EBEN Research Conference 2013
“Corporate Reputation: Being and looking good”
June 6-8, Pamplona, University of Navarra
Call for Abstracts
Deadline February 15, 2013

A good reputation may be considered one of the most valuable consequences of acting properly and doing the right things in the corporate ambit. With corporate reputation being recognized as a crucial competitive asset, some scholars have listed and analyzed its potential and empirically proven benefits: higher financial profits, more engaged consumers, motivated employees, better workplaces, etc. Being good seems to benefit corporations, at least in the long-run. Why, then, does reputation now seem to be an endangered species, hunted by managers and business  people who are more interested in making attractive but illicit short-term profits, than in the more laborious creation of an ethical long-term corporate character? Unpredictable crisis management and communication woes arise everywhere, as do scandals, white-collar crimes, corporate corruption, and so on. Is there a gap between the normative theory, the fruits of academic analysis and the fierce competition among businesses? Can reputation and ethics constitute corporate goals in themselves? Or should increasing profits be the only corporate responsibility?

As reputation has become a fashionable concept in recent years, especially since the outbreak of the most recent financial crisis, this is a very promising research area, especially in the field of business ethics. Finding out about the real relationship between reputation and ethics in the economic and corporate areas is a challenge that is worth addressing.

We invite our colleagues of the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) to participate in our 2013 Research Conference and to prepare contributions related to reputation and business ethics. The Conference will be held in Pamplona, Spain, from Thursday June 6, to Saturday June 8, 2013. It will be organized by the School of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Navarra.

The EBEN Research Conference is a venue for academics, PhD students, and practitioners to meet and exchange their research and views on business ethics issues. The general theme of the 2013 Conference is “Corporate Reputation: Being and Looking Good”.

There are three tentative thematic tracks:

REPUTATION IN THE BUSINESS ETHICS FIELD

• What is an ethical and reputable corporation?
• What are the nature, characteristics, components, limitations, and applications of corporate reputation in the business ethics field?
• What are the links between reputation and business ethics – if any?
• What are the roles of related constructs such as corporate social responsibility, trust, character, integrity and others, in the corporate ambit?
• Is there an ethical consumer and what reward is there for good and reputable companies?
• Are consumers willing to pay for premium products from good and reputable companies  when prices may be a determining factor to compete in a depressed economic environment?
• Are transparency and codes of ethics good remedies to fight potential corporate corruption?

REPUTATION AS AN ASSET THAT ADDS VALUE TO CORPORATIONS

• Can reputation and ethics be a corporate mission or are they only personal aspirations?
• What are the profits and costs for companies investing to build a good reputation to do the right thing?
• Is self-regulation enough to make companies act according to what is expected and not only what is inspected?
• What are the links between business ethics and reputation risks – if any?
• Are reputational risks more costly than other risks?
• What are the biggest reputation risks today and how can they be avoided?
• What are the most significant reputational costs to companies acting improperly?
• What is a crisis of reputation and how can it be avoided, managed, or combated?

REPUTATION METRICS

• If a good reputation pays in the long run, how can it be assessed in the balance sheet?
• Can reputation be measured and how?
• Are surveys enough to get a proper, accurate value judgment from stakeholders?
• Are all stakeholders equally relevant, in all countries, industries, markets, etc?
• What are the most important drivers of a good corporate reputation (products and services, management teams, corporate leaders, etc.)?
• Should all reputations be measured equally?

Deadlines and Guidelines for sending submissions

Authors are invited to submit an abstract (maximum of 2500 characters) in plain text format.

After the meeting, authors may submit full papers for a special issue of Business & Society. Manuscripts submitted for this special issue will undergo the usual Business & Society peer review process, coordinated by Special Issue Guest Editors Antonio Argandoña, Christine Choirat, Giorgio Coricelli and Donald Siegel.

There will also be a special issue of Empresa y Humanismo and a selection of articles of Comunicación y Sociedad.

All abstract submissions should be uploaded by February 15, 2013, through the on-line submission system.

More info here.