Faculty and Research

Centre for Corporate Sustainability Impact

EADA's Centres of Excellence are comprised of the Innovation Centre, the Retail Management Centre and finally, the Centre for Corporate Sustainability Impact. With this Centre, EADA Barcelona Business School wishes to develop and do research on models for implementing and having an impact on social responsibility, which can be specifically incorporated in the company strategy and which establish clearly defined measures for returning investment to society.

The Centre for Corporate Sustainability Impact expresses EADA Business School's commitment to developing and promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainability within the area of Business Administration.
Its mission is to promote innovation and excellence in frontline research concerning the spreading of models for implementing and having an impact on social responsibility through collaboration networks.

The Corporate Social Responsibility centre intends to be a specific and unique centre which comes up with real and global solutions for companies within the framework of multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the United Nations GLOBAL COMPACT and which distinguish it from the majority of companies in the sector.

In order to promote the optimum development of this Centre of Excellence, EADA Business School has come up with an innovative functional model: online organisation and work. This entails a social process which develops stable relations, in our particular case, with companies and academic institutions as well as with other institutions of civil society, NGOs, trade unions, international bodies. The network of the Centre for Corporate Sustainability Impact has great advantages and benefits in terms of flexibility, adaptation and the swift generation and spreading of knowledge, when compared to other types of organisational structures. Our business school considers that working online gives us greater scope both time wise and geographically, making it easier to exchange knowledge and that it is well suited to the way of working in a globalised world.

Knowledge creation
This basic activity is the key driving force behind the Centre for Corporate Sustainability Impact's other activities. It intends to be rigorous and innovative in its fundamental tenets, to be practical in its conclusions (procedures, systems and policies) and to be relevant to the advancement of academic knowledge and corporate management.

Sharing Knowledge
EADA Business School's academic excellence applied to social responsibility entails setting up specific courses for its programmes and for companies (In Company) as well as organising various forums and specialised seminars throughout the academic year of the Centre of Excellence of Corporate Social Responsibility, more specifically the forum.

The Spread of Knowledge
Given the centre's online format, EADA has opted in favour of transmitting and spreading knowledge via constellations of academic and professional networks as well as international bodies (UNDP, Global Compact, CEPAL, World Bank).

Members of the centre for Corporate Sustainability Impact

This Centre of Excellence is made up of an interdisciplinary research team (strategy, finance, control, human resources, marketing) because its objective, which involves implementing and measuring the impact, influences all areas of the company. The centre will require one professor from each department to participate and lead their area in Corporate Social Responsibility.

Martin Rahe
Doctor in Economics for Bochum University, Germany. Research Dean at EADA Business School with over 15 years experience in teaching and consultancy. He has worked on German-Russian joint industrial projects (Ruhrgas and Gazprom), and on his own business initiatives. In 2006 he was one of the founding members of the Society of Global Business and Economic Development. His research efforts will contribute a new perspective to the Centre for Corporate Sustainability Impact with regard to the impact of globalisation on markets, consumer behaviour and the retail sector.

Elisabeth Garriga
Doctorate (2007) in General Management from IESE. Her thesis presents a new approach to corporate social responsibility based on social capital and the development of a stakeholder theory, and it has been put to the test in Inditex and Gas Natural, two leading Spanish multinationals. Her proven experience in commercial retailing consultancy (Inditex, Oh Ma) and as an external consultant for the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Compact (Argentina), will contribute a novel perspective to corporate social responsibility in this Centre of Excellence dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility.

Luis Torras
Degree in English Philology, Universitat de Barcelona. Degree in Business Management and Administration, Universitat de Barcelona. Master in Administration Management from EADA Business School. Management Development Program, University of California, Berkeley. Director of the EADA Company Policy Department.

Joan Ramón Tarradellas
Doctor in Business Administration (Real Option Valuation), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Master in Business Administration (MBA), IESE/Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Degree and Master in Industrial Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Over the last 17 years he has worked on international Merger and Acquisition projects for large multinational corporations in the United States and Europe. He is currently a full time professor in the Finance department of EADA Business School.

Projects

United Nations
A joint project between EADA Business School, PNUD Argentina and the Global Compact, the aim of which is to develop a strategic capabilities model by means of a system of measurement and diagnostic tools.
The model is currently being applied in key Argentinean companies.
The project is backed by CEPAL, CEADS and Fundación Compromiso as its advisory council.

Codespa
In EADA Business School we know that development project fund raising is a crucial task for all stakeholder institutions. One of the policies that Fundación Codespa promotes is to finance projects with micro-donations. Today, workers in more and more companies are getting organised and jointly donating a small sum of their payroll to a social project. The research study analyses the impact of these micro-donations on employee performance and wellbeing.

Air Lines
The project has developed a model for measuring Corporate Social Responsibility in the aeronautics industry by means of real options. The specific model drawn up by our Centre for Corporate Sustainability Impact has incorporated the main factors that need to be taken into account so that these real options can measure the value of carbon emission rights. These carbon emission rights are negotiated and exchanged on the market and they are the outcome of European legislation in the aeronautical industry. The model has been studied in 3,500 companies in the airlines industry.

The Centre's brochure

To download the Centre for Corporate Sustainability Impact's Brochure, please click here (English)
To download the Centre for Corporate Sustainability Impact's Brochure, please click here (Spanish)