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Paper Abstract Submission

Symposium Selection

Post-neutrality librarianship

Keywords

social responsibility, businesses, ESG, evidence-based librarianship

Abstract

Businesses are increasingly eager to foster a socially conscious image - from Amazon contributing funds to ACLU foundation to Bombas donating Pride socks to homeless youths. Academic and public librarians have seen an interest in environmental and social governance (ESG) ratings among entrepreneurs and business students. Socially conscious marketing appeals to consumers, but current measures of social impact are designed for investment purposes, and are focused on measuring risk in relation to a business’s social image, rather than environmental sustainability, social responsibility, aboveboard management or labour practices.

Librarians can contribute their knowledge of business research toward holding businesses accountable to their claims of social responsibility, and in turn foster genuine social consciousness as well a rigor and criticality among business librarianship outside of its conventional bounds. This paper critically evaluates ESG ratings and the extent to which they are useful within evidence-based librarianship, and offers an alternative research-based method of evaluating the social responsibility of a business. This alternative measure is a framework of 6 parts librarians can guide researchers through in order to evaluate a business for social impact. In brief, the framework consists of:

1) Assessing the initial need or problem

2) Evaluating models

3) Comparing solutions

4) Investigating similar situations

5) Developing/Evaluating an assessment tool

6) Critically examining company information

This process can be used to evaluate existing businesses as well as prospective ventures, and is for researchers regardless of whether or not they are affiliated with a business.

References

Amel-Zadeh, A., & Serafeim, G. (2018). Why and how investors use ESG information: Evidence from a global survey. Financial Analysts Journal, 74(3), 87-103. https://doi.org/10.2469/faj.v74.n3.2

Koufogiannakis, D., & Brettle, A. (2016). Being evidence based in library and information practice. Facet Publishing.

MacMahon, S. (2020). The challenge of rating ESG performance. Harvard Business Review, 98(5), 52.

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An ESG Research Framework for Measuring Social Responsibility of Businesses

Businesses are increasingly eager to foster a socially conscious image - from Amazon contributing funds to ACLU foundation to Bombas donating Pride socks to homeless youths. Academic and public librarians have seen an interest in environmental and social governance (ESG) ratings among entrepreneurs and business students. Socially conscious marketing appeals to consumers, but current measures of social impact are designed for investment purposes, and are focused on measuring risk in relation to a business’s social image, rather than environmental sustainability, social responsibility, aboveboard management or labour practices.

Librarians can contribute their knowledge of business research toward holding businesses accountable to their claims of social responsibility, and in turn foster genuine social consciousness as well a rigor and criticality among business librarianship outside of its conventional bounds. This paper critically evaluates ESG ratings and the extent to which they are useful within evidence-based librarianship, and offers an alternative research-based method of evaluating the social responsibility of a business. This alternative measure is a framework of 6 parts librarians can guide researchers through in order to evaluate a business for social impact. In brief, the framework consists of:

1) Assessing the initial need or problem

2) Evaluating models

3) Comparing solutions

4) Investigating similar situations

5) Developing/Evaluating an assessment tool

6) Critically examining company information

This process can be used to evaluate existing businesses as well as prospective ventures, and is for researchers regardless of whether or not they are affiliated with a business.

References

Amel-Zadeh, A., & Serafeim, G. (2018). Why and how investors use ESG information: Evidence from a global survey. Financial Analysts Journal, 74(3), 87-103. https://doi.org/10.2469/faj.v74.n3.2

Koufogiannakis, D., & Brettle, A. (2016). Being evidence based in library and information practice. Facet Publishing.

MacMahon, S. (2020). The challenge of rating ESG performance. Harvard Business Review, 98(5), 52.