Currency innovation for sustainable financing of SMEs: context, case study and scalability

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the topic of complementary currencies to the academy engaged in research on corporate responsibility and responsible finance, as well as the broader field of progressive management studies. It responds to the growing awareness that both managers and researchers need to address a systemic challenge of our time, concerning stagnating economies and growing inequality. An underlying cause of that problem is identified as mainstream monetary systems and the implications for inadequate financing of SMEs and microenterprises. The potential of currency innovation, from cryptographic currencies like Bitcoin, to local currencies and then to commercial barter and countertrade are discussed. Given the novelty of these phenomena for management studies in general and corporate responsibility in particular, an interdisciplinary literature review is presented. Then a case study of a complementary currency in an informal settlement in Kenya is presented and implications for the wider adoption of useful new currencies discussed. It concludes therefore that SMEs need certain types of complementary currency more than others and proposes that companies can engage in currencies as part of their corporate responsibility programmes as well as for direct business benefit

Elegant disruption: how luxury and society can change each-other for good

This paper outlines the contemporary luxury sector, showing it is global, thriving and influential. It shows how creative destruction is typical in most industry sectors, including luxury, and how disruptive innovation by entrepreneurs is key to that process. It proposes that the current time is potentially disruptive for incumbent luxury brands and groups, due to five key trends that are beginning to re-frame the markets that luxury brands sell to. Sustainable luxury entrepreneurs from USA, UK, Philippines, India, Argentina, China and Hong Kong are profiled and described as pursuing “elegant disruption”: a well-designed intervention in markets that both uses and affects aspirations in ways that change patterns of consumption, production or exchange, for a positive societal outcome. The paper reviews the response of mainstream luxury brands to the sustainability agenda, proposing some possible reasons why they appear to be encumbered in embracing this agenda fully. Some of the paradoxes in the notion of “sustainable luxury” are described, in order to draw implications for both the luxury industry and people interested in positive social change. The paper draws upon the authors five years of interaction with the luxury industry on sustainability issues, and is therefore written as a “first person inquiry” and draws upon principles of “appreciative inquiry” in documenting the breakthrough approaches of some sustainable luxury entrepreneurs

From castle to cage: what to do about the housing crisis?

"An Englishman's home is his castle”. The phrase originates from 17th century England, when it referred to the principle of being able to refuse entry to your home. If you are browsing this article from home right now, you might question if that principle is particularly well applied in a time of mass surveillance. But today, when we say a person’s house is their castle it is usually to suggest that it is natural for us to buy a house – particularly if we are British. The implication is that we won’t feel safe and secure, certainly not prosperous, unless we own a home. This emotional connection to home ownership is something that politicians can be keen to connect to. Yet recent evidence shows unrestrained mechanisms for home ownership are actually an enemy of our prosperity

Currency innovation for sustainable financing of SMEs: context, case study and scalability

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the topic of complementary currencies to the academy engaged in research on corporate responsibility and responsible finance, as well as the broader field of progressive management studies. It responds to the growing awareness that both managers and researchers need to address a systemic challenge of our time, concerning stagnating economies and growing inequality. An underlying cause of that problem is identified as mainstream monetary systems and the implications for inadequate financing of SMEs and microenterprises. The potential of currency innovation, from cryptographic currencies like Bitcoin, to local currencies and then to commercial barter and countertrade are discussed. Given the novelty of these phenomena for management studies in general and corporate responsibility in particular, an interdisciplinary literature review is presented. Then a case study of a complementary currency in an informal settlement in Kenya is presented and implications for the wider adoption of useful new currencies discussed. It concludes therefore that SMEs need certain types of complementary currency more than others and proposes that companies can engage in currencies as part of their corporate responsibility programmes as well as for direct business benefit

Turning point: what if we are failing? Towards a post-crisis compact for systemic change

Has the UN Global Compact (UNGC) failed? This question deserves as much attention as the search for evidence of success, if we are to be rigorous in our evaluation. The celebrations in New York to mark the tenth anniversary of its founding were justified and important. However, as someone who held great hopes for this initiative when I discussed it with its founders over ten years ago (Bendell 2000a), I believe we need to think as freely, critically and ambitiously as we did back then if we are to ensure it evolves to meet the challenges of our time

Leadership beyond denial of our climate tragedy

The topic that we will explore in this session is in the ether of our conference. Which may reflect how the topic is increasingly in the minds of some people in recent years, particularly in the environmental movement. It doesn’t feel right to me given the serious nature of the topic to just present a summary of my paper. We can’t avoid the emotional impact of this topic. And shouldn’t try to. Although my attempt to develop a “deep adaptation” concept was partly to take some of the sting out of things by inviting reflection within a framework, perhaps a life-raft for despair, I don’t see there is any way to just jump into this as a technical or philosophical discussion. Because it is such an important topic, connected to the most important questions of existence, and an emotional journey for me, I want to be more precise than I am usually. Therefore, I will abandon a habit of a few years, and actually read my talk. What I want to do in this session is to invite you to consider simply: “What If?” What if it is too late to avert a catastrophe in our own societies within our lifetimes, due to the impacts of climate change, particularly on agriculture. What might that mean for my life and work? Only if we consider that it could be too late could we explore implications for life and work - and deepen our dialogue on adaptation. I am no expert in that field. Instead, my role here is to invite more people to engage in that dialogue. Most people don’t engage, as they raise many arguments against the view that we now face a probable or inevitable collapse in our societies within ten years. So, to encourage more of us to move into that “what if” space to consider this and let it generate new insights, I will summarise some of my own story in arriving at this point of view

The appearance of elegant disruption: theorising sustainable luxury entrepreneurship

This paper draws upon theories of disruptive innovation to propose that disruption in the luxury sector is beginning to occur due to the efforts of sustainable luxury entrepreneurs. Creative destruction is typical in most industry sectors, including luxury, and disruptive innovation by entrepreneurs is key to that process. The paper proposes that the current time is potentially disruptive for incumbent luxury brands and groups, due to five key trends that are beginning to re-frame the markets that luxury brands sell to. On the basis of five years of engagement with the industry, and appreciative inquiry to understand the motivations, approaches and successes of sustainable luxury entrepreneurs, the authors develop a theory of elegant disruption. That is, a well-designed intervention in markets that both uses and affects aspirations in ways that change patterns of consumption, production or exchange, for a positive societal outcome. They profile four sustainable luxury entrepreneurs from USA, UK, Philippines and South Africa, which typify aspects of an elegant disruption approach. In so doing, the paper argues that an assumption that disruptive innovations always start by providing cheaper options does not reflect the way potentially disruptive innovations are occurring in sectors like luxury. In addition, the nature of the disruption need not be immediately about taking market share from incumbents, but by influencing perceptions about the value of incumbent offerings, in ways that generate major risk for the future of those businesses

Seeking sustainability leadership

This paper critiques mainstream leadership and leadership development approaches to help inform the emerging field of sustainability leadership. Traditional leadership theory and education is argued to be highly problematic for the pursuit of sustainability leadership. A more critical approach is required, drawing upon insights from social theory, critical discourse analysis and psychology, which is attempted in this paper. Once deconstructed, leadership can be a useful framework for exploring needed learning and unlearning for people to become agents within leaderful groups to create more significant change in organizations and society, in light of unsustainability and injustice. The initial outlines of a reconstructed approach to leadership and its development, which are used at the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) and Impact International, are outlined

Healing capitalism: five years in the life of business, finance and corporate responsibility

The global response from business to social and environmental issues during the past decade has created a corporate responsibility movement. But what has been the impact of this movement? The financial crisis that began in 2007 has led more and more people to question the fundamentals of our economic system. Now, some within the corporate responsibility movement are developing a vision and practice of a new form of capitalism, one that will require collective action to achieve. Bendell and Doyle draw on Lifeworth’s annual reviews of corporate responsibility to explain how business leaders, stakeholders and related academe now need to experiment with new models that address the fundamental flaws of contemporary capitalism, including monetary systems, enterprise ownership, and regulation. This book will be a fantastic resource for business libraries, as it records and analyses key events, issues and trends in corporate responsibility during the first decade of the 21st century. It is a sequel and companion to Bendell’s previous work, The Corporate Responsibility Movement