Are we thinking about the UN MDGs?

By Debbie de Lange

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) not only matter to me, I believe that they are critical. These goals impact my behavior, work, and are interwoven into my daily thoughts, maybe not always explicitly, but in substance. I wonder why they matter to me so much whereas I am not sure whether they matter to many around me, outside of my ONE (and many other) colleagues, of course. Would I be wrong if I were to say that the average person does not think about them? The related issues are urgent priorities for the entire world, that’s why they are the UN MDGs. Why doesn’t this topic, our progress towards the goals, make the news on a regular basis? The eight goals are listed below:

1)      Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2)      Achieve universal primary education

3)      Promote gender equality and empower women

4)      Reduce child mortality

5)      Improve maternal health

6)      Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

7)      Ensure environmental sustainability

8)      Develop a global partnership for development

Also, here is a link to our progress: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/2012_Progress_E.pdf. 

The goals are interrelated and the environmental concerns of my ONE colleagues and I (See Goal 7) affect all of the other goals, directly or indirectly. I could not begin to explain all of the linkages here. I think that to most of us in ONE, many or most of the connections are obvious. 

Maybe, for this blog entry, I will ask, why should we care about these issues if we are faculty or PhD students in business schools? At least a million answers are possible and maybe you will contribute some of your own. My first reaction is to suggest that the MDGs set the priorities for business, based on a stakeholder theory view (Freeman, 1984). All of the world’s countries and leading development institutions devised the goals after producing a hard won stakeholder consensus. Thus, the strategic goal setting has been done – why reinvent the wheel when huge amounts of our resources have been invested in determining these goals?

Moreover, today, we have a focus on entrepreneurship in academia for a variety of reasons and related to the financial crisis of 2008 when we bumped head-on into the too-big-to-fail phenomenon. Change may have to come from new enterprises, but we are also hopeful about intrapreneurship. The MDGs represent a set of broad entrepreneurial business opportunities. The challenge is for all those who are working in the area of entrepreneurship, whether strictly for-profit or of the social entrepreneurial type, to consider the connection of entrepreneurship to the MDGs as a topic for your research and/or to connect your research (and teaching) in some way to the MDGs.

On the other hand, if you are an entrepreneur, take a look at these goals so as to discover business opportunities. Find the solutions! Elon Musk has them in mind and with an amazing vision he seems to be charging ahead with Tesla (2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year) and Solar City. It takes guts to win and he is winning. Today, it seems to often take guts for business faculty to tie in their research and teaching to the most pressing problems of our times, and the greatest set of business opportunities, but that is for another discussion. I will comment now though, that if relevance is our issue in academia, then directing our research and teaching towards the MDGs is our opportunity to demonstrate it. The world has told us so, loud and clear.

References

Freeman, R. Edward (1984). Strategic Management: A stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman.

United Nations. [http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ website accessed May 20, 2013].

My So-Called Virtual Analytical Life

Keyword Breakdown

By Joseph Sarkis

This is a blog about my virtual self.  We can learn a lot about ourselves and our work through a series of analytics appearing in various virtual hovels. Information that can help guide our professional careers.  The idea for this blog originated from this story about Academia.edu.  But the virtual analytics story is much larger.

My only virtual home for many years was my personal homepage on my school’s site.  But, now I am offered a number of virtual homes and each one provides me with a little insight into myself, my research, and my visitors.

Personally, rather than professionally, I am on Facebook, and have been on since at least 2006.  On Facebook, the analytics tell me how many friends I have (about 210; I’m not as popular as many of my colleagues and family, some who have over 1000).  It tells me how many people like my statements or posts.  “Likes” make me feel good and reinforce my virtual existence, who doesn’t like to be “Liked”.  Yes, there are psychological issues with wanting to be ‘liked’ and other personal worth issues associated with social media. Of course, if I can get more friends, I can get more likes on such one-off wise comments as “Behind every successful man is a surprised woman”.  These likes further my perception that I am clever and witty person, having narcissist streak that we each have in ourselves.

“Likes” and number of friends is my personal, social, analytical virtual life.  My professional virtual academic life can be traced to, at least, five other home sites and their analytics: (1) My personal website; (2) LinkedIn; (3) Academia.edu; (4) Researchgate.com; and (5) Scholar Google. 

Each of these provides some form of analytics that show that I exist in the virtual world and that will provide insights that can benefit me professionally.

On my personal website I keep a running track of home many visitors have gone to my personal home and it is now at just over 20000 unique visitors, since 1996 (13 years).  There are ways to determine from where readers may come from, but I am not clever enough to figure out how to add that analytic on to my website.  Other sites do it for me.

On LinkedIn, I have many more professional linkages and am now over 800 professional contacts.  The site also allows me to join many groups.  This site provides an easy way to inform people of professional papers, links, studies, and questions.  Polls can also be easily set up to get feedback (for example from the Greening of Industry Network group of which I am a member).  My analytics not only tell me how many connections I have, but connections to connections.  The analytics include the number of people who have looked at my profile over the past week (usually about 30), how many new connections all my connections have formed over the past week (about 56,000 this week), but most impressively it tells me how large my ‘network’.  Given that I assume three degrees of separation, my network is over 12 million people.  How is that for feeding one’s narcissistic tendencies?  Additionally, now LinkedIn allows people to ‘recommend’ you on various areas of expertise, further playing up to our ego-gratification requirements.

My Academia.edu site also provides some interesting analytics.  This site is focused on my publications and research.  This site, along with Research Gate, allows me to share my publications and other information to almost anyone.  Some of these publications I am allowed to post, some are just general information.  Academia.edu’s analytics include four tabs of information: Overview, Documents, Keywords, and Countries. 

The coolest Academia.edu analytic is the one that lists and shows countries and which ones visited my site.  It keeps a record of where visitors to my site came based on the past 30 day visits.  Usually about 50-60 countries are represented both on a map and with flags. 

The site also provides me with an idea of which topics and papers I have posted have seen the most interest.  I’ve had over 2400 visitors over the past few years with over 4000 document views, most of them to about 10 publications of 50 posted (the Pareto rule in application).  One of the interesting aspects of the analytics is the keywords used in search engines to find my site.  Interestingly one of the most recent keyword search terms to find this site is “Joseph Sarkis Warrant”.  Criminal background check?

Researchgate also provides some interesting analytics.  These inform me very clearly on how important I am, further fulfilling my ego gratification needs.  This site provides an ‘impact’ number based on the overall impact factor scores from one’s publications.  It just adds the impact factor of a journal in which the paper appears and keeps a running tally (240.03 total impact) and an ‘RG’ score, which includes how well networked and interactive I am on the site (37.77). 

Other analytics includes a running weekly (most recent week’s) tally of how many people have visited and downloaded from the site.  I have only been on this site for about a year and already have over 3000 document views and over 550 full-text downloads. 

Researchgate tells me there are some of my papers, or versions of papers, which I am legally allowed to post on this site.  Yet, if I follow their advice, I do worry that the copyright police may be hammering on my door some day.  Maybe, I’ll get more “Joseph Sarkis Warrant” keyword searches on Academia.edu?

Other analytics include how many people who follow me and that I follow (about 20 each).  People are also allowed to send requests for articles that are not posted, and I usually respond. An easy and quick way to share research.

My final site and metric is my Google Scholar site, but I wrote about this site in a previous blog from two years ago. The Google Scholar site is still well maintained with new options available. Now there are thousands of scholars on there and many of my co-authors.  It also has a broad variety of interesting analytics, many of which I have seen in many recent tenure and promotion packages. 

Beyond the personal gratification issues, the analytics on each of these sites provide me with additional opportunities to determine how visible my research is to the research community, what topics my colleagues find interesting, and who is doing work in my area.  There are many advantages these days to more effectively guide our research directions and plans, taking advantage of these virtual sites can help in professional development.

Other sites which I joined many years ago that also contain analytical information that may be useful for professional development include the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) working paper site and Getcited.com website.  These sites also provide rankings on a number of statistics.  There are also emergent academic sites such as Microsoft Academic Search and the Brazilian CNPq Lattes curriculum site.

Each site offers something different each providing a peek into your research visibility and influence.  It also allows you to keep up to date on a number of other scholars and emergent topics. 

Now, the question is how to maintain and manage all these sites?  How many are you on?  Which would you recommend as a young scholar? As an Older Scholar?

Climate Change versus Education?

By Magali Delmas

For years, business representatives have been complaining that the California Cap and Trade program AB 32 will decimate California's economy and force companies to move out of state. Now it is the turn of Universities to argue that AB 32 will displace students.

MBA Sustainability Case Studies

Case 1. Du Pont Freon Products Division (A)

by Richard H.K. Vietor, Forest Reinhardt

HBS 30 pages.  Publication date: Jan 20, 1989. Prod. #: 389111-PDF-ENG

In 1988, the Du Pont Co. is abruptly confronted with solid scientific evidence that chlorofluorocarbons are destroying the earth's ozone shield. Du Pont, with its Freon brand product line serving markets for foam insulation, electronics solvents, and especially refrigeration, was the world's leading producer of these chemicals. Although no substitutes were currently commercially available, or even proven, Du Pont had to decide what to do. The purpose of the case is to examine how changing science and environmental problems affect competitive conditions and corporate strategy. In particular, the case examines the criteria by which companies formulate policy.

A Second Successful Year for the Sustainability, Ethics and Entrepreneurship Conference

By Debbie de Lange and Gideon Markman

            This year’s Sustainability, Ethics and Entrepreneurship (SEE) Conference attracted 120 scholars from many institutions both nationally and internationally (e.g., Canada, Germany, Chile, Spain, Italy). The conference is led by Colorado State University, University of Denver, University of Wyoming, University of Northern Colorado, and University of Colorado (Boulder). The SEE conference supports multi-disciplinary research with a focus on the intersection between two or three of the areas in the conference name.  For example, Debbie's paper (with Peter Adriaens) brought sustainability and entrepreneurship together through the topic of reverse innovation in the new mobility (sustainable transportation) space. Sustainable transportation is a cleantech sector and thus, with all of the new innovation and firms springing up in this area, it is highly entrepreneurial. SMART (Sustainable Mobility & Accessibility Research & Transformation), at the University of Michigan, is leading research in this area.  

How about a price on carbon?

By Debbie de Lange and Peter Adriaens

The debate about cap-and-trade versus carbon taxes is arising again.

Take a look at this article:

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/carbon-tax-dems-invite-you-to-help-write-a-bill

It reports that US politicians have written a discussion draft to propose carbon taxes and asks Americans questions such as: what price per ton on carbon should be paid by polluters and how much the price should increase annually, how should the revenue be used, and how should the federal program integrate with other state programs? Maybe you will contribute to this conversation?

A Needed Reminder: Telecommuting’s Green Benefits

By Joseph Sarkis

It’s been in the news for a few days now. Yahoo is shutting down its telecommuting program.  Yahoo management believes that telecommuting contributes to productivity loss, less innovation, and weakens the sense of workplace.  

A recent meta-analysis study of telework by Martin and Macdonnell published in Management Research Review found:

“Telework is perceived to increase productivity, secure retention, strengthen organizational commitment, and to improve performance within the organization.”

Modernity in the Home, Powered by Energy Efficiency

By Debbie de Lange and Peter Adriaens

Energy efficiency leads to modernization. This is a statement that suggests using less of something - energy - actually relates to progress. In previous times, the primary association was that we needed more energy to progress. Thus, we built huge fossil fuel and nuclear power plants to satisfy all of our energy needs from lighting and basic heating to power tools and heavy equipment for building skyscrapers, running industrial plants, and warming luxurious swimming pools. Today, we’re moving in the opposite direction, finding ways to energize the same things in cleaner more efficient ways supported by integrated energy management systems and green, LEED certified buildings. Even the 49ers (San Francisco’s football team) stadium will be LEED certified (Tweed, 2013). US governments at the federal level and in twenty-four states (including approximately 67 percent of electricity sales) are developing Energy Efficiency Resource Standards that establish legally binding efficiency targets for electricity and/or natural gas (Lacey, 2013). Enough reduction may be found to offset future load growth until 2025, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. With these growing efficiency programs across the US, many firms are finding business opportunities and partnering to develop utility to end customer energy management solutions. Where utilities used to be distant organizations from which home owners would receive a monthly bill, now they are engaging with each other or through firms that facilitate better energy use coordination.

Building Our Collective History: A Compendium of Survey Papers on Business & the Natural Environment

By Andrew J. Hoffman

Every field of inquiry goes through a life cycle; a new idea emerges, it develops into a growing body of literature and either continues to grow or enters a decline. A sure sign of the successful growth of a field is an effort to institutionalize its history, categorize its accomplishments and project its future directions. The field of Business and the Natural Environment (B&NE) has now reached that stage. After expanding in the early 1990s as a distinct field of empirical inquiry, it has grown to include contributions from the full gamut of business disciplines. Indeed, there are a growing number of “survey” papers that seek to summarize the field and specific subfields within it.  In this blog, I offer the beginnings of a catalogue of these summary reviews.  They are presented in chronological order, starting with the most recent in 2013 and going back to 2000.  Some are general reviews of the field of B&NE or Sustainability; others are more specific treatments of research in supply chain management, base of the pyramid, information technology and the like.  

I know this list is not complete and encourage other members of the ONE community to add more in the comments section below this blog. Please use the same format of citation, link and abstract.  Together, we can build our community’s collective history.  This can be helpful to introduce new people to the field and provide clarity of the landscape and accomplishments for those who are a bit more seasoned.  

Academic Freedoms and Academic Schisms

by Joseph Sarkis

If you haven’t heard yet, Organization and Environment (O&E), has undergone a change in journal editorship.  John Jermier, one of the founding editors, and co-editor Richard York have stepped down and a transition occurred with the journal.  But, it came to my attention that there was a bit of controversy in this editorial change, issues arose on topics of scope, academic freedom and support of an emergent, small academic discipline.