ADERSE stands for “Association pour le
Développement de l’Enseignement et de la Recherche sur la Responsabilité Sociale
de l’Entreprise” – which can be translated as follows in English: Association for the Development of
Education and Research on Corporate Social Responsibility. Recognized by
the FNEGE as a French academic association of Management Sciences, ADERSE
already brings together about a hundred members originating from all over the
country: University professors, lecturers and researchers, scholars from
ADERSE is an academic association founded in 2002 by François Lépineux (INSEAD), Arnaud Pellissier-Tanon (Paris I Sorbonne) and Yvon Pesqueux (CNAM), to promote the integration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) into management education programs as well as into management research. Its Board of Directors includes 18 members:
BARTHE Nicole
BIARDEAU Sylvain
BOISSIN Jean-Pierre
BONNET Marc
CADET Isabelle
CASTELNAU Philippe
CUEVAS Fernando
ECOTO François
GUILLON Bernard
IGALENS Jacques
LE BERRE Michel
LEBRATY Jean-Fabrice
MARCO Luc
ROSE Jean-Jacques
SANTOCCHIA Axelle
SAVALL Henri
YANAT Zahir
ZARDET Véronique
Executive Committee:
- President : Nicole BARTHE
- Vice-president : Jean-Jacques ROSE and Zahir YANAT
- Treasurer : François ECOTO
- Secretary General : Axelle SANTOCCHIA
The first ADERSE Conference was held on
June 12, 2003 at the
The second ADERSE Conference was held on October
21-22, 2004 at the
The third ADERSE Conference, co-organized by ISEOR
and the Social Issues in Management (SIM) Division of the
Our “raison d’être”
The field of CSR includes multiple aspects and
can be approached from different angles:
-
internal social responsibility
-
relations with external
stakeholders and civil society
-
environmental issues
-
sustainable development
-
corporate governance
-
risk consideration
-
business ethics,
values-led management, etc.
This brief enumeration is clearly not
comprehensive but only aims to offer some keys of entry in a field that is very
vast.
ADERSE is consequently a special kind of
academic management association in the sense that it does not fit into the
perimeter of a precise disciplinary field (such as strategy, marketing,
organization, human resources)
management, finance, accounting, management control, etc.)
Instead, it corresponds to a new field in the
process of construction – CSR – which is essentially transversal to all
existing fields, and therefore calls for a specific elaboration in each of them. The subject of CSR cannot be
confined in the corpus of management sciences but, on the contrary, calls for
an opening to other disciplines: social sciences, economics, political science,
philosophy, future studies, etc.
The creation of ADERSE flows from the
observation of two opposing trends. On the one hand, CSR and its related issues
are spreading more and more quickly throughout society: businesspeople, institutional investors,
consumers, politicians, and the general public are increasingly taking it into
account. On the other hand, very few
management programs deal with CSR in
As a result, though academics in various disciplines
struggle worldwide for the integration of these issues into their curricula, it
appears that
ADERSE is working for a change. The association
will endeavor to foster the integration of these issues in business and
management programs at the University and
With respect to management education programs,
two options are possible:
-
integrating CSR into
traditional management courses;
-
creating specific
classes dedicated to this subject in order to grasp its global and transversal
nature.
These
two possibilities are not necessarily exclusive, but rather complementary: the
presence of CSR-related elements in basic management programs will be usefully
completed by more specialized courses underlining the importance of this new
dimension of business and organization management.
ADERSE aims to become an academic resource centre
for teachers, researchers and other professionals interested in CSR. In
particular, it aims to provide information and tools through its website, for
instance:
-
an inventory of existing
programs dealing with CSR in
-
an inventory of
the main research programs conducted at the European level
-
a list of bibliographical
references including abstracts
-
some case studies
of companies involved in a sustainability approach
-
sketches of training
modules, either for general or specialized courses.
Besides, ADERSE does not limit itself to purely
academic considerations, but strives to facilitate change in economic and
social practices. It is open to an enduring dialogue with companies that are on
the cutting edge of sustainable development and social engagement; and it also
seeks to establish links with other specialized organizations, in France and
internationally, in order to create a network promoting CSR education and
research.
ADERSE represents a permanent platform for free
and open discussion on the contents of courses relating to CSR and on their
pedagogical engineering. It thus offers a framework of reference and reflection
for those who are confronted with questions about the feasibility of a course
in the fields of business ethics, sustainable development, or CSR. It also
enables French researchers working in this field to meet and communicate. Due
to its transversal character, CSR calls for exchanges between the segmented
disciplines of management.
Finally, an association like ADERSE brings
visibility and representation at the national level. It is a means to promote
the recognition of CSR in management education in
ADERSE already counts over one hundred members.
While the majority of these members come from the academic sphere (professors
and researchers from both public and private institutions), a number of other
professionals (managers, consultants, NGO representatives, etc.) have also
joined the association.
To become a member of ADERSE, in accordance with the association's statutes, it is necessary to be personally or professionally involved in the pursuit of its objectives through teaching, research, studies, consulting, organizational management, or by any other way that demonstrates a sincere interest for its action. Requests for admission are submitted to the Board of Directors, which will assess their conformity with the conditions stated above and will then pronounce its decision.
For more information
please refer to the French version of the website.