MORSE Theme Subcategories – current/past Research
Responsibility
Responsibility extends management of firms to be environmentally and socially responsible through active care for the well-being of workers and communities, the phasing out environmentally damaging activities and the build-up of resilience at the enterprise level.
The responsibility theme leader is Ann Vanstraelen.
Responsible Business (Ann Vanstraelen)
Ann Vanstraelen addresses the role of accounting, finance, and governance: "how to make sustainability part of the corporate DNA", "how to embed responsibility and sustainability in the company" and "how to close the gap between sustainability/climate rhetoric and reality".
Accounting can be seen as hard sustainability; there is a lot of talk but a lack of numbers and consistent measures, a carbon price, and a clear structure for valuing climate investments. This can be achieved by building trust in ESG reporting, creating accountability to meet targets, the EU Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD, 2021) by focusing on social and environmental impacts of corporate activities.
In the financial sector, investors do not pay enough attention to climate change risks (IMF 2020). Therefore, monetising ESG impacts (how to quantify exposure to climate risks and climate change at the company level?), stocktaking and compliance with the EU Sustainable Financial Disclosure Regulation (SRDR, 2019) can help make the financial sector more sustainable.
Managing environmental and social risks will help make corporate governance more sustainable. In addition, integrating ESG matters into the overall corporate strategy by incorporating the (conflicting) interests of key stakeholders into business decisions and establishing effective governance for ESG reporting can help.
Ann Vanstraelen concludes with a call to action for academics to become more engaged and broaden their knowledge to make companies more accountable for ESG and to develop a responsible approach to business.