As a knowledge center, most of the activities carried out by the CRB are developed on this front, including the Research Notes, projects, a weekly newsletter, and the dissertation thesis written by the master students under the guidance of the CRB.
The CRB focuses its research activities on four different areas: Purpose, Sustainable Development Goals, Responsible Leadership, and Impact Accounting, in which it aims to find answers for the following questions.
Purpose
Responsible Leadership
Sustainable Development Goals
Impact Accounting
In its efforts to contribute to the development and promotion of knowledge, the Center has conducted research and studies that lead to the definition of the following concepts, integrated into our DNA. You can read more about it in our research notes.
Responsible Businesses refers to companies that have sustainability, in the holistic sense, at the core of their business strategies, as a source of competitive advantage, always embracing an integrated view of the relevant stakeholders' interests, in order to advance society's well-being, sharing the same broader purpose.
Responsible Leadership is the ability to align stakeholders around a common aspiration that goes beyond their direct interest, by putting people, customers/consumers, and other relevant stakeholders first, all-embracing a shared purpose treating profit as an outcome rather than the goal.
Responsible Leaders drive the agenda of Responsible Businesses and focus their souls and minds on value creation, both for their company and society. Their core skills include values, vision, innovation, trust, and leading from the heart. In the image below you can find a proposed framework that includes all the characteristics of a Responsible Leader.
Purpose is the “reason for being” of a company, one that is able to unify all stakeholders around the same systemic aspiration and, by consequence, be a guiding light for decision making, that is able to bring to the company a sustainable competitive advantage.
In its efforts to promote knowledge, the Center has issued the following Research Notes:
Based on a systematic review of the main Responsible Business practices, this research note aims to shed light on the importance of businesses to act as Responsible Businesses and to understand what sort of Leadership should be expected from corporate leaders. If its relevance has always been undisputable, now, more than ever, the concepts need to be fully incorporated in every leader’s agenda.
This research note aims to analyse the impact of Covid-19 on the sustainable development agenda and the risks and challenges ahead for business and humanity. It also highlights the immense opportunity Covid-19 represents as a reset moment for the world and as a chance for the Corporate sector to take leadership and definitely embrace sustainability as a strategy for its own success and a global shared prosperity.
This research note aims to contribute to a stronger conceptualization and implementation of Purpose by offering a comprehensive definition of Purpose, based on a set of five principles defined by the authors. It also revises the existing evidence on the value creation potential of adopting a purpose-driven strategy and proposes a process framework to enable purpose-centric organizations.
Coming soon!
The CRB also contributes to knowledge development by conducting a dissertation seminar on “Responsible Business” for CATÓLICA-LISBON Masters’ students, in which it provides students support and guidance to write their thesis and make a scientific contribution to the field. Below, a list of the dissertations published so far:
In June 2020, the CRB held the Water Summit. More than an event, the Water Summit became an effort and commitment of organizations with the water challenges in Portugal.
During the event, organizations discussed that the rapid changes we are seeing today, in terms of climate, supply networks, demography, and the environment, are rapidly contributing to the dangers of physical and economic water scarcity.
One of the main lessons learned at the Water Summit is that the challenge for Portugal is to address the issue of water management in an integrated perspective, placing it at the center of decision making for any company, sector, or entity, whether at a local or national level.
The CRB took the initiative to take this issue onwards and prepared a “Water Manifesto”, inviting the organizations involved in the Water Summit to take responsibility for adopting more sustainable measures, joining a collaboration movement to contribute to the ecological transformation of a sector that is essential to the growth of the economy.
SPARK is the students’ link and point of contact with the CRB. Several activities are developed within this project, including the contribution to CATÓLICA-LISBON clubs: Equality in Business, Católica 4 Future, and the 180 Degrees Consulting, assisting in preparing students for the L’Oréal Brandstorm 2020 (of which our students won the national finals and ranked 3rd place in the Global finals) and helping with other student initiatives such as organizing a TEDx event and beach cleanups