SRRNet – A Short History

The Network was formed during 2004 and so has become an established organisation which currently has almost 600 members located all over the world – so we are a truly international organisation with members united by a common interest in aspects of social responsibility. While some people have been involved since the inception of the Network, many have joined us later as part of our development. So we think that it is appropriate at this stage to give a brief history of the establishment and development of the Network.

The starting impetus was the decision to organise a conference on corporate social responsibility. As a result of this decision, on three days in September 2003 around 140 delegates from 30 countries from around the world gathered in London at London Metropolitan University for a conference on the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility. Over the three days the delegates engaged in discussion on a range of issues concerning this topic and around 100 papers were presented. Topics covered ranged from business ethics to social reporting to implications for biodiversity to sustainable construction, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the backgrounds and expertise of the participants. Conversation about many of the important issues raised during the conference continued into the evenings at the dinners organised for delegates at a variety of London hotels and the success of the conference was continued into a variety of collaborative projects instigated among the international delegates during the conference.

This success demanded repetition and this led to the start of the international series of conferences. Subsequent conferences have taken place in Malaysia, India, Turkey and the UK and we are currently preparing for the 9^th conference which will be held in Zagreb in 2010. At the time of writing we have definite plans for future conferences up until 2012. You can find full details of all past and future conferences on the website, together with some pictures from each of the past conferences. The conferences are intended to be interdisciplinary and welcome contributions from anyone who has a perspective on this important issue. This includes academics, researchers, business people, consultants and scholars – and all groups have been represented at previous conferences. Recently we have introduced a theme to each conference but other contributions are always welcome. And we continue to develop the conference just as we continue to develop all aspects of the Network activities.

One of the distinguishing features of the conferences is that for each we commission a book and all delegates receive a copy of this book when they register upon arrival at the conference. For the first conference we produced the book, Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility while last year we produced the book, Culture and Corporate Governance. Delegates to the conference in 2009 received a book entitled Corporate Social Responsibility in SMEs. If you are interested in contributing to a future book then contact either of the chairs.

One of the important outcomes from the success of this first conference was the establishment of the Network to bring together interested scholars from all over the world. The Network has been proactive in developing both the conference series and its other activities. This website is a reflection of this and every member is encouraged to become actively involved and to contribute to our growth.

The second important outcome of the first conference was the establishment of Social Responsibility Journal as an academic journal to publish work by members and others in this important and growing area. The journal is now in its 6th year and continues to grow in strength and reputation. It is firmly established as the official journal of the Network and you will find further details in the Newsletter and on the website. If you have not yet studied the journal then we encourage you to do so and to submit your papers to it.

After the commencement of the Network we developed a formal constitution and mission statement and you can find these on our website. More recently we have established  a Newsletter to both disseminate information and to publish short articles of relevance. We also publish books from time to time but this depends upon the availability of funds. Our latest venture – so far – has been to establish a Discussion Paper Series as another avenue to publish refereed papers to an international readership

So we have come a long way in quite a short time largely due to the strength of our membership. The main reason for the existence of the Network however is to enable us as scholars concerned with various aspects of social responsibility to communicate with each other, share information, join together in research projects, develop courses and course material and various other activities. The strength and vibrancy of the Network is of course only the same as that of its members. So we are inviting you to share opportunities for collaboration and to contribute to any of our various publishing outlets.