Bridging the value-action gap: SMEs, CSR and responsible jewellery consumption

On May 15, the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) held the Inaugural CSR Conference in Arundel House, London. Prof. Marylyn Carrigan, co-director of CETEB, attended the conference and presented a paper titledBridging the value-action gap: SMEs, CSR and responsible jewellery consumption”. Prof. Carrigan’s presentation starts on slide 26 of the presentation below.

 

 

This event brought together more than 100 international RJC company members (such as Piaget, Cartier, Bulgari), policy makers from the jewellery industry (World Gold Council) and the European Commission (Policy Officer for Raw Materials, DG Trade) for panel discussions on future imperatives of the industry, human rights in the supply chain and sustainability-informed value creation across the supply chain. A list of delegates to the conference is available from the RJC’s website.

 

Coventry Business School receives Small Business Charter Award

The Faculty of Business, Environment and Society at Coventry University has been working with and supporting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across the UK. Recently the value of such work was recognised at the highest level when Coventry Business School received the prestigious Small Business Charter Award:

Coventry University’s business school has been awarded a prestigious accolade at 10 Downing Street today in recognition of the role it has played in helping to kick-start British enterprise.

The school has won a Small Business Charter award for its part in a country-wide initiative – the Small Business Charter Award Scheme – which has helped 4,700 students to find work placements in the UK’s exciting micro-business and start-up sector.

Small Business Charter business schools have directly helped over 8,000 small businesses – engaging with them through workshops, mentoring and other business support. Over 800 new businesses have already been started as a result of Small Business Charter schools.

Today’s award brings significant benefits – it means that Coventry Business School will have the ability to play an active role in schemes such as Growth Vouchers, Growth Accelerators and Start-Up Loans provided by the government, enabling it to invest directly in new start-ups and entrepreneurs.

The work of CETEB with SMEs in the jewellery industry was a part of the Business School’s submission for this award. Led by Prof Marylyn Carrigan, this CETEB project on Responsible Jewellery SMEs continues to provide high quality, high impact academic research to SMEs in the jewellery sector, which in turn is enabling such SMEs to develop corporate social responsibility practices that resonate with UK consumers.
You can learn more about the Small Business Charter here.

Discussing Corporate Social Responsibility with the Jewellery Industry

Getting academics, industries and policy-makers to sit around the same table and make sense of problems is something that doesn’t happen as often as we would like. So it was a pleasure for the team involved in the project “Responsible Business Practices in SMEs: The case of the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter” to have such an opportunity.

Led by Professor Marylyn Carrigan, the CETEB team presented the key findings of their ongoing study on responsible business practices in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter. The seminar, which was entitled “What’s in it for me? Raising Standards in the Jewellery Industry”, was co-hosted with the British Jewellers Association (BJA) and held at the Birmingham Jewellery School on 11^th February 2014. With more than 30 industry practitioners in the audience, the event opened new opportunities and dialogue for the research team to engage further with the jewellery industry and their plans to enhance Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in this sector.

During the event key industry speakers stated that the jewellery industry should adopt a stronger ethical stance and expressed their wish to explore how the jewellery industry can adopt CSR strategies that are specifically suitable for their sector.

“The benefits of adopting CSR at any level are huge” said Simon Rainer, BJA CEO.

“What we need to communicate and discuss further is how companies who may already be adopting some elements of CSR are able to extend their commitment even further and reap even greater benefits. This is really a key component to helping the BJA membership grow their businesses”, he added.

The presentation was well received by all participants and resultant discussions will form the backbone for future CSR work in this industry.