George Serafeim from Harvard presents “Integrated Reporting and Investor Clientele”

One of the key speakers for the Spring Camp CSR is George Serafeim, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. On Wednesday March 26 he will present his academic paper, which describes the link between integrated reporting (IR) and the composition of a company’s investor base. His hypothesis is that “firms that practice IR have a more long-term oriented investor base with more dedicated and fewer transient investors” and that “investor activism on environmental or social issues or a large number of concerns about a firm’s environmental or social impact leads a firm to practice more IR and that this investor or crisis-induced IR affects the composition of a firm’s investor base.” During the panel discussion, the members will share their thoughts, ideas and experiences regarding Serafeims hypothesis.

Professor Seraheim currently works at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches the course ‘Leading the Global 1000’ in the MBA elective curriculum and co-chairs the Executive Education program ‘Aligning Sustainability with Corporate Performance’. He earned his doctorate in business administration and he was awarded with the Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research for his thesis.

Serafeims work has been published worldwide in prominent academic journals, including Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Finance and Harvard Business Review. He has written more than twenty global business cases with special interest for corporate governance, equity valuation and corporate reporting issues. Together with Robert Eccles he worked on ‘The Performance Frontier’ which was recognized as the ‘Big Idea’ at Harvard Business Review. For his paper in cooperation with Professor Ioannis Ioannou on corporate sustainability and sell-side investment recommendations, he was awarded for the best paper from the Academy of Management.

In addition to his paper presentation during the 2014 Spring Camp conference, George Serafeim also takes part in the panel discussion afterwards. 

What else can you expect from the 2014 Spring Camp?

The program for Wednesday further contains a dinner speech with Jan-Peter Balkenende, partner corporate responsibility EY and former Dutch prime minister. On Thursday 27 March the morning session will be opened with a paper presentation from Rui Albuquerque from Boston University about the valuation of sustainability and firm risk, followed by a panel discussion. In the afternoon the attendees will join an academic paper presentation from Patrick Martin from Indiana University on implementing a CSR strategy. Jan van der Kaaij, managing partner Finch & Beak, will participate in the panel discussion regarding the latter subject.