Plenary Lecture
Corporate Social Responsibility: Multilevel Foundations towards a New Holistic Framework and a New Concept of Economic Value
Associate Professor Gandolfo Dominici
Scientific Director, Business Systems Laboratory
University of Palermo, Italy
E-mail: gandolfo.dominici@bslaboratory.net
Abstract: There is a widespread need of change, that means to take advantage of the actual period of crisis to overcome its causes and improve. Corporate social responsibility can be an incredibly effective tool, which may bring to a new and wider concept of value creation overcoming the limits of the classical economic theory based on financial capital and profit that are at the basis of the actual economic and social world crisis. The actual body of knowledge about CSR considers it at 3 different levels: Institutional, Organizational and Individual [Aguinis & Glavas, 2012 JOM, 38(4): 932-968)] These different systemic levels call for an holistic view allowing to integrate these different perspectives in an organic framework . As a consequence it is pivotal is to point out and incorporate the different levels of CSR and to shed the light on the systemic relationships linking the firm and its context towards a new, different and wider definition of CSR. This new approach may bring to a new and wider concept of value creation overcoming the limits of the classical economic theory based on financial capital and profit that are at the basis of the actual economic and social world crisis. A systemic and multilevel framework may be useful to better understand if, and how, Corporate Social Responsibility has gone beyond the old conceptions of economic value and can assume a key role to reshape the foundations of the XXI century economy. In this view CSR research may contribute to a new way of business practice that would help us to leave the world a better place than we found it.
Brief Biography of the Speakers: Gandolfo Dominici is Associate Professor and Chair of Marketing Department SEAS, Polytechnic School of the University of Palermo (Italy). He is the Scientific Director of the Business Systems Laboratory (www.bslaboratory.net). He is a Board member of the World Organisation for Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC) and of the Consorzio Universitario di Economia Industriale e Manageriale (CUEIM) He holds a Ph.D, in Business Management at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy He is author of more than 55 published articles and books. He is Editor in chief of the International Journal of Markets and Business Systems, of the International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing and of the International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism. He is member of the editorial board of 13 international peer reviewed journals. He has been keynote speaker and board member in a number of international conferences. His main research interests are: Marketing, e-Marketing, New Product Development, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Systems Thinking and Organizational Cybernetics.