Taking SMEs seriously: social responsibility for the 99%
This year's annual Grigor McClelland lecture will be given by Laura Spence, Professor of Business Ethics at Royal Holloway, University of London and Visiting Academic at University of Oxford.
While the social responsibility agenda has been incorporated with varying degrees of success into business discourse, it remains largely one dimensional, focusing on large firm self-reporting on social responsibility as a proxy for responsible practice. Often overlooked in the discussion are the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) which constitute the vast majority of the business landscape, and which are different in almost all respects from their larger counterparts, though a famously heterogeneous group. This has important implications for social responsibility, and what needs to be done if the agenda is to be taken seriously.
In this lecture, Laura Spence will share research on ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability in SMEs which points to the need for a redrawing of our approach in scholarship, education, practice, and policy support. In short, without understanding SMEs, we cannot meaningfully understand business social responsibility, nor properly appreciate the place of business in society.
Laura Spence
Laura J. Spence is Professor of Business Ethics at Royal Holloway, University of London. At the University of Oxford she is International Research Fellow, Centre for Corporate Reputation and Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College. She has published widely on business ethics, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility in journals such as Accounting, Organisations and Society, Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, and Business Ethics Quarterly. Laura is consulting editor for the Journal of Business Ethics. She served on the UK’s 2021 Research Excellence Framework Subpanel for Business and Management. Since 2022 she has been Senior Policy Advisor on Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Engagement for the United Nations Global Compact.
Laura's presentation will be followed by a panel discussion.
Panel
Hongwei He
Hongwei He, Professor of Marketing and School Director for Social Responsibility, Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester.
Hongwei He is Chair Professor of Marketing and School Director for Social Responsibility (a member of the School's Senior Leadership Team) at Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester; and a Senior Associate Editor for Journal of Business Research, acting as Editor-in-Chief for a number of tracks incl. Business Ethics and CSR, Strategic Management, OB/HRM. He served as an Associate Editor for Group & Organization Management in the past. Professor He's main research areas are Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility, Branding, Consumer Psychology and Organizational Behaviour (mainly from identity, emotion, and moral perspective), and Leadership.
Aarti Krishnan
Aarti Krishnan, Senior Lecturer in Sustainability and Innovation, The University of Manchester
Aarti Krishnan is a developmental economist, working at the nexus of environment, trade and development. Her areas of expertise include value chain analysis, green growth, agricultural transformation, innovation and knowledge systems, digitalisation and regional development. She was a Research Associate at the University of Manchester, evaluating the role of sustainability standards, environmental innovations and corporate social responsibility in agricultural and light manufacturing sectors. She has worked as a Senior Research Officer at the Overseas Development Institute, researching a range of topics to support governments from designing skill development finance funds, the intrinsic linkages between migration, technology and the SDGs and promoting the inclusion of micro and small enterprises into value chains and special economic zones in East Africa.
Julia Rouse
Julia Rouse, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Head of the Sylvia Pankhurst Gender Research Centre, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Professor Julia Rouse founded the Centre for Decent Work and Productivity and the Sylvia Pankhurst Gender and Diversity Research Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has developed the methodology of Engaged-Activist Scholarship and enjoys engaging with practice to shape good work in self-employment/entrepreneurship and for workers in small and larger firms. Currently, Julia is the Director of the Good Employment Learning Lab, an ESRC-funded project that is pioneering effective methods of developing the people management skills of line managers. Working across the social housing sector in Greater Manchester, Julia is leading the BOOST programme that is experimenting with how to change organisational culture so that ethnic minority leadership can emerge and thrive. During the Covid19 crisis, Julia research and ca…
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