Current Opportunities

• Call for papers: Third GRI Conference on Sustainability and Transparency, 26-28 May 2010

• Call for proposals for a new Greenleaf Publishing book series:  Responsible Investment
  

Recent Opportunities

• Call for Papers for an edited book volume: "Responsible Investment in Times of Turmoil" to be published by Springer (Issues in Business Ethics Series)  - Closed

• Europlace Institute of Finance (EIF) Call for Research Proposals 2009 - Closed

• GDC09: Responsibility - Climate Change as Challenge for Intercultural Inquiry on Values (Conference date: November 3-6, 2009) - Closed

• PRI Academic Conference 2009: "The Next Generation of Responsible Investing" (Conference date: October 1-3, 2009) - Closed

• Institutional Investors, Risk/Return and Corporate Governance Failures: Practical Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis (Conference date: October 5-7, 2009)  - Closed
  

• European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE) Academic Conference on SRI and CSR (Conference date: September 24-25, 2009) - Closed

• Corporate Governance: An International Review (CGIR) invites paper submissions for a special issue on shareholder activism. - Closed
  

Call for proposals for a new Greenleaf Publishing book series:  Responsible Investment  

About the Greenleaf Responsible Investment Series
In 2006, Greenleaf published the ground-breaking collection Responsible Investment , edited by Rory Sullivan (Head of Responsible Investment, Insight Investment) and Craig Mackenzie. In response to the very positive feedback received on this volume, and given the central importance of investors in ensuring high standards of corporate governance and corporate responsibility as well as the wider importance of the capital markets to sustainable development, Greenleaf Publishing have decided to establish the Greenleaf Responsible Investment Series.

The series aims to provide a forum for outstanding empirical and theoretical work in all aspects of responsible investment. It will seek to explicitly integrate theory about responsible investment with management practice, providing a forum where the tensions and practical realities of responsible investment can be addressed in a readable, robust, and conceptually and empirically rigorous format. The series will publish the best ideas and research on responsible investment in a manner that is accessible, engaging, interesting and useful for readers in business, consultancy, government, NGOs and academia.

For more details and the full proposal guidelines, go here .

Scope of the series

The scope of the series is deliberately broad, reflecting the breadth of issues, strategies and actors involved. Greenleaf welcome proposals/publications on all aspects of responsible investment, including but not limited to:

• Responsible investment strategies (engagement, voting, screening, investment integration, etc.), examining question such as the investment performance of different investment strategies and the environmental, social and governance outcomes that have been achieved.

• Responsible investment in different asset classes (equities, fixed income, commodities, government debt, private equity, hedge funds, fund-of-fund strategies, etc.)

• Responsible investment by different actors (e.g. pension funds, asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, private equity funds, insurance companies). This could include consideration of the strategies adopted, the outcomes achieved, the political context within which responsible investment has been implemented, the barriers to action, and the manner in which organisational issues (beliefs, resources, capacities) have been addressed

• Responsible investment in different geographical regions, and how geography, politics and economics influences the shape, form and outcomes from responsible investment

• Investor collaboration, focusing on how collective initiatives such as the Carbon Disclosure Project, the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and PharmaFutures have functioned and the environmental, social and governance outcomes they have delivered

• The public policy implications of responsible investment. This could include analysis of the role of investors in public policy processes, and the policy contribution of self-regulatory initiatives such as the UN Principles for Responsible Investment

• Responsible investment and fiduciary duty. This could include analysis of issues such as investor time horizons, governance issues within the investment chain or obstacles to mainstreaming responsible investment

• Stakeholders’ views on responsible investment, including examples of where stakeholders have sought to harness the capital markets to deliver on their specific campaigning objectives

• The role of responsible investment in responding to specific environmental, social or governance issues. This could be analysed thematically (e.g. climate change, executive remuneration, responsible banking, development/poverty alleviation, human rights) or could be a wider look at the role of the capital markets in the global financial crisis

• The changing investment landscape. For example, what are the wider implications of mainstreaming responsible investment (e.g. will investors’ expectations coalesce around lowest-common-denominator approaches), and how will the move from defined benefit to defined contribution affect the market for responsible investment

Greenleaf welcome proposals for both authored books and edited collections. Greenleaf are also interested in proposals/abstracts for case studies or stand-alone articles. These may be considered for dedicated issues of the Journal of Corporate Citizenship or Greener Management International , or for specific collections in this series.

Proposal guidelines: books/edited collections
Authors should send :

• A covering letter that explains the concept and aims of the proposed book. Will it contain primary research or work not previously published?

• A description of the intended readership. Will the readership be especially strong in any particular geographic area? Will the book be useful to an academic or practitioner audience? If academic, at what level?

• A description of how the proposal differs from other books currently on the market. Why is it unique? What other material has been published on this topic (please provide details)?

• A CV

• A detailed Table of Contents or, for an edited collection, a list of possible/probable contributors

• An indication of the intended size of the book, either in A4 pages or word extent

• Several sample chapters including an introductory chapter

• A likely completion date

• Suggestions on how the book might be marketed (key audiences, networks that may be interested, potential course adoptions) and whether there are possibilities for bulk purchases by the author(s) or their organisation
  

Proposal guidelines: articles/chapters/case studies
Authors should send :

• 300-500 word abstract that explains the concept and aims of the article/chapter/case study

• A CV

• A likely completion date

Please address proposals to:

John Stuart
Managing Editor
Greenleaf Publishing
Aizlewood Business Centre
Aizlewood’s Mill
Nursery Street
Sheffield S3 8GG
UK
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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Europlace Institute of Finance (EIF) Call for Research Proposals 2009

Application deadline : June 15, 2009

Complete Call for Research Proposals and  Application Form available on EIF website and here .

Since 2003, the Europlace Institute of Finance (EIF) fosters, at the French and European levels, existing and potential synergies between research/training groups in the economic and financial fields and professionals including financial intermediaries, investors and asset managers, issuers, market operators. EIF's founders are committed to providing long-term support for such efforts. In 2005, the EIF has been recognized as a public utility foundation.

In 2009 as in previous years, EIF is issuing a call for research proposals. It is open to all scholars who work on financial problems, regardless of academic discipline. EIF plans to fund ten research projects, each of which will receive EUR 10,000.

Given the current circumstances, jury members have decided that a signficant portion of the projects funded (at least 60%) should reflect the disire among EIF members to encourage research and in-depth academic studies on:

• Market regulation: institutional aspects; regulatory economics and law; the uses of self-regulation
• Market operations: sociology of financial markets (by complexity of instruments, by market organization, etc.); collective attitudes among participants and systemic risk; comparisons of various kinds of organization (over-the-counter markets, organized markets, etc.) and analysis in terms of efficiency, risks, etc.
• Investment: pensions and long-term managemen; savings behavior and behavioral finance; long-term and environmental finance

Multi-team projects, especially of truly European scope, are of particular interest.

For more information, contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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GDC09: Responsibility - Climate Change as Challenge for Intercultural Inquiry on Values (Conference date: November 3-6, 2009)

Application deadline : June 15, 2009

Please see conference webpage for submission details for the call for papers. For information on the Global Dialogue Prize, click here

An international, interdisciplinary research conference

Climate change requires globally concerted initiatives that cannot be motivated by direct practical self-interest and economic incentives alone. The aim of this conference is to compare conceptions of ecological responsibility across cultures and religions, and to explore the role of intercultural value studies for the development, communication, and practical implementation of new models of future-oriented and collective responsibility.

GDC09 is the first of a series of five biannual international interdisciplinary conferences presenting and promoting intercultural dialogue on values, as a means of proactive conflict mitigation and social innovation. GDC09 is an integrated four-track meeting for researchers, journalists, educators, and business people. The conference will conclude with the bestowal of the Global Dialogue Prize, which acknowledges outstanding achievements in the advancement and application of intercultural value research. The prize (in the amount of 500 000 DKK = about US$ 90 000) is awarded bi-annually to individuals, institutions, and organizations.

The Business Research track ‘Praxis in Investment Networks’ focuses on new institutional arrangements which promise to transform privately managed capital into a driver of governance, ecological and social responsibilities. Papers for the Business Research track are invited on issues such as collective responses from investors to ecological and social problems, regulated social reporting, social divides in financing, shareholder responsibilities and engagement, venture capital financing and corporate investment programmes, as well as conceptual papers on organizational responsibilities and governance. Papers which integrate responsibility and sustainability issues into the main business, investment and finance disciplines are particularly welcome.

The Business Research track is delighted to announce that a plenary address will be delivered by Professor Jim Hawley, Saint Mary's College of California.

Application requirements:

Please submit abstracts to the conference (500 words) by 15 June. Decision on abstracts will be made by 15 August.
 
Full papers for accepted abstracts will be due 15 October. Full papers will be due 30 November for inclusion in post-conference publications and invitations for special issues of refereed journals.

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Call for Papers for an edited book volume: "Responsible Investment in Times of Turmoil" to be published by Springer (Issues in Business Ethics Series)

Submission deadline (for draft papers): 15 July 2009
Notification of selected papers: 15 September 2009
Submission of final version: 30 October 2009

Full details are available here

The Call For Papers (pdf) is available here

The book will encompass 5 blocks of chapters:

1. Knowledge about RI
2. Lessons from RI
3. Ethics of RI
4. Politics of RI
5. Global Worries for RI

Editors: Wim Vandekerckhove (Ghent University), Jos Leys (Catholic University of Leuven), Kristian Alm (BI Norweigan School of Management), Bert Scholtens (University of Groningen), Silvana Signori (University of Bergamo), Henry Schäfer (University of Stuttgart).

Authors can contact the lead editor, Wim Vandekerckhove, to discuss their ideas for papers.

Wim Vandekerckhove
wim.vandekerckhove (at) gmail.com
Tel. +32 9264 3951

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Recent Opportunities (now closed)

PRI Academic Conference 2009: "The Next Generation of Responsible Investing" (Conference date: October 1-3, 2009)

Abstract proposal submission deadline : 15 April 2009

Conference venue and date:  Carleton Centre for Community Innovation (3ci) Carleton University , Ottawa, Canada. from October 1-2, 2009

The Call For Papers (pdf) is available here

Following the initial conference of the PRI Academic Network held at the Maastricht University in Sept. of 2008, the second annual conference will take place at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. on October 1-2, 2009. The first day of the conference will focus on papers on the broad theme of “The Next Generation of Responsible Investing”, while the second day of the conference will allow for other papers on Responsible Investment to be presented on themes such as universal ownership, corporate engagement, and shareholder advocacy.

Responsible Investing has always had a broad mandate. Put simply, it is a long-term sustainable investment strategy that values environmental, social and governance factors in investment decision making. To date much of that activity has taken place in the public equities portfolios of PRI signatories. Increasingly there is an interest in extending Responsible Investing to other asset classes including real estate, private equity, infrastructure, and fixed income. Responsible Investing in these alternative assets include both developed and emerging markets. In these asset classes Responsible Investing often takes on a proactive form, with investors seeking out investment opportunities that offer both strong financial performance and positive ancillary benefits. Such environmental, social and governance impacts are not only valued in and of themselves, but are also seen as ways to generate Alpha in investment portfolios. The first day of the conference will encourage papers that examine this “Next Generation of Responsible Investing” and its implications for PRI signatories.

A special themed issue of the Journal of Business Ethics (JoBE) will take the best qualitative papers on Responsible Investing presented at the conference selected by the program Committee and subject to the usual peer-reviewed process of the Journal.

Application requirements:

The abstract for a paper should be no longer than one page (12 point font) and should include, in the following order:

1. a working title;
2. the conference theme being addressed;
3. a summary of the argument of the paper, how the issue fits within a wider literature (as appropriate), and its relevance to research and/or practice in the areas of interest to the PRI academic network and;
4. very brief biographical information on the author(s). Graduate students should include any request for travel subsidy, need of subsidy and amounts required.

Proposal abstracts, in English, must be submitted via email to Heather Hachigian ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and Ryan Pollice ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) Notification of receipt of the proposal will be provided. All proposals will be subject to peer review by the Program Committee listed below and notification of acceptance will be provided by 15 May 2009. Completed papers must be submitted by 1 September 2009 and will be forwarded to the chair of your session.

2009 PRI Academic Conference Program Committee

• Rob Bauer, Professor, Maastricht University, ND
• Gordon L. Clark, Professor, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, UK
• Neil Eccles, University of South Africa
• James Gifford, Executive Director, PRI, UK
• Tessa Hebb, Director, The Carleton Centre for Community Innovation (3Ci), Canada 

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Institutional Investors, Risk/Return and Corporate Governance Failures: Practical Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis (Conference date: October 5-7, 2009)

Submission deadline : May 25, 2009

Conference venue and date: Saint Mary's College of California (San Francisco Bay area) from October 5-7, 2009

The Call for Papers (pdf) is available here Please submit proposals to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

A complete conference description is available here . Updates and conference materials are available at http://www.fidcap.org 

Conference overview

Conveners:

• The Elfenworks Center for the Study of Fiduciary Capitalism, Saint Mary's College of California
• The Principles for Responsible Investment
• Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performanc, Yale School of Management, Yale University

Sponsor:

• Hermes Equity Ownership Services, Ltd.

Research Support from:

• Investors Responsibility Research Center Institute
  

The objective of the conference is to investigate the role of corporate governance failures, gaps, oversights and missed opportunities leading up to and in the current global financial crisis; and, to consider and develop proposals to mitigate these failures in the future. This conference will gather institutional investors, practitioners, professionals and academics at Saint Mary's College of California (San Francisco Bay area) from October 5-7, 2009. Between 40-60 leading theorists and practitioners in the fields of corporate governance, finance/economics, financial markets and responsible investment will be invited to the conference. Short presentations and paper summaries, some with a discussant will structure discussions among all the participants. An emphasis will be on the cross discussion among all participants, rather than a formal question/answer format with presenters/commentators. Chatham House Rule applies.  

Call for Papers overview

One or two papers are sought in the seven areas listed below. Papers should be both rigorous and have practical relevance for large institutional universal owners, who are the majority of invitees. Accepted papers will receive a minimum honorarium of $1,000 US. As a condition for consideration, authors must allow their papers to be posted on the IRRCI and SSRN websites. One author for each paper will be provided with lodging at the conference and with a travel allowance of up to $750 US. The papers will be distributed as widely as possible and, if possible, published in a special issue of a leading journal or in an edited book. 

Topic Summary (for a fuller description see the conference description here or http://www.fidcap.org 

1. Corporate Governance: How did corporate governance failures (oversights, failure of risk analysis, etc.) contribute to the current global financial crisis?
2. Financial Institutions: What lessons can be learned by comparing the governance structures of financial institutions that were deeply affected by the crisis (i.e. Citigroup and AIG) and others that were less affected?
3. Systemic Risk: Can and should institutional investors effectively identify and monitor for systemic risk?
4. The Search for "Alpha": What role did the search for "alpha" play in the crisis and what role did institutional investors play in the pursuit of "alpha"? Was there/is there confusion about what alpha is?
5. Alternative Investments: What role did the expansion of real estate, infra-structure and commodity investment by large institutional owners play in the crisis?
6. The Role of Gate Keepers: What was the role of accouting, financial reporting, rating agencies, consultants and regulation in the global financial crisis and what should be the role of universal owners in relation to these gate-keeping functions?
7. Responsible Investment: Do the perspectives of the movement for 'responsible investment' with its emphasis on corporate governance have roles to play in mitigating and minimizing the next crisis or in assisting the recovery from this one?
   

Application requirements:

1. Working title;
2. Conference topic or topics addressed;
3. 250 word summary
4. How the paper fits into a wider literature (as relevant);
5. Relevance of the paper to both research and practice;
6. One page or less biographical statement for the author(s); and,
   
7. Website link for additional information (as relevant) 

Applicants can anticipate a response by the conference committee by June 5, 2009. Final papers must be received for circulation by September 1, 2009.

Please submit proposals to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE) Academic Conference on SRI and CSR (Conference date: September 24-25, 2009)

The European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE) organizes for the second time an academic conference on socially responsible investing (SRI). The objective is to discuss recent academic studies on SRI and the closely related field of corporate social responsibility (CSR), as well as research that more generally deepens our understanding of social norms and financial markets. The conference will host a limited number of papers and encourage dialogues between academics and practitioners. 

Topics:

Papers that are considered for acceptance can be either empirical or theoretical, and could cover the following topics:

• risk and return associated with investing based on environmental, social, and governance factors (ESG),
• ESG beyond equity space (e.g., fixed-income, real estate, and private equity),
  
• investors' attention for social, environmental and governance issues,
• the drivers and consequences of CSR/ESG practices,
• the future of the SRI and CSR concepts, and the usefulness of alternative terminologies,
• reporting and measurement issues concerning ESG practices.
  

Paper Submission Procedure (Extended Deadline of May 30, 2009):

If you wish to present a paper at this conference, please send a pdf file to organizer, Dr. Jeroen Derwall, Research Director, ECCE, Maastricht University.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Authors will be notified about the acceptance of their papers by June 7, 2009. If you are interested in acting as a discussant, please also send an e-mail to the Jeroen Derwall at the abovementioned e-mail address.

Further questions should be directed to Els van Aernsbergen, Office Manager at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

A pdf of the Call is available here .

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Corporate Governance: An International Review (CGIR) invites paper submissions for a special issue on shareholder activism.

The deadline for submissions has now passed. 

Whereas the phenomenon of activist shareholders has a rather long tradition in Anglo-Saxon countries, shareholder activism has become more prevalent in other governance environments, too. The popular business press extensively discusses the pros and cons of shareholder activism, but scholarly thought has yet to weigh in substantively. In particular, we are interested in learning more about the antecedents and effects of shareholder activism, as well as more in-depth understanding of the various forms and features of this phenomenon.

Research questions that are of particular interest include the following:

• Do corporate governance proposals advanced by institutional investors lead to better corporate governance and/or enhanced firm performance?
• Do other shareholders and/or stakeholders get ignored when activist investors become more influential? What are the fiduciary duties of activist investors?
• How do shareholder activists pick and influence their targets?
• How do boards, and how should boards, respond to activist shareholders?
• Is shareholder activism more effective than traditional governance mechanisms such as involved and independent boards or formal rules and regulations?
• How do the laws vary from nation to nation regarding shareholder activism?