Thursday, August 19, 2004

2004 best MBA paper in C. Citizenship

A paper entitled "Thinking Strategically About CR: The Merits and Limitations of the Value Creation Approach" by Bradley Cameron Smith (Rotman School of Management, The University of Toronto) has won an "Honorable Mention for the 2004 best MBA paper in C. Citizenship".
In this indeed interesting paper, Smith presents a number of innovative concepts that can be integrated into an assessment of a corporation’s CR strategy. Two of these models – Laszlo’s approach to value creation and the real options valuation technique merit further study, according to Smith.
Smith concludes that his analysis demonstrates that corporations are capable of framing the perceived threats of CR as potential opportunities to capture and create value. The downside is that this new approach faces some concerns.

  1. Complex alternative valuation techniques, such as real options, must be used to better assess the total value of CR investments.
  2. Creating organizational alignment is difficult and old cultures are unlikely to adapt until local managers believe the link between CR and business strategy.
  3. Furthermore, it must be ensured that expectations of CR initiatives do not exceed capability to deliver on those initiatives, both internally and externally. Failure to do so may diminish credibility to stakeholders, hinder changes in the organizational culture, and damage the brand.

Read the paper