Sustainable Market Actors in the Nordic countries

Call for papers for a SMART Nordic Sustainable Market Actors Workshop, to be held in Oslo on the week of 9-13 October 2017, combined with the Research Group Companies, Markets and Sustainability’s PhD Seminar Companies and Markets 2017.

The SMART Project intends to deliver insights beyond current research into policy coherence for development by investigating the drivers and barriers for sustainable business and finance, trade and investment, through integrated research into the market actors across the whole value chain. An essential element in this work is a comprehensive, evidence-based mapping and analysis of the regulatory complexity of the market actors, to identify best practices that should be reinforced, barriers that should be removed, and gaps and incoherencies that need to be dealt with. This work is divided into three layers: the international level, the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) level, and the level of selected EU and EEA Member States. These levels are obviously not distinctly separate areas with clear boundaries, and we expect strong interaction between them.

The Nordic region is mapped and analysed as a whole with selected examples from the five Nordic countries. This Call for Papers concerns the mapping and analysis on the Nordic level. In addition to the Nordic level, the jurisdiction-specific mapping and analysis concentrates on Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and the UK.

The selection of issues for the jurisdiction-specific mapping and analysis aims to identify relevant examples in light of the mapping and analysis on international level and on the European level. For the Nordic workshop, we welcome contributions within the following themes while we also are open to other topics relevant to the environmental, social and economic sustainability of Nordic market actors.

  • How do the Nordic regulatory systems fit structurally to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and specifically to achieving sustainable market actors?
  • The Nordic States’ adaptation to their international obligations, including the follow up of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement, their Bilateral Investment Treaties, their implementation of the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises with the OECD National Contact Points.
  • The Nordic regulation of businesses, including companies and other business forms (cooperatives, foundations, social entrepreneurships, etc.), reporting and accounting regimes (including implementation of the 2014 Non-Financial Reporting Directive), tax structures, and inclusion of labour and involvement of other stakeholders.
  • Best practices, drivers or barriers for business models integrating life-cycle based approaches across corporate groups, contractual networks and global value chains.
  • The Nordic regulation of investors and financial markets, including also best practices from Nordic investors, whether private, public or hybrid.
  • The role of the Nordic states and other public entities as investors both indirectly (public pension reserve funds, national wealth funds, sovereign wealth funds, etc.) and directly (as only or majority shareholder).
  • The Nordic regulation of information from business to consumer.
  • Role of the Nordic public entities as public procurers, including best practices in and after the implementation of the 2014 Public Procurement Directives.
  • Other drivers and barriers for sustainable market actors, including the role of labour, of civil society and of the courts.

We also welcome presentation of any on-going or recently concluded relevant Nordic research projects.

We encourage established scholars as well as PhD candidates to submit abstracts, and while the focus is on the Nordic region, we are also open to comparative perspectives from other regions.

Practical Information

Response to this call for papers may be submitted online with a suggested title and an abstract of maximum 500 words. The deadline is 10 September 2017.

Response will be given by 15 September 2017. Selected participants will be asked to submit a short draft paper by 5 October and a full working paper by 1 December 2017. A peer-reviewed publication is anticipated based on the presentations at the conference. Deadline for submission of the final papers for publication to be announced.

Please be advised that we only have very limited funds to contribute to travel and accommodation. Potential participants may give information when submitting the abstract about whether they request financial assistance. Please note that there is no registration fee, and refreshments and lunches are available for all participants, with those presenting papers being invited to a speakers’ dinner, free of charge.

 

For questions, please contact

Professor Beate Sjåfjell

Professor Jukka Mähönen

 

Published June 26, 2017 1:18 PM - Last modified Nov. 16, 2018 9:09 AM