Pictured L to R: School of Business Dean John Elliott and Jeff Brown, EVP at Newman’s Own Foundation.
Mission-Focused Businesses Subject of Recent Conference
Business partners Spencer Curry and Kieran Foran go to work at their FRESH Farm Aquaponics business in South Glastonbury every day, believing they’re one step closer to solving world hunger.
When Justin Nash was a Captain in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, his soldiers looked to him for guidance. Now a civilian, he’s using those leadership traits at Til Duty is Done, an organization he created which seeks to provide housing, employment training and career opportunities for returning veterans. Til Duty is Done, Nash said, gives him a renewed sense of purpose.Continue Reading
School of Business’ Social Enterprise Conference Attracting Leading Scholars, Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
“We don’t hire people to bake brownies, we bake brownies to hire people,” boasts the website of Greyston Bakery of Yonkers, N.Y.
Recognized as one of the best social enterprise companies in the world, Greyston Bakery’s mission is to provide individuals with employment, skills and resources to lift them out of poverty.Continue Reading
The multifaceted role of multinational corporations as quasi-regulators is of growing importance to international business. Corporations increasingly participate in two kinds of international rulemaking: (i) non-binding “soft” law standard setting; and (ii) self-regulation through private rules and standards. Soft law and private regulation often fill governance gaps left by incomplete and/or ineffective governmental regulation. One of the most prominent examples is sustainability rulemaking, in which corporations have become increasingly active due to their growing awareness of the directly-borne costs of environmental degradation and the potential strategic benefits of corporate social responsibility.Continue Reading
Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business (forthcoming)
Stephen Park.
Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are subject to a variety of U.S. laws that require public disclosure of their global activities, including adverse social and environmental impacts. In this article, Professor Stephen Park examines the recent emergence of mandatory disclosure requirements under U.S. federal securities law that require MNEs to disclose certain social impacts in order to address geographically-defined and/or issue-specific public policy objectives, collectively referred to as “targeted social transparency” (or “TST”). Compared to other social transparency laws, TST regimes target a set of intertwined social risks specific to an individual country, region, or industry.Continue Reading
The Business Law Faculty in the School of Business participated in the 88th annual Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) conference, held in Boston, Massachusetts on August 6-10, 2013. The conference featured presentations, workshops, and panels, and hundreds of legal scholars from around the world gathered to discuss a variety of legal and pedagogical topics. Continue Reading
Business law faculty in the marketing department hosted a colloquium titled, “Bridging the Gap between Business and Human Rights.” The event took place on May 14-15, 2013 at the UConn School of Business and was organized by Robert Bird, associate professor of business law in the School of Business and Northeast Utilities Chair in Business Ethics. Assistance was provided by Karla Fox, emeritus professor of business law and special assistant to the provost, and Michele Metcalf, program manager at the School of Business.
The purpose of this colloquium was to explore the potential for common ground between business and civil society groups in the area of human rights. Attendees at the conference explored how firms perceive and interact with human rights, examined how voluntary regulatory regimes can positively influence business behavior, and analyzed how multinational corporations can align their interests with human rights in their chosen markets.
This conference brought together academics from many different disciplines and universities. Authors included Norm Bishara, University of Michigan; Dan Cahoy, Pennsylvania State University; Lucien Dhooge, Georgia Institute of Technology; Janine Hiller, Virginia Tech; Radu Mares, Lund University; David Orozco, Florida State University; Stephen Park, University of Connecticut; and Jamie Prenkert, Indiana University.
From UConn, Shareen Hertel, associate professor of political science, Department of Political Science and Human Rights Institute, Lisa Laplante, interim director, Dodd Center, and Emma Gilligan, associate professor of history and co-director of the Human Rights Institute, gave valuable input during the conference. Executives in residence included Kate Emery ’81, CEO of the Walker Group and reSET (Social Enterprise Trust), and John F. Sherman III, general counsel, secretary, and senior advisor at the Shift Project.
School of Business Dean John Elliott gave opening remarks by emphasizing the importance of human rights and the timeliness of the conference. At the closing dinner, Anthony Ewing, Columbia University, presented the topic, “Teaching Business and Human Rights: an Emerging Discipline.”
The conference was sponsored by the UConn School of Business, the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, the UConn Human Rights Institute, the UConn Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), and the Northeast Utilities Chair in Business Ethics.
Papers from the conference will be published as a collection by Elgar Press in 2014.
