THE SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE: SINERGIE-SIMA 2020 ONLINE CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD ON SEPTEMBER 7 - 8 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SANT’ANNA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND THE UNIVERSITY OF PISA MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT
Titled “Grand Challenges. Company and University working for a better society”, the Sinergie - Scientific Society of Italian Professors of Management (Sima) conference 2020 will be held virtually Monday, September 7 and Tuesday, September 8, due to the Covid-19-related restrictions. In partnership with the University of Pisa Department of Economics and Management and the Sant’Anna School Institute of Management, the “Grand Challenges. Company and University working for a better society” conference calls for research (approximately 150 papers were submitted) addressing the global sustainability themes with a special focus on sustainable development and human rights.
Internationally renowned keynote speakers include Ans Kolk (Amsterdam Business School), Andrew Crane (Bath University), , Mette Morsing (Copenhagen Business School), and Philip Shapira (Alliance Manchester Business School). Case studies will be presented by companies Acque spa, Conad Nord Ovest, KME, and Pharmanutra. In addition, participants in the Management Challenges in the Post-Covid World session will identify opportunities for universities and companies to advance efforts through a new collaborative business sustainability strategy. The Sinergie - Scientific Society of Italian Professors of Management (Sima) conference 2020 will address also one of the toughest current challenge in scientific and open access publishing, the “predatory journals”, given their interest in harnessing advances in science and research integrity.
“Universities need to ensure that transformation in support of sustainability is at the core of businesses’ response to the global economic crisis”, explained Professor of Economics and Management Marco Frey, and the director of SuM research team on sustainability in business at the Sant’Anna School Institute of Management. “Academics are committed to translating research and teaching into sustainable solutions to society’s grand challenges and providing our companies with the knowledge needed to create new forms of social entrepreneurship and responsible contribution to public issues. Along with social and environmental impact through inclusive governance and more equitable economic growth, business and economies can become more resilient to crises”.
“The business community need to be prepared for the consequences of crises on the decade ahead and the UN Agenda 2030 sustainability goals. Never before has stakeholder capitalism been challenged so intensely - said Elisa Giuliani, professor of Economics and Management at the University of Pisa and the director of REMARC. “We need to guarantee health, public safety, and food security under increasing pressure from the population growth and environmental issues such as water scarcity and deforestation. The commitment to sustainable development was revitalized at the United Nations World Summit, where managing and protecting a common environment was seen as necessary to delivering those UN Development Goals targeting the poorest and most vulnerable proportion of the world’s population. Academics are committed to bringing the latest and most cutting-edge scientific research in socially inclusive sustainability to managers and stakeholders.”
SIMA, the Scientific Society of Italian Professors of Management, established in 2013, has currently 510 members. The CUEIM Foundation Sinergie – Italian Journal of Management aims to contribute to the development and dissemination of management studies research. It is accredited by Italian organizations ANVUR (Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del sistema Universitario e della Ricerca) and AIDEA (Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale). Sinergie has 250 subscribers and over 1,000 members across the country.
