Research
The Tilburg Sustainability Center's major research activities are international research programs, a broad set of research projects results and collaborative communication. The TSC conducts activities in several areas:
Corporate Social Responsibilty (CSR)
Corporate social responsibility has become of strategic importance for companies. Firms find it increasingly important to meet the expectations of stakeholders with respect to the company's contribution to profit, planet and people. However, it remains uncertain to what extent CSR really contributes to the sustainability agenda of policy makers. This depends on the exact relationship between CSR and profitability and innovation, as well as on the actual impact of CSR policies of business on sustainability performance. In order to gain insight into these relationships, The TSC will conduct research to empirically identify which types of CSR are of strategic importance and which are not; the impact of process indicators of CSR on CSR performance indicators that are directly related to sustainability goals (economic prosperity; climate and clean energy, social inclusion, etc), both for large companies and SME's.Part of this theme will be carried out within the FP7 project 'IMPACT' (started March 2010). For more information about IMPACT click here. Tilburg University during the 4th Sydney-Tilburg Philosophy of Science Conference: The Authority of Science. If you want to read the report click here.Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)
Sustainable investment portfolio analysis is at the heart of strategic decision making on long term sustainability issues. The majority of studies on the financial consequences of socially responsible investing (SRI) show that the risk-adjusted performance difference of SRI mutual funds and their conventional counterparts hardly varies. But how should investors take in adopting the most optimal SRI portfolio, in order to 'do well while doing good'? This calls for an estimation of how much value investors put on environmental, governmental and social factors. The TSC will develop research projects in this field.Environmental Economics
Environmental economics in general means an economic view and approach w.r.t. environmental problems, but also integrating the environment into economic analyses. Research mainly focuses on international environmental agreements and the economics of ecological systems.TSC contribution to World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists. Prof. Sjak Smulders is co-chair of the Scientific Committee of the congress WCERE. TSC faculty are presenting their research at the renowned world congress.
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