Diversifying the Definition of Corporate Social Responsibility: Hear from Dr. Monica Thiel

Corporations and other organizations of many forms are their own unique ecosystems, drawing their strength from the quality and productivity of relationships within the organization. Dr. Monica Thiel, member of the Academy of Management, has utilized a multidisciplinary approach in her own research on corporate relationships and the roles of various entities within, which resulted in the publication, Empowering Organizations through Corporate Social Responsibility. Dr. Thiel spoke with IGI Global in a recent interview about her research into business relationships and the way variety helped clarify her studies.

What inspired you to pursue research activities in your research area?

I have always enjoyed working and learning through various disciplines rather than focusing my career on one or two subjects. My professional work experience is broadly based across sectors and industries such as multinational corporations, nonprofit organizations, the government, the military, science, finance, healthcare, research, small-medium enterprises in business management, and social responsibility initiatives. These broad-based interests continually provided fuel for me to think of ways I could contribute towards improving business, government, and societal challenges and problems.

Why are your respective areas of research important to the field at large?

My field involves interdisciplinary and sometimes transdisciplinary research and teaching in business, government, and society at large. Today, many subjects are evolving due to a changing global environment across sectors and disciplines. In particular, my research and teaching focuses on sustainability, organizational performance, and reporting and corporate and government responsibility, partnerships, governance, and competitiveness. My research is important for rethinking global business and public administration teaching.

In your opinion, what are some of the benefits of your research to its community of users?

I am continually pursuing ways to guide teaching and research knowledge development in sustainability. Consequently, my results directly improve my pedagogical methods and student learning and knowledge. My research is primarily informed through qualitative, quantitative, and conceptual methods. This means I am working broadly to generate new hypotheses and better theories while simultaneously reaching out to practitioners through research and discussions that will benefit government and business practitioners and positively impact society at large.

What are the future directions of your research areas?

The future directions of my research areas include sustainability investments performance and reporting, as well as responsible and sustainable technology transfer among governments, universities, and enterprises. In addition, I am developing theories with metrics that drive responsible competitive intelligence for improving organizational performance, governance, risk management, and profit. Moreover, I am combining theory with responsible science research to advance business and government management and to improve the lives of people in society through practitioner and academic journals.

What are some other evolving research trends you have observed in your industry/field over the past several months and what would you say are some of the innovative research directions you foresee in the future? How do you feel your publication sets the pace for these innovations?

Investors are increasingly pursuing corporate responsibility and sustainability in the investment process and for enhancing financial and fundamental organizational performance. In addition, government and business leaders are seeking innovation through artificial intelligence and big da-ta in sustainability. Current academic research is narrow and antiquated, and it prevents societal impact. Research needs greater diversity and innovation that extends beyond one or a few disciplines.

The publication Empowering Organizations through Corporate Social Responsibility is broad and provides differing cultural views and challenges of partnerships in corporate social responsibility. For instance, contradictions of organizational logics and organizational interdependence within partnerships may simply be contingent upon gaining advantage and not solving societal issues and problems. In the future, partnerships in corporate social responsibility should evaluate their capacity to manage behavioral risk and the differences in success and preference that create difficulties in developing a sustainability policy, such as potentially disruptive social conditions in partnerships that foster opportunities for exploitation from a variety of actors by creating self-serving conditions within corporate social responsibility initiatives.

What has your experience been like publishing with IGI Global?

My publishing experience with IGI Global was excellent. I received help, guidance, and assistance with all my questions as an editor and author in a timely manner. I have published many book chapters with IGI Global that further my research and teaching development, while simultaneously extending my research networks and knowledge from academics and practitioners.

IGI Global would like to thank Dr. Monica Thiel for sharing her insights on corporate and social responsibility and the development of productive relationships. For more information on her forthcoming title, please visit the webpage for her publication, Empowering Organizations through Corporate Social Responsibility, or view her extensive list of webinars here.

All of Dr. Thiel’s research is available in print and electronic format through IGI Global’s Online Bookstore, as well as featured in IGI Global’s InfoSci®-Books, a database of 5,300+ reference books with over 100,000 full-text chapters.

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Additionally, when a library invests in IGI Global’s InfoSci-Books , they can take advantage of IGI Global’s Open Access (OA) Fee Waiver (Read and Publish) Initiative to provide their institution with an additional source of OA article processing charge (APC) funding. Through this transformative initiative, IGI Global matches the library’s investment with a fund of equal value to go towards subsidizing the OA article processing charges (APCs) for their faculty patrons at that institution when their work is accepted under OA into an IGI Global journal.**

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of IGI Global.