Corporate Social Responsibility and Business ethics - Debating Development

Register for this debate

Tuesday 22 October 2019 , from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
University of Antwerp - City Campus  
Rodestraat 14 - R.002 - 2000 Antwerpen (how to reach the city campus?)

Global scandals of irresponsible business behavior reveal that corporations can no longer afford to solely focus on profits. Nowadays, corporations are also expected to be responsible societal actors and make societal contributions. As a result, sustainable investment policies facilitate the transition towards a socially just business environment by capitalizing those companies that behave ethically and will solve current sustainability dilemma’s. During our opening debate, Prof. Céline Louche will highlight how responsible investments contribute to this transition and stress the relevance of corporate social responsibility in the world economy. In response, Prof. Luc. Liedekerke adds some ethical reflections on the popularity of responsible investment strategies to solve irresponsible business behavior. Finally, is it possible to achieve an environment of shared value creation wherein corporations are no longer faced with a tradeoff between profits and sustainability?

T he keynote speaker is Céline Louche, professor Business & Society at the Audencia Management School in Nantes, France and guest lecturer at the Waikato University in Hamilton, New Zealand. She teaches and researches in the areas of sustainability and corporate responsibility. She used to work as Sustainability Analyst for Responsible Investment for the Dutch research institute of Triodos. 

Luc Van Liedekerke (discussant), professor business ethics at the Centre for Ethics of the University of Antwerp, the Antwerp Management School and the KULeuven. He chairs the European Business Ethics Network, a network of specialists in business ethics in 40 countries. Prof. dr. Luc Van Liedekerke holds the BASF-Deloitte Chair on Sustainability, a joint project between Antwerp Management School and the University of Antwerp. 

The debate will be moderated by Cassandra Vet, teaching assistant at the Institute for Development Policy (IOB) at the University of Antwerp, whose PhD research is on everyday governance of tax avoidance in Sub-Saharan Africa from an International Political Economy Perspective. She holds a Master of Political Science and an advanced Master of Globalisation and Development.