Business and Society Search for Emergent Intelligence (BSSETI)
You’ve probably heard of SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) which is an effort to detect signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.  Using SETI as a metaphor, BSSETI—Business and Society Search for Emergent Intelligence—is a parallel search sponsored by this website to detect newly emerging insights within the Business and Society universe.  BSSETI, very much like SETI, seeks signs of B&S intelligence originating far beyond the normal realms of B&S inquiry.  Also like SETI’s quest, when they are detected, BSSETI’s incoming signals may not take a readily recognizable form for most B&S scholars and practitioners.  After all, SETI explorers know that Earth’s particular life forms may, or may not, be replicated across the universe.  So, set your own search engine to scan for unusual, creative, imaginative signals that hint of intellectual vistas and practitioner worlds not yet visited.  The messages they convey may foreshadow future visions of Business and Society relationships.

Website visitors are invited to tell me of any intrepid BSSETI explorers they know whose probes into the deeps of B&S space should be shared widely through this website’s medium. 

The three most recent BSSETI signals registered on my scanning scope have originated from Mexico, Spain, and Canada.  They appear below.  Others will be reported later as they are discovered and reported to me.

Ramón Paz-Vega, PhD
Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
Monterrey, México

Corporate Social Responsibility, Action, and Performance in International  Settings: A Critical Realist Perspective

I met Ramon Paz-Vega when he e-mailed me seeking citation information about an article of mine as he engaged in research for his dissertation.  Subsequently, he invited me to read the dissertation as it evolved, which I did with mounting admiration.  Believe me, it is a gem – comprehensive, insightful, massively referenced, a truly original piece of research important for both B&S scholars and business practitioners.  He was awarded the PhD degree in 2008.  His principal dissertation advisor was Bryan Husted of the Monterrey Institute.  Paz-Vega’s dissertation is a perfect example of a BSSETI probe.  I urge you to be on the lookout for follow-up articles and perhaps a book authored by him.   Dr. Paz-Vega’s bio and his dissertation abstract can be accessed by clicking on the title above.

Janette Martell
Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (ESADE)
Barcelona, Spain

Socially Responsible Business Schools: Collective Stakeholder Voices Demand Urgent Action

Janette Martell is a doctoral candidate at ESADE, one of Europe’s leading business schools, located in Barcelona, Spain.  My e-mail acquaintance with her began in 2007 and has progressed steadily with a mutual exchange of ideas about the role of business schools in advancing business ethics education.  She served several years as administrator and faculty member at Mexico’s Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.  She is a first-rate thinker and presents a strong BSSETI signal in her first published journal article that can be accessed, along with her bio, by clicking on the title above. 

* Reproduced from Journal of World Universities Forum, Vol. 1, No. 6, 2008, 115-126, by permission of the author and Common Ground Publishing Pty Ltd.

Andre Laplume
Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba
Canada

Stakeholder Theory: Reviewing a Theory That Moves Us

Andre Laplume and I had our first encounter when I was guest speaker for a teleconference session of a seminar organized by Professor Reginald Litz for his doctoral students at the University of Manitoba.  Since then, we have exchanged ideas via e-mail as he pursues a doctorate in strategy with advisor Parshotam Dass.  His insights show much promise, which I interpret to be early signals of potential BSSETI scholarly output.  The coauthored journal article abstracted here does not fully reflect his active engagement in ideas drawn from the imaginative techno-robotic perspectives of Dawkins, Kurzweil, McLuhan, and others.  However, this comprehensive account of stakeholder theory’s extensive influence on the Business and Society field is a tribute to Laplume as well as coauthors Karan Sonpar and Reginald Litz.  The abstract and Laplume’s bio may be accessed by clicking on the title above.