Thursday, March 26, 2009
Whose Accountability Really Counts?
Session Description
Perhaps the most important issue in all social entrepreneurship is the relationship with stakeholders and how this is enacted in accountability measures and systems. Effective accountability can be seen as a key measure of performance success and the best way to capture mission impact. This session will consider a variety of practical and theoretical perspectives on accountability and impact measurement, with particular reference to the power relations which structure and influence judgements on organisational performance.
When | Where
10:45 - 12:15
Thursday, March 26
Session leaders
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Director of Research, Keystone Accountability
Alex Jacobs is Director of Research at Keystone Accountability. Keystone is a non-profit which seeks to transform performance measurement and reporting in social purpose organisations. Alex was previously founding Director of Mango, and has worked with Oxfam and many other NGOs. He is a visiting fellow at the Skoll Centre in Oxford. He is a trustee of BOND, and chairs BOND’s Quality Working Group. In 2007, Alex was shortlisted for a Beacon Fellowship for his contribution to social causes. Alex is involved in cutting-edge initiatives in accountability, particularly focusing on strengthening constituency voice
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Professor Alex Nicholls MBA is the first tenured professor in social entrepreneurship appointed at the University of Oxford and was the first staff member of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in 2004. His research interests range across several key areas within social entrepreneurship and social innovation, including: the nexus of relationships between accounting, accountability, and governance; public and social policy contexts; social investment; and Fair Trade.
To date Nicholls has published more than eighty papers, working papers, book chapters and articles and six books. Most appear in a wide range of peer reviewed journals and books, including five papers in Financial Times Top 30 journals (with two others under review and resubmit). His 2009 paper on social investment won the Best Paper Award (Entrepreneurship) at the British Academy of Management. In 2010, Nicholls edited a Special Edition of Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice on social entrepreneurship – the first time a top tier management journal had recognized the topic in this way. He is the General Editor of the Skoll Working Papers series and the Editor of the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship.
Nicholls is also the co-author of a major research book on Fair Trade (with Charlotte Opal, Sage, 2005) and the editor of a collection of key papers on social entrepreneurship (Oxford University Press, 2006, 2008). Both represent the best selling and most cited academic books on their subjects in the world. In 2011, Nicholls published a co-edited volume on social innovation – the first scholarly book on the subject. In 2016, he published the first academic book on social finance and a second collection on social innovation. In 2018 he will publish a new book - Creating Economic Space For Social Innovation.
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CEO, Keystone Accountability
David Bonbright is Keystone’s founder and Chief Executive. A lawyer by training, he has extensive experience in international development as a grantmaker for institutions like the Ford Foundation and the Aga Khan Foundation and as an innovator in civil society strengthening. In the 1990s, he founded and led two South African citizen sector resource centres relating to organizational and sectorial development and to information and technology. David sits on a number of the boards, advisory councils and knowledge networks, including the governing board of CIVICUS Global Alliance for Citizen Participation, where he chairs the Programme Committee.
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CEO, AccountAbility
Dr Simon Zadek is Chief Executive of AccountAbility, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Government and Business of Harvard University’s Kennedy School, and an Honourary Professor at the University of South Africa’s Centre for Corporate Citizenship. He sits on various boards, including the International Advisory Board of Instituto Ethos. In 2003 he was named one of the World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Leaders for Tomorrow’. Simon’s previous roles include Visiting Professor at the Copenhagen Business School, the Development Director of the New Economics Foundation, and founding Chair of the Ethical Trading Initiative. He has authored, co-authored, and co-edited numerous publications and his book, The Civil Corporation: the New Economy of Corporate Citizenship (2001), has become a classic in the field, and has been recognized by the Academy of Management by being honoured as the Best Book Social Issues Award 2006.
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Director, Centre for Social Impact, Smith School of Business, Queen's University
Tina is the Director of the Smith School of Business Centre for Social Impact at Queen’s University in Canada. She is the E. Marie Shantz Chaired Professor of Strategy and Organizational Behavior at Smith School of Business. Tina conducts research in the areas of social and institutional change, social entrepreneurship, cultural heritage and traditions, and strategic collaboration. She is currently a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Innovation at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. Tina teaches courses on social innovation, leading change and strategy. She is an experienced executive educator, teaching in programs offered by the Smith School of Business, Judge Business School at Cambridge, and previously the joint Kellogg-ISB program. Tina received her doctorate from the University of Toronto and prior to joining Queen's University, she spent nine years at Texas A & M University. She has most recently been a Visiting Professor for several years at the Judge Business School at Cambridge, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India.
