The Responsible and Sustainable Business Mobiliser Group hosted the Responsible and Sustainable Business Seminar on 29 February 2024. Academics shared insights from their current research in areas including social entrepreneurship, partisanship in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), nearshoring, deforestation, modern slavery, trade conflict, and social innovation. The research papers and projects presented during the seminar demonstrated strong collaboration among colleagues as seen through their co-authorship of the papers and co-working the projects. This is a reflection of the Mobiliser Group’s aim of stimulating inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration and exchange around responsible business practices.

Findings in one presentation showed that businesses are taking a more partisan stance with their CSR activities in response to global events, including the war in Ukraine. Professor Vasiliki Bamiatzi and Dr Steven A. Brieger classified this CSR partisanship of businesses into five distinct categories. These include businesses whose partisan CSR actions show them as the helper, protector, fighter, underminer, and influencer. They also noted that this is an emerging trend from the more traditional political neutrality that businesses globally are accustomed to.

Dr Nilay Bicakcioglu-Peynirci spoke about nearshoring – a practice done by businesses to reduce production costs by relocating production value chains and processes to nearby countries – from consumer and sustainability perspectives. She showed that when nearshoring is done with environmental-based motives compared to economically-based motives, it generates more gratitude from consumers.

Meanwhile, research in another presentation highlighted that inter-organisational collaboration in social entrepreneurship is critical in bringing about social innovation. One example of this is the multi-stakeholder collaboration that birthed Bandicoot (robotic scavengers that clean sewers and man-holes).  Dr Shova Thapa Karki, the paper presenter, noted that the direct socio-economic impact of these multi-level collaborations by different stakeholders in Kerala, India, is the upskilling of informal scavengers. She highlighted that it is very crucial to understand the conditions and contexts of collaborations to achieve the desired social innovation.