Responsible Business Symposium

Grand challenges sparked by societal risks and problems of global magnitude continue to impact businesses of all sizes and sectors, and economies across the world. At the same time, global societal challenges highlight the responsibilities of businesses not only toward their shareholders, but also towards diverse stakeholder groups and particularly the environment.

We have had a year like no other. The pandemic continues to demand the world’s attention and significant business and societal action and resources. Concurrently, the tangible impacts of our climate crisis are already manifesting across the globe and negatively impacting communities at local levels. According to the United Nations (UN, 2021), 2019 was the second warmest year in recorded history; while reduced mobility during 2020 may have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 6%, this is still below the 7.6% annual reduction needed to limit the devastating impacts of global warming on nature and all life on Earth.

Global challenges such as our climate crisis cannot be addressed by single stakeholder groups and demand that businesses, governments and civil society work together to address our global climate emergency. As the UK prepares to co-host Cop26, the UN’s climate change conference seeking to stir urgent global climate action, we invite business researchers, responsible business practitioners, NGOs and scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to join us at our Second Responsible Business Symposium. The aim is to share cutting edge research and research-informed best practice in tackling the impacts of climate change on business and society, so that we can tackle the societal changes needed to develop more sustainable and resilient societies and economies going forward.

Please see below for the full programme and confirmed speakers.

View the Symposium's online Research Exhibition

Responsible Business Academic Symposium Programme 2021

To attend please book your place as well as register for your chosen paper presentations using the links below. Links and joining instructions for all sessions will be emailed to registered delegates in advance of the Symposium.

Day 1 – Tuesday 21st September 2021

15.00 - 15.05 Welcome and Agenda

Dr Caroline Moraes, Symposium Chair, Birmingham Business School

15.05 - 15.15 Opening Speech

Professor Matthew Cole, Deputy Dean of Birmingham Business School

15.15 - 16.15 Keynote Speech

Professor Sir Dieter Helm

Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford. He was Independent Chair of the Natural Capital Committee, providing advice to the government on the sustainable use of natural capital, until the end of the second term of the Committee in November 2020.  In the New Year 2021 Honours List, Dieter was awarded a knighthood for services to the environment, energy and utilities policy.

He has written many books, most recently Net Zero (September 2020, William Collins) in which he addresses the action we all need to take to tackle the climate emergency. Dieter is also Chairman of Natural Capital Research, developing natural capital models and assessments for the better use of land, and Honorary Vice President of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

Chaired by: Dr Scott Taylor, Birmingham Business School Director of Public Engagement and Responsible Business

16.15 - 16.30 Break

16.30 - 18.00 Parallel Paper Presentations - Please register below

Session 1: Climate Change, Sustainability and the Business of Socially Responsible Housing (I)

Chair: Dr Halima Sacranie, Housing and Communities Research Group, Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM), University of Birmingham

After the Flood: Housing market liquidity and house prices

Allan Beltran, University of Birmingham; Karlygash Kuralbayeva, King’s College London; and Eileen Tipoe, University of Oxford 

Circular Economy, Social Housing and the road not taken to Net-Zero Carbon

Halima Sacranie, HCRG, CHASM, University of Birmingham 

Session 2:  Climate Finance

Chairs: Professor Danny McGowan and Dr Huw Macartney, Sustainable Finance Innovation Centre (SFiC), University of Birmingham

Natural disasters and economic growth: The role of banking market structure

Andi Duqi, University of Bologna 

Climate Change Risk and the Cost of Mortgage Credit

Louis Nguyen, Durham University 

Financing Conditions and Toxic Emissions

Martin Götz, Deutsche Bundesbank

Session 3: Consumption, Marketing and Climate Change

Chairs: Dr Emma Surman and Dr Sheena Leek, Department of Marketing, University of Birmingham

Towards a holistic approach to sustainable consumption: Understanding the instituted realism of plastic packaging

Alex Skandalis, James Cronin, Charlotte Hadley, John Hardy, Linda Hendry, Maria Piacentini, Matteo Saltalippi, Alison Stowell and Savita Verma, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University 

Exploring the social capital of celebrity environmental activists on twitter and how this influences concern for climate change

Caledonia Gunn, Catherine Canning and Elaine Ritch, Glasgow Caledonian University 

The Take a Bite out of Climate Change Project

Ximena Schmidt Rivera, Brunel University London (presenter)

Session 4: The Economics of Climate Change

Chair: Dr Christoph Gortz, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham 

Natural disasters and voting behaviour: Evidence from Environmental Legislation for the US Senate  

Robert Elliott, Viet Nguyen-Tien, Eric Strobl and Thomas Tveit, Department of Economics, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham  

Environmental Taxes and Employment  

Robert Elliott, Wenjing Kuai, David Maddison and Ceren Ozgen, Department of Economics, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham  

Eco-Innovation and R&D Outsourcing  

Robert Elliott, Liza Jabbour and Zuokuan Zhou, Department of Economics, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham 

The impact of climate change on agriculture: A meta-analysis of Ricardian studies 

Allan Beltran Department of Economics, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham; Saul Basurto, National Autonomous University of Mexico 

Day 2 – Wednesday 22nd September 2021

14.00 - 14.05 Welcome back and Agenda for Day 2

Dr Caroline Moraes, Symposium Chair, Birmingham Business School

14.05 - 15.05 Panel: Business and Stakeholder Responses for Tackling Climate Change

Panel Chair: Professor Ian Thomson, Director of the Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Responsible Business

Belinda Miller Insight Director at Corporate Culture

Dr James Robey – Global Head of Corporate Sustainability at Capgemini

Paul Jordan – Business Leader, Innovator Support & International at the Energy Systems Catapult

Jonquil Hackenberg, Head of Sustainability, PA Consulting

15.05 - 15.30 - Networking and Opportunity to View the Symposium's Online Exhibition

15.30 - 17.00 Parallel Paper Presentations - Please register below

Session 5: Climate Change, Sustainability and the Business of Socially Responsible Housing (II)

Chair: Dr Halima Sacranie, Housing and Communities Research Group, Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM), University of Birmingham

Social Housing, Social value, the Environment and ESG reporting

Andrew van Doorn, CE – HACT (Housing Associations Charitable Trust), London 

Total Impact: A Discipline and Data Deficit

Sam Scharf, Centre for the New Midlands

Session 6: Encouraging responsible policing and credible criminal justice interventions during a pandemic

Chairs: Professor Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Dr Amy Burrell, Centre for Crime, Justice and Policing, University of Birmingham

Encouraging responsible policing and credible criminal justice interventions during a pandemic: How to regulate the conduct of police in custody blocks

John Kendall, Visiting Scholar, Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham 

Case studies of measuring crime rates, problems and results, especially exemplified by the pandemic period in Sweden, the largest survey in Europe of this kind

Kjell Elefalk, Trygghet and Management Company, Sweden 

The challenges experienced by intelligence and analytical practitioners in the current pandemic

Fazeelat Duran and Jessica Woodhams, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham

Session 7: Embedding Climate Change Knowledge in the Curriculum (I)

Chairs: Dr Inci Toral and Professor Nicki Newman, Department of Marketing, University of Birmingham

Sustainability literacy and business and marketing graduates: Supporting outcomes and insights

Richard Howarth, Guja Armannsdottir, Stuart Carnell and Anthony Olarotimi, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University 

Imagining a responsible business school

Andy Brookes, Claire May, Ted Fuller and Matthijs Bal, Lincoln International Business School, University of Lincoln 

“Woke"ing up the Business School curricula: A case study of designing sustainability and responsible business in programmes

Inci Toral and Angela Marqui, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham

Session 8: Students’ Perspectives

Birmingham Cup – a cup return scheme to eliminate single-use coffee cups on campus

Laurie Duncan, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham  

What is the potential for PES in reducing global carbon emissions?

Matthew Griffin, School of Government, University of Birmingham

Day 3 – Thursday 23rd September 2021

15.00 - 15.05 Welcome back and Agenda for Day 3

Dr Caroline Moraes, Symposium Chair, Birmingham Business School

15.05 - 16.05 Academic Panel: Building Business Resilience to Climate Change: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from UoB Researchers

Panel Chair: Professor Isabelle Szmigin, Emeritus Professor of Marketing

Professor David Maddison, Professor of Economics

Dr Susanne Börner, Marie Curie Global Fellow, School of Geography

Professor Aleksandra Cavoski, Professor of Environmental Law

Professor Ian Thomson, Director, Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Responsible Business

16.05 - 16.15 Break

View the Symposium's online Research Exhibition

16.15 - 17.45 Parallel Paper Presentations - Please register below

Session 9: Embedding Climate Change Knowledge in the Curriculum (II)

Chairs: Dr Inci Toral and Professor Nicki Newman, Department of Marketing, University of Birmingham

The Future Leaders Certificate: Taking responsible business beyond the curriculum

Sandy Purewal, Rosalind Hay, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham 

Engaging academics for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum: A practitioner perspective

Muhammad Mazhar, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University 

Creativity at “Work”: Future sustainable retail store design

Sarah Montano and Inci Toral, Department of Marketing, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham

Session 10: CSR and Climate Impact Reporting

Chair: Dr Johannes Lohse, Birmingham Centre for Environmental and Energy Economics and Management (BCEEEM), University of Birmingham 

Both red and green? Value impact of political connections and CSR in China’s cross-border M&A

Xianmin Liua, Gulnur Muradoglua and Ni Penga, School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London 

Determinants of Climate Change Disclosures among African and Asian Energy Firms

Edmund Narh Amegatcher and Emmanuel Tetteh Asare, Department of Accounting, University of Ghana; King Carl Tornam Duho, Dataking Research Lab, Dataking Consulting, Accra, Ghana

Session 11: Green Operations and Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Chairs: Dr Yufeng Zhang and Dr Ali Esfahbodi, Department of Management, University of Birmingham

How environmentally specific transformational leadership promote employee task effectiveness? A multistage moderated mediation model

He Liu, Harbin Institute of Technology 

Barriers and Enablers of Supply Chain 4.0 implementation in manufacturing industry in Vietnam

Giang Nguyen, University of the West of England

Sustainable supply chain orientation in the fashion industry: A systematic literature review

Hakeem Omolade Sunmola, Ali Esfahbodi and Yufeng Zhang, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham

Session 12: Post-Covid Working and Climate Change

Chairs: Dr Holly Birkett and Dr Sarah Forbes, Work Inclusivity Research Centre (WIRC), University of Birmingham

The dark side of meaningful work-from-home: A non-linear approach

Solon Magrizos, Department of Marketing, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham 

Experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: Flexible working and the future of work

Sarah Forbes and Holly Birkett, Work Inclusivity Research Centre (WIRC), University of Birmingham

17.45 - 18.00 Closing Speech

Professor Cathy Cassell, Dean of Birmingham Business School