The conference brought together researchers and practitioners to better understand how business, government, and civil society interact to address social problems. This year’s conference explored how cross-sector partnerships can lead to deeper systemic change in solving such problems.
PrC contributions
Professor Rob van Tulder from RSM’s Partnerships Resource Centre was involved in the doctoral consortium preceding CSSI 2016, and lead two workshops during the conference: one with Rianne van Asperen and Salla Laasonen about the Wicked Problems Plaza, and one about partnering and the global goals. Prof. Van Tulder also presented the paper Dealing with Governance Tensions in Practice which he co-authored with Stella Pfisterer. He also presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Professor Barbara Gray. “For the PrC, this conference is extremely important,” said Prof. Van Tulder. “It connects us to other experts in the field, and their feedback helps us to improve our own work.”
The Partnerships Resource Centre’s Greetje Schouten presented two papers with co-authors Verena Bitzer and Domenico Dentoni. One paper explores multi‐stakeholder initiatives and the challenge of wicked problems, and the other paper is about tensions in global multi‐stakeholder partnerships and how they can lead to the formation of local competing organisations. Both presentations were well-received and sparked lively discussions.
Cross-sector social interactions
Three renowned scholars – Professor Henry Mintzberg (McGill University), Professor Barbara Gray (Penn State University), and Professor Ben Cashore (Yale University) – reflected on cross-sector social interactions during their thought-provoking keynotes at the conference.
Following the 2012 CSSI conference in Rotterdam, the Journal of Business Ethics has devoted a special symposium issue on cross-sector partnerships for systemic change, edited by Prof. Andrew Crane, Dr May Seitanidi, Prof. Stephen Brammer, and RSM’s Prof. Rob van Tulder.
The CSSI Conference takes place every two years. The next conference will be in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2018. Read the Call for abstracts - 5th International Symposium on Cross Sector Social Interactions for more information.
