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About us

We live in a globalised society that is increasingly concerned with social and environmental sustainability.

Global challenges such as climate change, global financial crises, global supply chains and high-profile corporate scandals have increased the pressure on businesses for more accountability and responsibility on social and environmental issues.

As a result, businesses are increasingly required to understand such issues and integrate them into their everyday practice.

Our aim is to develop and promote a better understanding of how various social and environmental issues affect businesses and how businesses can affect them.

Our vision is to create a better world through more responsible and sustainable businesses.

We define ‘responsible businesses’ as those businesses whose policies and practices reflect responsibility which goes beyond the law for their impacts on their stakeholders, including the environment and the wider society.

The Responsible Business Centre is housed in the Birkbeck Business School, but we are also a member of the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS), sustainability centres community, a network of more than 150 sustainability research centres worldwide.

Our team

We are a dynamic and multidisciplinary group of academics, working with individuals and organisations, where research interests coincide.

Birkbeck academic members

  • Dr Ioanna Boulouta, (Director), Lecturer in Corporate Social Responsibility
    • Interests: corporate social responsibility, sustainability, gender diversity
  • Dr Luca Andriani, Senior Lecturer in Economics
    • Interests: trust, corruption, tax morale
  • Dr Benedetta Crisafulli, Reader in Marketing
    • Interests: social innovation, corporate social responsibility
  • Dr Wendy Hein, Senior Lecturer in Marketing
    • Interests: gender equality, responsible marketing, sustainable consumption
  • Dr Sue Konzelmann, Professor in Management
    • Interests: public policy
  • Dr Ashok Kumar, Senior Lecturer in Management
    • Interests: sweatshops, industrial relations
  • Professor Emmanuel Mamatzakis, Professor of Finance
    • Interests: accounting and finance, earnings management, credit risk and financial stability
  • Dr Arron Philips, Lecturer in Corporate Governance and Business Ethics
    • Interests: whistleblowing, industrial relations, governance, ethics
  • Dr Ellen Yu, Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance
    • Interests: ethical investment, sustainable finance

External academic members

Research associates (practitioners and students/alumni)

  • Dr Viresh Amin (alumni, former PhD student)
  • Dr Jacinth Boudier (alumni, former PhD student)
  • Dr Barbara Fryzel (visiting scholar, associate professor at Jagiellonian University Kraków, Poland)
  • Jason Glaser (CEO, La Isla Network)
  • Dr Blanca Grey (alumni, former PhD student)
  • Dr Benjamin Siedler (Senior Associate in corporate finance, specializing in corporate valuation and financial due diligence, Germany).