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CALL FOR PAPERS ... SBAC 2017 ... Social Business Academia Conference 2017

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

CALL FOR PAPERS SBAC 2017 Social Business Academia Conference 2017 8-9th November, 2017 Paris, France

The concept of Social Business has been initiated and promoted by Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus. The Social Business Academia Conference is held each year around this concept to review the theoretical and practical implications and potentials of the concept. You are invited to attend this conference scheduled to be held in Paris, France on November 8-9, 2017 immediately after GSBS (Global Social Business Summit) on November 6-7. The purpose of the conference is to create a networking opportunity for academicians, researchers, practitioners, and development activists to discuss recent insights on Social Business.

Social businesses refer to enterprises that engage in business to achieve social impact rather than solely to achieve financial gain. Over the last decade, the social business concept has grown in importance as a socio-economic phenomenon in both developed and emerging economies. Traditionally, businesses focusing on societal welfare have belonged to the non-profit sector. However, Professor Yunus's concept of social business gives emphasis on sustainability through making profit and keeping that profit in the business for the further investment. Social Businesses aim to sustain themselves, differentiating them from charitable ventures that rely on donations and/or government funding as a major source of their income. For these reasons, social businesses may be understood as hybrid organizations that have both social and economic missions, and with this seek to sustain both missions. These have implications for their management and performance. This conference seeks to understand the management and performance implications of the social business concept proposed by Professor Yunus. It also aims to explore new theoretical and empirical research in the areas of finance, marketing, human resources, information and communication technology, health, agriculture and management issues related to social businesses which will foster the future direction of the policies and practices of these businesses. Besides academic papers, the conference welcomes case studies, in-depth evaluations, and papers documenting innovative directions of social businesses from business executives, consultants, social activists, social business practitioners, ethicists, social scientists and others. Collectively academic and non-academic contributions will reflect on the challenges and opportunities that social businesses face as they try to solve the most complicated human problems inside one country, and across countries around the world.

The conference is intended to be interdisciplinary and welcomes contributions from anyone who has a perspective on the concept of social business. Papers are welcome on any topic related to the concept of social business and suggested themes for papers include:
(1) ... Fighting poverty, inequality, slowing down or reversing the process of concentration of wealth in only a few hands, unemployment of youth etc.
(2) ... Promoting sustainable development including climate change, health improvement and environmental sustainability.
(3) ... Achieving SDGs through the application of the social business methodology.
(4) ... Affordable healthcare for bottom-most people.
(5) ... Application of technologies in achieving qualitative changes in the lives of the unreached people.
(6) ... Clarifying the concept of social business in relation to other concepts, like social entrepreneurship, social enterprise, social economy, social impact investment, corporate social responsibility, etc.
(7) ... Issues related to the financing of social businesses (potentials and limitations of various financing options, like bonds, venture capital, crowd funding, philanthropic capital, etc.).
(8) ... Diversity and unity in the application of the social business concept.
(9) ... Research and teaching methodologies of social business.
(10) ... Measurement of social impacts of social businesses.
(11) ... Emerging management methodologies for managing social businesses.
(12) ... The relationship among social business, foundations, NGOs, government agencies, CSR, investment funds.
(13) ... Social businesses in developed countries.
(14) ... Theoretical basis and practical experiences of establishing and operating social business funds.
(15) ... Innovative financing of social businesses.
(16) ... From unemployment to entrepreneurship through social businesses.
(17) ... Development of ecosystem for the steady growth of the social business.

Important Dates:
Paper submission starts: February 15, 2017
Deadline for full paper submission: June 10, 2017
Paper acceptance notification: July 25, 2017
Deadline for camera-ready (final) paper submission: September 30, 2017

Submission Details:

There will be a peer-review process to select papers for the presentation at the conference. Once papers have been selected authors will be notified about the specific sessions in the conference where it will be presented. At least one of the authors would have to register and be present at the conference for the paper to be published in the proceedings. If no author is available to present the paper, the paper will be withdrawn from the presentation list.

Submission Instructions:

Authors are requested to submit their papers (in PDF only) through the submission page of the Social Business Academia Conference 2017 (http://socialbusinesspedia.com/sbac/2017). Authors are requested also to see the instructions for authors before submitting the paper.

Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at:

Professor M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (mjac@du.ac.bd);

Ms. Nazneen Sultana (gc@grameen.org);

Dr. Ashir Ahmed (ashir@ait.kyushu-u.ac.jp).

INSTRUCTION FOR AUTHORS

SBAC 2017 Social Business Academia Conference 2017
8-9th November, 2017 Paris, France

Definition of Social Business:

All papers to be submitted to the SBAC 2017 need to follow mandatorily the definition of social business given by Professor Muhammad Yunus (Non-dividend company to solve human problems). They follow the seven principles of social business.

These are: (1) Business objective will be to overcome poverty, or one or more problems (such as education, health, technology access, and environment) which threaten people and society. (2) Financial and economic sustainability. (3) Investors get back their investment amount only; no dividend is given beyond investment money. (4) When investment amount is paid back, company profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement. (5) Gender sensitive and environmentally conscious. (6) Workforce gets market wage with better working conditions. (7) Do it with joy.

If you want to know more about updated information on social business, please visit www.socialbusinesspedia.com

Linking Cases with Social Business:

For the case based papers, it is important to illustrate how the case is linked to the concept of social business defined by Professor Yunus. It is important also to explain clearly how the project mentioned in the case is going to overcome a specific human problem in any or several of the following areas, such as education, health, environment, technology along with poverty which threaten people and society. Moreover, it is also important to clarify how the project ensures its financial and economic sustainability.

Signing In to SBAC System:

To use SBAC system, you will need to sign in first. If you already have an account, please enter your email address and password in the corresponding fields of the form on the SBAC sign in page.

If you have an account but forgot your password, please put in your email address in email address/user ID field and click ‘Forgot your password?’; we will e-mail you the password reset link. Once you click the link, a password reset page will appear. You can reset password by filling up mandatory fields.

If you do not have an account on the SBAC system yet, please click on the 'Sign Up' link. Fill in the form and then click on the 'Sign Up' button. Mandatory fields are marked with a red asterisk. We will email an account activation link. Once you click the link, your account will be activated on the SBAC System and you can sign in.

Review Process:

Acceptance of papers for the conference will be based on a review of a full paper by two anonymous referees. Following acceptance, attendees will be expected to submit the final version of the full paper after incorporating the comments of the reviewers

Submissions of Full Papers:

Manuscripts (pdf) should be submitted online by signing in to the SBAC Sytem following the submission guidelines. In order to facilitate the review process:

Authors are expected to submit the manuscript without any author names and affiliations, or any other information that could disclose the authors.

A separate electronic document containing only a title page with the following information: (i) the full title, (ii) all authors’ names with affiliations, and (iii) the contact information (i.e., email and regular mail) of the corresponding authors. If authors want to include acknowledgements or disclosure notices, they should use this document (a second page) to include the necessary information.

Manuscript Format:

The entire manuscript must be single-spaced (including footnotes and references) and written on A4 page format, with 2 cm margins all around. Indents should be created using the tab function (1.27cm left), not the space bar (spaces). The preferred font is 12-point Times New Roman.

Author(s): The 'blinded' manuscript must not contain the name(s) of the author(s).

Keywords: All texts must be accompanied by a list of keywords: 4 to5 words or short phrases best describing the content of the papers. The keywords have to be arranged in alphabetical order.

Acknowledgements and Disclosure Notices: The manuscript must not contain any kind of acknowledgements or disclosure notices (as footnote or within the text). They may provide information that can lead to a positive identification of the author(s).

Paper Size: Manuscripts should not exceed 4,000 words

References: References should follow Harvard style.

Titles and Subtitles (Headings): Authors should use a maximum of three-levels of headings:
... Heading 1 – corresponding to the paper title (size 14, bold)
... Heading 2 – for subtitles (size 13, bold)
... Heading 3 – for sections (size 12.5, bold and italics)