Inaugural lecture: Esben Rahbek G. Pedersen
Inaugural Lecture by Professor Esben Rahbek Gjerdrum Pedersen
In the last decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability has moved from the margins to the mainstream of management theory and practice. Moreover, a vast number of international guidelines, regulatory requirements, industry standards, and management systems have contributed to the development of an institutional infrastructure for managing, measuring, and controlling CSR work. However, despite the current interest in CSR there are no immediate signs of a markedly decline in corporate scandals, public trust in business remains low, and industries still operate well beyond the planetary boundaries. At best, much CSR work remains undone. At worst, CSR has become a symptom of the problems that it originally intended to address. Whatever the interpretation, more research is needed on how CSR is operationalized to better understand its merits to business and society.
CSR
Over the past 10 years, Esben Rahbek Gjerdrum Pedersen has researched various phenomena within the CSR field, including codes of conduct, stakeholder engagement, cross-sector partnerships, corporate social reporting, environmental labeling, and environmental management. Stakeholder management and institutional theory have served as the theoretical backbone for analyzing what CSR “is” and “is not” in theory and practice. Moreover, his research has focused on new, sustainable business models that benefit both business and society. Mainstream CSR has sometimes been accused of being insufficient and like rearranging the deckchairs of Titanic, which in turn has led to calls for more radical, systemic, game-changing CSR approaches.
Centre director
Esben Rahbek Gjerdrum Pedersen is the director of the CBS Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (cbsCSR). He holds a PhD from CBS and a MA in Social Science from Roskilde University.
Esben Rahbek Gjerdrum Pedersen has published a large number of articles and books and his work has been awarded with e.g. the Emerald Literati Network Social Impact Award and Outstanding Paper Award.