Climate change research recognised internationally for social impact
In his research paper, titled 'An Inconvenient Truth: How Organizations Translate Climate Change into Business as Usual', Professor Christopher Wright from the University of Sydney Business School and Sydney Environment Institute warned that it would be a mistake to rely on business to “save the world from climate change”.
Above: Image from the front cover of Professor Wright's book Climate Change, Capitalism, and Corporations.
“While corporations make grand commitments, their business operations are ultimately aimed at profitability,” said Professor Wright.
His paper, featured in the Financial Times (FT) article, examines the social value of research undertaken by the world’s leading business schools.
“On subjects from climate change to knife crime and racism in recruitment to kidney transplants, business school professors are conducting research geared towards making a positive impact on society,” the FT said.
Professor Wright’s paper, which was originally published in 2017 by the United States based Academy of Management Journal, was listed by the FT among papers from academics of institutions including Harvard, London Business School Cornell and Columbia Business School.
While corporations make grand commitments, their business operations are ultimately aimed at profitability.
The FT survey asked business schools to select up to five papers published by their academics in the past five years. The top 100 results are based largely on Altmetric measures, a service of Digital Science, which calculates online resonance of academic papers beyond the world of universities.
“There is growing pressure for change and accountability from government and philanthropic funding agencies,” the FT said. “UK regulators have introduced the Research Excellence Framework, for instance, which requires universities to provide evidence of their impact.”
“Similar systems have been launched in Australia and the Netherlands,” it said.
Professor Wright is a Professor in the Business School’s Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies and Key Researcher of the Sydney Environment Institute.
His current research explores organizational and societal responses to climate change, with a focus on how managers and business organizations interpret and respond to the climate crisis.
“Climate change denial is threatening our planet and destroying our politics,” said Professor Wright in 2017 when 'An Inconvenient Truth: How Organizations Translate Climate Change into Business as Usual' was published.
Books by Professor Wright include Climate Change, Capitalism and Corporations: Processes of Creative Self-Destruction and Management as Consultancy: Neo-bureaucracy and the Consultant Manager.