mart: CSR in the Real World
Panelists:
Frank Dixon, Innovest
Russell Roberts, Hoover Institution
Moderators:
Mark A. Cohen, Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University; Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies
Jon Entine, AEI
4:30 pm
Adjournment
More Information
Flavius Mihaies
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-828-6035
Fax: 202-862-7177
E-mail: FMihaies@aei.org
Media Inquiries
Veronique Rodman
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-862-4871
Fax: 202-862-7171
E-mail: VRodman@aei.org
You can find this online at: http://www.aei.org/event1265
