Managing Business for Climate Change Conference

Loughborough is one of the most highly awarded higher education institutions in the UK and regularly features in world rankings, too. At Loughborough Business School, we believe that business schools can play a key part in driving change – not only to meet organisational goals, but to help tackle big societal issues and make the world a better place. We aim to help to create a better world and shape a fairer, more sustainable future by enabling and equipping purpose-driven people and organisations to perform better. That’s why we hope to attract students, researchers and business partners who don’t just want to progress individually, but want to make a difference to communities and economies by transforming the way that business is done.

We invite scholars and research students to exchange and share their experience and knowledge and explore 'Managing businesses for climate change' as follows. In light of grand societal challenges highlighted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, scholars have begun to reconsider how management can better promote more transparent, sustainable and equitable practices which contribute to climate change. Whilst some progress has been made, such efforts must continue as dealing with climate change requires the involvement of businesses, managerial knowledge and practices.

Traditionally, studies tend to investigate management in relation to organisational outcomes, dominated by financial research and firm performance considerations. Despite an urgent need from a phenomenological perspective for organisations to proactively steer societal sustainable development, the theoretical, conceptual and empirical understanding of management and related issues at the intersection of business and climate change is still underdeveloped. This leaves us with limited knowledge of how businesses should be managed to deal with climate change and how firms should be organised in a world with grand societal challenges.

The private sector is increasingly seen to have a critical role in developing solutions to grand societal challenges, as evidenced by the growing number of partnerships between business community, civil society organizations, and governmental as well as intergovernmental agencies. One of the promising avenues for dealing with climate change is through managing business. While the success of businesses depends on accompanying environmental changes, it also has an impact on the ecosystem where the firm stands, even via unintended consequences.

With this call for papers, we aim to encourage research on firms that include their business as part of the solution for climate change. We believe that additional theoretical and empirical work in business management is needed to move toward facilitating the solutions for climate change.

Consequently, we invite empirical, theoretical and conceptual work drawing on the role of business in dealing with climate change and advancing our understanding of firms’ drivers and outcomes and their contribution to solving climate change.

The following topic areas illustrate some suggested directions and research themes:

• theories that can help us better understand and explain business’s relation to climate change;
• how can firms solve climate change problems through their businesses;
• motivations of businesses to carry out activities reducing climate change and the conditions under which the motivations work the best;
• the impact of different organisational forms on firms’ climate change focus and behaviour;
• how can firms be financed to reduce climate change;
• how corporate governance contributes to climate change;
• how leadership contributes to climate change;
• the challenges related to climate change focused activities;
• institutions, culture and corporate business for mitigating climate change.

Submission details

Please submit your paper for presentation at the Loughborough University conference by 3 May 2024 by emailing mde.2024@mailbox.lboro.ac.uk indicating that you wish this to be considered for the conference and MDE special issue 'Managing Businesses for Climate Change'.

If your paper is accepted for presentation, you will be asked to participate in the conference on 11 and 12 July 2024 and invited to submit the final version to Managerial Decision and Economics Special Issue by 11 August 2024.

Important dates

• 3 May 2024: deadline for conference paper submissions
• 24 May 2024: notification of acceptance
• 14 June 2024: deadline for registration
• 11-12 July 2024: conference
• 11 August 2024: deadline for special issue paper submissions

Conference fee

• Regular participation: £230
• Student participation: £150

Fees cover access to all sessions, conference material, lunches, coffee breaks and Gala Dinners.

Scientific committee

Prof. Yener Altunbas, Bangor University

Prof. Agyenim Boateng, Leeds Beckett University

Prof. Dimitrios Gounopoulos, University of Bath

Prof. Lingfang Li, Fudan University

Prof. Aydin Ozkan, University of Kent

Prof. Qingwei Wang, Cardiff University

Prof. Jonathan Williams, University of Surrey

Prof. Tianshu Zhao, University of Leicester.

Organising team

Dr. Jingsi Leng, Loughborough University

Dr. Lu Li, Loughborough University

Dr. Chaowei Wang, Loughborough University

Dr. Haofeng Xu, Loughborough University.

Contact

Please do not hesitate to contact the Guest Editor Jingsi Leng and the organising team via email should you have any questions regarding the submission of your special issue contribution. We look forward to receiving your submission by the above-mentioned deadline.