Business & Society Research Seminar 2026

Responsibility under Pressure: Sustainability & Inclusion in times of polarization and backlash

The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Ghent University and Vlerick Business School, in collaboration with multiple academic institutions, are thrilled to host the 2026 edition of the Business & Society Research Seminar. The theme of this year’s edition is:

Responsibility under Pressure: Sustainability & Inclusion in times of polarization and backlash

We are living in an era of intersecting crises (ecological, social, political, and economic) that increasingly reinforce one another. Societies face accelerating climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity, geopolitical tension, social inequalities, polarization, and rapid technological disruption. These crises reshape the expectations placed on organizations and intensify debates about their broader societal responsibilities.

In this turbulent context, organizational commitments to sustainability, inclusion, and societal impact come under pressure. What was long viewed as a moral and collective imperative is increasingly reframed in instrumental or strategic terms. As public scepticism rises and polarization deepens, efforts related to sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) risk being deprioritized, diluted, or contested. This creates a pressing paradox: the need for responsible and inclusive organizational action has never been greater, yet its moral legitimacy appears increasingly fragile.

This seminar invites participants to explore how organizations, and the people within them, can continue to create meaningful societal value despite growing resistance, ambiguity, and competing demands. We aim to understand how responsibility is interpreted, practiced, challenged, or defended across different levels of analysis: from individual motivation and identity work, to organizational strategies and leadership, to shifting institutional norms and societal expectations.

By bringing together emerging and established scholars, the seminar seeks to foster dialogue on how sustainability and inclusion can remain credible, resilient, and transformative in an age of crisis, and what this means for research, practice, and the evolving relationship between business and society.

We welcome contributions from various organization-related research fields (e.g., business ethics and philosophy, management and organization studies, strategy, marketing, accounting, finance, entrepreneurship, and sociology) and research methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, mixed, and conceptual). Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:

• How can organizations effectively involve internal and external stakeholders in co-creating solutions that advance social, environmental, and ethical objectives?
• What role can social movements play in shaping organizational responsibility and fostering systemic societal change?
• How can social entrepreneurship initiatives be designed and scaled to generate both organizational resilience and measurable societal impact?
• How can business-nonprofit partnerships be structured to maximize shared value and long-term social and environmental outcomes?
• How can organizations maintain CSR and DEI initiatives during times of deprioritization?
• How can circular economy and sharing economy principles be integrated into business models and governance to support sustainable practices?
• What leadership, governance, and decision-making approaches enable organizations to embed corporate social responsibility at the core of strategy in turbulent contexts?