Aspen Institute Names Baron Winner of Lifetime Achievement Award

The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education has announced that Stanford GSB professor David Baron is the winner of the 2008 Faculty Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement. The award was made at a Nov. 5 reception at Ernst & Young’s corporate headquarters in New York City.

The award was among several given at the annual recognition, dubbed the “Oscars of the business school world” by the Financial Times. The event celebrates MBA faculty who have demonstrated leadership and risk-taking in integrating social and environment issues into academic research, educational programs and business practice.

Baron is an innovator in the area of business and its social, political and legal environment. He created the field of non-market strategy, an approach that integrates traditional strategy with political economy, reputation management, ethics and corporate social responsibility. The David S. and Ann M. Barlow Professor of Political Economy and Strategy, Emeritus, at Stanford, his most recent research includes path-breaking work on social entrepreneurship and moral motivations for firms and managers.

“With the recent turmoil in financial markets, persistent global poverty, and issues surrounding the burgeoning economies in the developing world, I have never had a greater appreciation of the relevance and importance to modern society of management education,” said Stanford GSB Dean Robert L. Joss. “Dave Baron has been at the forefront of the effort to create thoughtful and socially responsible leaders with teaching that has encompassed both nonmarket and market considerations. As social issues and sustainability become part of global business operations, business schools need to integrate these issues holistically into their curriculum. Dave has made a major contribution to setting the standards for this.”

The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education has also ranked Stanford GSB first in its 2007-2008 Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey of how business schools are integrating social and environmental stewardship into their curriculums.

“At a time of turbulence and change in our economy and society, these remarkable individuals are helping prepare future business leaders to meet the challenges of creating both successful and socially responsible businesses,” said Rich Leimsider, director of the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education. “Through cutting-edge research in areas ranging from executive compensation, social entrepreneurship and moral motivations for firms to stakeholder influence and the governance of public pension funds, these faculty award winners are helping focus attention on, and foster discussions about, the creation of a sustainable society.”

Nominations for the awards are open to faculty at any institution offering a graduate management degree. Candidates are nominated by their academic peers and winners are chosen by a panel of corporate judges. In addition to recognition by the Aspen Institute and their peers and schools, Faculty Pioneers receive an honorarium.

The 2008 Faculty Pioneer Award winners are:

• Lifetime Achievement – David Baron, Stanford GSB, Stanford University
• Academic Leadership – Pratima Bansal, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario
• External Impact – Simon, S.M. Ho, School of Business, Hong Kong, Baptist University
• Institutional Impact – Nicole Woolsey Biggart, Graduate School of Management, University of California, Davis
• Rising Star – David W. Hess, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

An award for Social Entrepreneurship Education will also be given in partnership with Ashoka, a global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs:

• James E. Austin, Harvard Business School, Harvard University

The 2008 European Faculty Pioneer Awards, given in conjunction with the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS), were presented in September at the University of Cranfield in the United Kingdom. The winners are Antonio Argandona, IESE Business School, University of Navarra (Lifetime Achievement) and Wendy Chapple, Nottingham University Business School (Rising Star).

Information on Other Award Winners

Simon S.M. Ho (External Impact Award) is internationally recognized as an expect on corporate governance and CSR. In addition to founding the Asia-Pacific Corporate Governance Conference and the first Master’s program in Corporate Governance & Directorship, he initiated, in partnership with the University of Macau, the World Business Ethics Forum in 2006.

Nicole Woolsey Biggart (Institutional Impact Award) is an expert in organizational theory and management of innovation. She has studied a wide array of sectors, organizations and markets around the world, including research on the auto industries in South Korea, Taiwan, Spain and Argentina; management and organization in the Far East; the U.S. commercial building industry; and organizational change in the U.S. Post Office.

David W. Hess (Rising Star Award) focuses his research on the role of the law in ensuring corporate accountability and on approaches that enable corporations to go beyond legal compliance to meet the expectations of society with respect to ethical behavior and sustainable economic development. His publications in this area analyze the proper structuring of sustainability reports to increase stakeholder influence and improve organizational learning.

Pratima Bansal (Academic Leadership Award) has contributed substantially to sustainability research. Her interest in the impact of the sustainability paradigm on business strategy has resulted in numerous articles and research grants. Through the Research Network for Business Sustainability, which she founded, Dr. Bansal is also changing the way sustainability research impacts practice.

James E. Austin (Ashoka Award for Social Entrepreneurship Education) is the author of numerous books, articles and case studies on business and nonprofit organizations. In addition to teaching academic courses on entrepreneurship and the social sector, governance of nonprofit organizations, business ethics and international business, he has given seminars to managers, government officials and graduate students at institutions around the world.

Antonio Argandona (EABIS Lifetime Achievement Award) has played a fundamental role in integrating Ethics into curricula and ensuring that a humanistic approach remains the key feature of IESE’s programs. He is the author of numerous books and articles on ethics, social responsibility and related themes and a member of the Barcelona Royal Academy of Economics and Finance.

Wendy Chapple (EABIS Rising Star Award) has designed CSR modules for MBA students at Nottingham University Business School. In addition, she has integrated social, environmental and economic issues throughout her teaching in the area of Managerial Economics. A member of the Policy Committee of Responsible Investment Metrics (an industry-led initiative for mainstreaming Social Responsible Investment in the UK investment industry), she has led workshops on CSR and Productivity and CSR and Health and Safety.

For more information on the Faculty Pioneer Awards and on this year’s award winners, go towww.AspenCBE.org.

About the Aspen Institute’s Center for Business Education:
The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education (Aspen CBE) equips business leaders for the 21st century with the vision and knowledge to integrate corporate profitability and social value. We offer business educators targeted resources to incorporate issues of social and environmental stewardship into their teaching, research and curriculum development and to share cutting edge practice among peers.