Research Activities

I. Externally funded research

1. Framework programmes funded by the European Commission

• ERASMUS TEMPO CSR, an action programme on elaborating a trans-European executive education curriculum on CSR. Six European business schools participate in this consortium. The Center is responsible for participating in overall curriculum development and testing them with two courses. See the project brochure here or visit the website at www.csr-tempo.eu

• FP7 IMPACT measuring social impact and sustainability of CSR activities. Its main objective is to develop CSR measurement methods, defining what incentives to use and how to achieve that public policy framework promote CSR. The Center is involved in three of the seven research work packages, including the determination of the conceptual framework, the preparation of case studies of several businesses in selected sectors and the participation in Delphi analysis, a poll among experts. For further information see the attached Executive summary, Press release of the project website and the IMPACT Project flyer, or visit the project website at www.csr-impact.eu

Completed EU projects

2. EABIS funded research

In cooperation with the Polish Leon Kozminsky Business Academy, the Center is developing a methodology for case study writing and prepares two case studies on Hungarian companies.

3. CSR and stakeholder research project funded by and prepared for E.on Hungary

The Center completed the research that aimed at developing a KPI system for top management level at the company, and also presented the findings of the reflexive stakeholder mapping research. In the second phase of the cooperation, we also prepared an analysis of the CSR activities of the major Hungarian competitors of E.on.

4. Bellagio STAMP project (Sustainable Assessment and Measurement Principles) funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and IISD.

It aims at developing a general set of guidelines for measuring sustainable development, an international team with the co-leadership of Prof. Hardi worked out a set of sustainability assessment and measurement principles. OECD has also joined this initiative through launching its project measuring social progress. The new sets of principles are already published on the OECD and some other major websites. Prof Hardi with his co-authors published a journal article on the Principles, see it here.

II. The Center’s own initiative without or minimal external funds

1. Sustainable use of natural resources: The case of bio-energy

The Center, in cooperation with the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, conducted research on bio-energy production potentials in selected East European and Central Asian countries. The findings were summarized in a monograph and the research paper was published by Elsevier, the world’s leading publisher of science and health information.

T. Srebotnjak, P. Hardi: Prospects for Sustainable Bioenergy Production in Selected Former Communist Countries, Ecological Indicators vol. 11 (2011), pp. 1009–1019.

To order a copy of the issue, please contact your nearest Sales Office: http://www.elsevier.com/salesoffices.

 2. CSR and Complex Society Issues

Peter Hardi and Gergely Radácsi reached the final stage of their joint research project concentrating on the construction of a framework to connect CSR to complex society issues. In the frame of the reseach, the Center participates in a national network aiming at the promotion of workplace prevention programmes in the field of substance abuse and mental health promotion. Working paper was published, read it here.

3. Sustainability in the Board Rooms

This research, in cooperation with IISD, is aimed at analyzing the extent by which corporate boards discuss sustainability issues and rely on sustainability indicators in their decisions.