JFBS 4th Annual Conference 2014　

■Date：　September 18th - 19th, 2014　(2 Day Program)
　　　　　　September 17th (to be decided) (Doctoral Workshop))
■Venue：　Waseda University, Waseda campus Bldg. No.14, Tokyo, Japan Access

■Theme：　Sustainability and Strategy
　“Sustainability” has never been discussed so frequently and from such a variety of angles as today.
　The most widespread and traditional use of the term is probably in the sense of sustainability of natural environment and resources of this planet, symbolized in “Spaceship Earth” by Buckminster Fuller in 1963. Based on this context, “sustainable development” which denotes the economic development without sacrificing natural environments and social structures has become the central issue not only in the development sector, but also in societies worldwide including both developed and developing nations.
　On the other hand, sustainability has also been at the central position in strategy theories in a different sense. Especially in the context of sustainable competitive advantage, the most desirable outcome of any strategies, “sustainability” simply means “the ability to endure” a certain competitive position, which reflects no ecological or social implications of firm strategies. With some important exceptions such as stakeholder theories, relationship theories and social network theories, most strategy theories are straight “economic” theories with shareholder value maximization as their dependent variable.
　However, researchers as well as corporate managers are now facing the fact that sustainability of their economic performance is no longer attained by optimizing their capabilities and resources solely based on economic rationality. It has become inevitable to integrate social, ecological and economic dimensions of sustainability into firm strategies and related theories. This integration requires innovative ways of management practices, distinctive business models, and new theories and research methodologies.

　The JFBS 4th Annual Conference 2014 will provide an opportunity for renewed thinking of the emerging and evolving relationship between sustainability and strategy.

Call for Paper （Research／Case Study）　

Please submit a A4 one page proposal for a single paper and add three keywords (either in English or Japanese) to info@j-fbs.jp. The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2014.
Proposals may address one of the 4 tracks below.

■Track 1: Sustainability & Competitive Advantage
  Strategy theories traditionally explain that the existence of inimitability or imperfect substitutability of a particular resource or capability suffices in achieving sustainability, or durability, of the firm’s competitiveness. Is that so? How can firms continuously increase its economic performance while preserving, or even improving, ecology, natural environment and social status of communities surrounding them? What are the new capabilities required for firms to sustain their competitive advantage? What really constitutes firm performance beyond traditional financial measures? This track focuses on the effect of multifaceted aspects of sustainability on traditional strategy theories.

■Track 2: Development & Strategy
　“Inclusive business”, or for-profit businesses at the base of the economic pyramid of the world, is now recognized by both business sectors and development sectors as a means to solve severe social problems such as those in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) while generating profits enough to sustain those businesses and satisfy investors. However, planning effective strategies for inclusive business and executing them successfully is not easy. What factors differentiate between successful and unsuccessful inclusive business strategies? How do you define and measure the performance of inclusive businesses?

■Track 3: Sustainability & Financial Markets
　A series of incidents such as the enactment of Global Compact, the introduction of Global Reporting Initiative, and the release of Principles of Responsible Investment by United Nations, all impacted financial markets. Since then, “ESG investment” and “Impact Investment” are the two most heard terminologies to describe emerging trends and attitudes in the market. This track focuses how financial markets are, or are not, responding to this sustainability-business integration, and how investors are, or are not, changing their attitude towards “sustainability.”

■Track 4: General Track (papers or panels)
　Each of the above three tracks raises a broad theme or a direction to help interested scholars and practitioners investigate the relationship between sustainability and strategy. However, there should be important themes which do not directly relate to the above three themes but still relevant to the relationship between sustainability and strategy. Other topic areas linked to the interaction between business and society are also welcome in this track.

Schedule
Deadline for Submission	*Deadline extended: June 14, 2014		・a A4 one page (approximately 600 words) proposal with the theme and 3 keywords ・Please send the proposal to info@j-fbs.jp
Result Notification	Beginning of July, 2014
Deadline for Presentation Material	August 31, 2014		Please send the presentation material to info@j-fbs.jp

Submission of Paper for the Annual Book 2015

After the conference, our annual book titled “Sustainability and Strategy” by Chikura Publishing will be published next fall. We welcome your paper for the book! The length of your paper should be 8,000 words. The deadline for submission of the paper is January 31, 2015. Please send it to info@j-fbs.jp For details, please read Author Guidlines.

Program Committee

・Barter, Nick (Senior Lecturer, Griffith University, Australia)
・Debroux, Philippe (Professor, Soka University, Japan)
・Okada, Masahiro (Professor, Keio University, Japan)
・Tanimoto, Kanji (Professor, Waseda University, Japan)

Program

We are delighted to announce that Professor CB Bhattacharya （European School of Management and Technology in Berlin） will provide a keynote speech.
For the details of Professor Bhattacharya's publications and interests, please see here.

For the detailed program, please see HERE.

Registration　

The "Early Bird" discounted price applies in case submission of application form and payment of participation fee are completed by July 31, 2014.

We offer a limited number of non-presenting students to attend the doctoral workshop as guests. For those who have registered for the conference and wish to attend the doctoral workshop, please inform info@j-fbs.jp in advance and can participate in the workshop with no additional fee. (they need to be master students or above).

JFBS Members/ Non-members	Participation Fee （Early Bird） *In case submission of application form and payment are completed by July 31.	Participation Fee （Regular） *In case submission of application form and payment are completed after Aug 1.
JFBS Member	9,000 yen	11,000 yen
JFBS Member （Student）	6,500 yen	8,000 yen
Non-Member	13,000 yen	15,000 yen
Non-Member （Student）	8,000 yen	10,000 yen
the Networking Party on Sep 18	4,000 yen 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　(Student:2,000yen)

【Please note】
*1 The registration for the conference will be completed after we confirm your payment of the participation fee along with submission of the application form.
*2 For payment, please choose either bank transfer or credit card.
*3 Registered participants of the conference will receive a password to download presentation resumes. JFBS will not provide proceedings in order to save papers.
*4 Registered participants will have free lunch on September 19, the 2nd day of the conference. We hope you will make good use of this opportunity to enrich your network.
*5 As a rule, it is not permitted to participate in the the networking event only. To participate in the networking event, you need to register for the conference.

Accommodation

Tokyo is a very large and attractive city and benefits from plentiful accommodation. See the following website for more information.
- Japan National Tourism Organization
- Japan Guide

Guide to Japanese VISA

Please note JFBS is not authorized to assist with the VISA process beyond providing the brochure of the 4th Anuual Conference and the notification of your visiting schedule for the conference.

In case that your application be denied, JFBS cannot change the decision of the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and cannot engage in discussion or correspondence with the MOFA or the Embassy of Japan on behalf of the applicant, either.
The registration fee cannot be refunded when the VISA application of individual being denied.

If your country is included in the list of the countries that have the visa exemption agreement with Japant, you usually do not need to apply for an entry visa to Japan. If your country is not included in the list, you need to obtain a short-term stay visa (“tanki-shouyou visa” in Japanese) from the embassy of Japan in your country. Usually the procedure takes considerably long, so you need to begin the procedure as soon as possible.