2023 Thought Leadership Conference

In May 2023, the Responsible Business Center supported a Thought Leadership Conference, which convened at the Tarrytown House Estate in New York’s Hudson Valley. The event, a collaboration with, and supported by the Journal of Service Management (JOSM), brought together leading experts from different disciplines to explore the theme of "Multi-stakeholder Engagement and Responsible Business."

In response to increasing demands from numerous stakeholder groups, including governments, investors, communities, and customers, many service firms have been compelled to address systemic environmental and societal issues. These firms are embracing responsible business practices aligned with or contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and are actively reporting on their sustainability efforts. Beyond mere reporting, service organizations are engaging with stakeholders to enhance their approach to sustainability.

Co-chaired by Sertan Kabadayi, Ph.D., professor of marketing, director of teaching excellence, and Joseph Keating SJ, distinguished professor in business; and Yuliya Komarova, Ph.D., associate professor of marketing, the Conference aimed to advance research and management practices related to responsible business. Tracks and themes included Customer Engagement, Technology, Performance Measurement, Organizational Culture and Leadership, Systemic Change and Collaboration, and Ethical Implications and Challenges. Participants were organized into six tracks, each focusing on a specific theme. The resulting papers from each track were submitted to a special issue of the Journal of Service Management, co-edited by Kabadayi, Komarova, and Jay Kandampully, JOSM editor in chief.

The Special Issue of the Journal of Service Management, Multi-stakeholder Engagement and Responsible Business is now live and can be accessed here.

The Resulting Research from this Thought Leadership Conference includes the following:

• Exploring customer engagement tensions when pursuing responsible business practices
  Andrew S. Gallan, Diogo Hildebrand, Yuliya Komarova, Dan Rubin, Ronen Shay
• RAISE: leveraging responsible AI for service excellence
  Linda Alkire, Anil Bilgihan, My (Myla) Bui, Alexander John Buoye, Seden Dogan, Seoyoung Kim
• Beyond apples and oranges: unraveling the complexity in corporate sustainability reporting
  Timothy Hedley, Barbara Porco, Timothy Lee Keiningham, Lerzan Aksoy, Leigh Anne Statuto, Muslim Amin
• A 5C model of responsible service leadership: learning from living systems to play the infinite game
  Reut Livne-Tarandach, Joan Ball, Poonam Arora, Ayse Yemiscigil, Jay Kandampully
• Cultivating wiser service systems through communication
  Edythe Moulton-Tetlock, Sophia Town, Hoori Rafieian, Canan Corus, Raymond P. Fisk
• To do or not to do? A typology of ethical dilemmas in services (TEDS)
  Rodoula H. Tsiotsou, Sertan Kabadayi, Jennifer Leigh, Julia Bayuk, Brent J. Horton