prof.dr. J.P (Joep) Cornelissen

Traditionally, management research takes the perspective of business and focuses on how conditions for business can be improved. Research conducted within the Value Based Organizing subprogram starts with the challenges that society and our natural environment face and focuses on how business, in partnership with other actors, can address these challenges. In other words, we help business to take responsibility for the context in which it operates. Research in our group focuses on alternative definitions of and approaches to business, including issues around climate change, reputation, business ethics, philanthropy, social enterprise and partnerships. The research methods we use vary from qualitative techniques to survey and laboratory research.

“Acting on unprecedented change” describes a series of interrelated projects that address the most current challenges that businesses face. Specifically, our social and natural environments are changing in unprecedented ways. Business contributes to some of these developments, such as climate change, growing inequality, and also alienation from the general public by losing track of the interests of broader society. Yet, society also changes in ways that are difficult to foresee for companies. Each project describes ways for companies to deal with these challenges and to contribute in such a way that changes work out for the best (or at least, are less damaging). A common theme underlying each project is that each seriously considers the possibility that the way companies do business -including how they relate to the context in which they operate- needs to be changed fundamentally and that small gestures are unlikely to be sufficient to help solve the large problems that society faces.