Dec 6 to 7: Rethinking Responsibility: Agents and Structures

This two-day international conference brings together researchers from Canada, the US, Europe and Africa who study business, ethics, geography, labor, law, sociology and philosophy. Our aim is to rethink responsibility in business. What does responsibility in business mean today? How can we engage with responsibility to better prepare for the challenges of tomorrow, such as climate change, the digital age and widening inequalities? This conference seeks to encourage and outline answers to these and other questions by promoting conversations that consider agents, structures in which agents are embedded, and the ways in which agents and structures are linked.

This conference is generously supported by the RBC Professorship in Responsible Organizations, the Luc Beauregard Centre of Excellence in Communications Research, the Lawrence Bloomberg Research Chair, and the Concordia Accounting Research Seminar.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2018

14:00 OPENING

14:15 SESSION 1: Defining and Pracitising Responsibility

• Business, society and subalterness: Revisiting political CSR from a Creolized perspective: Nolywé Delannon, Université Laval, Québec, Canada
• Responsabilité en affaires: Approche juridico-managériale par la RSE:Nora Seddiki-El Houdaigui, Université ABDELMALEK ESSAADI, Tanger, Morocco
• Coalitional CSR Strategies: A Field-Level Perspective on Private Regulatory Competition:José Carlos Marques, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

16:15 WELCOME DRINKS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018

8:30 SESSION 2: Sustainability Discolusures and Practices  

• Holding businesses accountable for climate change: using reported emissions to determine sectoral budgets and pathways in line with global climate goals:Maida Hadziosmanovic, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
• Detecting Carbon Emission Disclosure Management:Thomas Kaspereit, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
• The Impact of Institutional Environment on Sustainability Disclosure in Southeast Asia:Mi Tran, University of Huddersfield, UK

10:00 BREAK

10:30 SESSION 3: Technology, Individuals, Groups

• AI Democratization and Organization Technology Outlook:Glen Whelan, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
• Bioethics, Complementarity, and Corporate Criminal Liability:Ryan Long, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, US
• Rogue Opposition: Against Raikka’s Genuine Opposition Thesis:Jeremy Watkins-Quesada, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, US

12:00 BREAK

13:30 SESSION 4: Financing and Responsibility

• Does the Threat of Takeover Discipline Managers? New Evidence from the Foreign Investment and National Security Act:David Godsell, University of Illinois, Champaign, US
• The real effects of financing on corporate social responsibilities: Evidence from covenant violations:Luo He, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
• Succumbing to the pressure? What motivates firms to provide CSR performance-based incentives?:Leanne Keddie, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

15:00 BREAK

15 :30 SESSION 5: Performance Measurement, Workers, Managers

• Performativity and Counterperformativity of Social Measures. A Study of the Uses of Psychosocial Risks Indicators:Samuel Sponem, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada
• Accountability In Labor Platforms:Jacob McCartney, Michigan State University, East Lansing, US
• Which Moral Responsibilities Carry over from Principals to Agents? A Reflection through Shareholder Theory:Santiago Mejia, Fordham University, New York, US

17:00 END OF CONFERENCE

This event is free but registration is required.

Register now