18.08.2016 Views

Global Compact International Yearbook 2016

The Sustainable Development Goals are an ambitious agenda with 17 topics addressing the global challenges of our time. A key topic is innovation: Business must fit into planetary boundaries. This probably will not work with traditional business models. That is why we need new, fresh ideas. We need change, even when it happens in a rough, disruptive way. And the earlier the better. This is why the upcoming edition of the Global Compact International Yearbook, published in September 2016, has chosen sustainable innovation as the key topic. Also includes exclusive interviews with Angelina Jolie, Robert Redford and Sigourney Weaver. The Global Compact International Yearbook is with more than 500,000 readers one of the worlds leading CSR publications. Münster/New York 2016: 164 pages, paperback Publishing houses: macondo publishing/UN Publications Subscription (via UN Publications only): 30.00 USD (regular) 15.00 USD (reduced) ISBN13: 978-3-946284-01-7 / ISSN-Print: 2365-3396 / ISSN-Internet: 2365-340x

The Sustainable Development Goals are an ambitious agenda with 17 topics addressing the global challenges of our time. A key topic is innovation: Business must fit into planetary boundaries. This probably will not work with traditional business models. That is why we need new, fresh ideas. We need change, even when it happens in a rough, disruptive way. And the earlier the better. This is why the upcoming edition of the Global Compact International Yearbook, published in September 2016, has chosen sustainable innovation as the key topic.

Also includes exclusive interviews with Angelina Jolie, Robert Redford and Sigourney Weaver.

The Global Compact International Yearbook is with more than 500,000 readers one of the worlds leading CSR publications.

Münster/New York 2016: 164 pages, paperback
Publishing houses: macondo publishing/UN Publications
Subscription (via UN Publications only): 30.00 USD (regular) 15.00 USD (reduced)
ISBN13: 978-3-946284-01-7 / ISSN-Print: 2365-3396 / ISSN-Internet: 2365-340x

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Does firM innoVAtion<br />

AffeCt ?<br />

CSR<br />

WHat tHe aCaDeMICS SaY<br />

Is a sustainable company more innovative or, vice versa, is an innovative company more<br />

in favor of sustainability? and is there any link between innovation and CSr? two notable<br />

academic studies help us to answer these questions. the first one is from rui Shen, Yi tang,<br />

and Ying Zhang and was published as a Harvard Business School Working paper in <strong>2016</strong><br />

using a sampling of 3,315 publicly listed US firms from 2001 through 2011. the second study<br />

was conducted by xinghua Gao and Yonghong Jia, both from Governors State University,<br />

Illinois, and published in September 2015. to better understand how different aspects of<br />

CSr influence corporate innovation outcomes, the authors examined five social dimensions:<br />

community, diversity, employee relations, the environment, and products.<br />

What do the studies tell us?<br />

The most important finding is that, yes, there is a positive link<br />

between CSR and innovation. Shen, Tang, and Zhang write:<br />

“We find that more innovative firms also engage more in CSR<br />

activities. This effect is stronger for firms of higher risk and/<br />

or operating in a less munificent environment. Additionally,<br />

firms with higher innovation reap greater financial benefits<br />

from their CSR activities.”<br />

Innovation is risky<br />

Innovation is considered by most experts as being a key factor<br />

in determining a company’s ability to maintain advantages<br />

against its competitors. The more a company is willing to,<br />

and capable of, inventing and reinventing itself, the better<br />

it can respond to fast – and often abrupt – market changes.<br />

This is a well-known fact. But few efforts have been made “to<br />

examine whether or not innovation may influence a firm’s<br />

other strategic choice,” write Shen, Tang, and Zhang. This<br />

is all the more extraordinary because innovation activities<br />

are highly complex and have uncertain outcomes – traits<br />

that normally produce sleepless nights at the C-level and<br />

among investors. Innovation means limited control of the<br />

process and always implies risk. That is why companies with<br />

less-open cultures or control-obsessed management are less<br />

innovative by nature.<br />

How does CSR come into the game?<br />

CSR helps to reduce the level of uncertainty and the information<br />

asymmetry between the company and its main<br />

22<br />

<strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong> <strong>International</strong> <strong>Yearbook</strong> <strong>2016</strong>

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