Keynote speaker Dr. Wolfgang Engshuber, chair of the UN’s PRI committee.

The CIBC Centre for Corporate Governance and Risk Management at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business in partnership with the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE) hosted a meeting on February 28 welcoming delegates from the United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) committee. On the agenda was the role of responsible investing in ensuring risk management and building healthy, sustainable capital markets.

Daniel Shapiro, Dean of the Beedie School of Business, introduced keynote speaker Dr. Wolfgang Engshuber, chair of the UN’s PRI committee. In his opening remarks, Shapiro said that the Beedie School of Business was proud to have committed itself to upholding many of the same values that define the PRI as a signatory to the Principles of Management Education (PRME). Both initiatives adhere closely to the UN Global Compact on long-term ethical sustainability.

Founded in April 2006, as a vision of former UN secretary Kofi Annan, the number of signatories to the PRI has grown from less than 200 to over 1500, managing combined global assets of 35 trillion US dollars. Annan’s goal was to minimise global instability by encouraging financial organizations into thinking long term about their risk management strategies in addition to addressing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

Reflecting on the time elapsed since the creation of PRI, Engshuber remarked that while preparing for this auspicious meeting he had read a paper on fiduciary responsibility from the SHARE website. Though well written, he was puzzled; why had certain key sources not been referenced? His question was answered on the front page – “The document had been written in 2005 and the problems are already addressed. Now there isn’t a conflict; fiduciary responsibility is an actual responsibility,” said Engshuber.

Until now all the PRI’s objectives have been aspirational but, as Engshuber noted, there is mounting evidence and a certain amount of regulatory pressure encouraging organizations to comply.

“Responsible investing and the PRI are growing strongly globally,” he said. “Investors recognize the need to respond to significant trends. And the evidence is that [addressing] ESG [issues] and responsible investing enhance returns and reduce risk is becoming stronger.”

Engshuber highlighted the positive correlation between ESG-awareness embedded in corporate culture and performance by referencing research that companies with high ESG scores are the ones with the best stock performance. Those which focus on ESG issues, especially their environmental responsibilities, have better credit ratings.

Factors such as ESG and PRI compliance are also taken into consideration by investment industry regulators and may be considered before stock exchange listing. Furthermore, under pressure from consumers and government, pension funds, for example, may look for ESG compliance as evidence of socially responsible investing.

Many of these points were further elaborated in a panel discussion following the keynote, moderated by Michael Parent, Director, CIBC Centre for Corporate Governance and Risk Management. The panel of experts comprised Robert Adamson, executive director of CIBC Centre for Corporate Governance and Risk Management; Bob Walker, Vice President, ESG Services and Ethical Funds at NEI Investments; Dermot Foley, Manager ESG Analysis at Vancity; Bryan Thomson, Vice President, Equity Investment at BcIMC; and Laura O’Neill, Director of Law and Policy for SHARE.

Panelists spoke on issues of stewardship codes, and educating investors on non-financial externalities that should be considered when making investment decisions. They also covered topics such as the impact of executive compensation and emerging markets on ESG issues within an organization. These points were echoed further in questions from an extremely engaged and knowledgeable audience.

With this growing emphasis on embedding ESG issues within organizational governance, Engshuber was pleased to announce the launch of a robust recording framework for the PRI this October. “Reporting is a very important part of the principles and signatories must publish their progress,” explained Engshuber.

“If they don’t, then they are excluded from the initiative,” he added.

Although recording initially seems like a threat, it is also a good tool to manage strategy, giving feedback to an organization and information on how its peers are progressing. This transparency also avoids green washing, upholding many of the principles inherent to responsible investing and enhancing engagement with consumers.

Dr. Engshuber closed his address reiterating the need to develop long-term strategies, rather than just focusing on profits.

“Imagine going home tonight, and your spouse or your child asks,’ So what did you do today?’” he speculated, “and you could answer them, ‘Well today I created something of real value’ – wouldn’t that be great?”

“Most people would like to know that they’re not eating the last bluefin tuna in the world,” says Beedie marketing professor Leyland Pitt, co-author of a pioneering recent study with profound eco-implications.

Enter the smartphone. At Coast, diners with Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise mobile app can instantly access a database listing sustainable species, as well as nearby restaurants that serve them and user recommendations. Coast – and all its fare – proves comfortingly ocean-friendly.

“Smartphones have certain unique characteristics that other devices have never had,” says Pitt, a South African transplant whose research focuses on the interface of marketing with technology. With an international team that included Beedie information systems professor Michael Parent and co-authors Iris A. Junglas, Anthony Chan and Stavroula Spyropoulou, he set about exploring exactly how companies can tap these characteristics to usher in a new era of green commerce using apps just like Ocean Wise.

“Commerce was originally just about trading at places,” Pitt says. The Internet and e-commerce freed buyers and sellers to connect across space and time. Now, the iPhone and similar devices –   equipped with GPS functionality, near-universal accessibility and unprecedented processing power – have inaugurated the brave new world of u-commerce. “U-commerce is all about ubiquitous networks,” Pitt says, “that are everywhere and always on.”

Smartphone-enabled u-commerce is both highly personalized and location-sensitive, and the best new apps fundamentally transform the buying experience. The popular shopkick, for example, available for both Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, pings consumers when they approach participating stores, presenting a unique SMS discount offer based on past purchases, gender and age. “Our focus was to take this idea of u-commerce and outline how a company with a green agenda could pursue its own app,” Pitt says.

Funded by a grant from the Society for Information Management’s Advanced Practices Council – a consortium of CIOs from some of North America’s most respected companies – the team developed a standardized protocol that any organization, from a bank to a bicycle repair shop, can apply to generate a green app. Companies study the tenets of u-commerce, analyze other successful apps and then identify a point in their customer cycle – from when consumers decide what to buy to how they learn about recycling retired products – that could be expedited with a new mobile app.

For Pitt, green app development is a classic example of pursuing multiple bottom lines. “Anytime a business can get customers to do the work it used to do, using their own equipment, there are enormous savings,” he says. “For the customer, using an app is often easier and quicker than the alternative. And then, of course, if the app is genuinely good for the environment, everybody wins.”

This story was first published in the summer edition of Ideas@Beedie magazine, the Beedie School of Business’ new iPad and digital magazine showcasing the business school’s academic research, industry impact and engagement with the community. The iPad app can be downloaded at the Apple iTunes store, at http://itunes.apple.com/az/app/ideas-beedie/id532907167?mt=8. The magazine can also be viewed on the web with most browsers at http://beedie.sfu.ca/ideas

Olympic sponsors should watch out for the inhabitants of picturesque English villages - they’re the most dangerous and ruthless ambushers of them all.

The following article was published by Forbes on June 14, 2012.

Former Intel CEO Andy Grove claimed that only the paranoid survive. So should the mighty Olympic Committee watch out for the villagers in the picturesque village of Wye, 35 minutes from the site of the upcoming London Olympics?

Undetered by the heavy-handed restrictions that prevent UK citizens from using the Olympic logo to celebrate the world’s largest sporting event, the local church group has just staged a flower festival with displays that capture many of the sporting events in a dazzling array of colour and perfume. To avoid any legal wrangling they called the event “The Games 2012″.

Elsewhere, Twitter has cracked down over online infringement of the Olympic logo after the Games’ organisers, Locog, complained that an activist groups were using the trademark 2012 image to parody the London sporting festival. And local authorities have been bemused by the bewildering array of restrictions that prevent them from referring to anything remotely “Olympic” when describing the torch that’s being carried through their streets.

What is intended to be a national celebration has turned into a battle of trademarks, and protection of the official Olympic sponsors, who have admittedly paid out large sums of money to appear alongside the iconic 5 rings.

But on the eve of London’s Summer Olympic Games, and in the week that Danish soccer player Nicklas Bendtner dropped his shorts at the Euro 2012 tournament to reveal the name of an Irish betting firm on his underpants, thereby breaching an exclusive sponsorship deal as well as UEFA’s rules against ambush marketing, a business study from Simon Fraser University in Canada shows that the persistent effectiveness of ambush marketers leaves Olympic sponsors and those of other major sporting events particularly vulnerable – costing them not only their financial investment, but ultimately their customers.

Professors Leyland Pitt and Michael Parent from SFU’s Beedie School of Business examined data from the 2008 “Li Ning affair”, which saw Olympic sponsor Adidas ambushed by lesser-known Chinese sportswear company Li Ning at the Beijing Summer Olympics. The Chinese company’s namesake founder, Li Ning, was China’s most decorated Olympian and it was he who lit the Olympic flame at the 2008 opening ceremony.

Data collected after the closing of the Beijing Games isolated what the researchers called the “Li Ning effect” – which describes being incorrectly identified as an official sponsor, and the positive effects accrued to a company’s brand as a result. In the footwear category at least, Li Ning was the clear brand winner of the 2008 Olympics, in spite of the millions spent by Adidas to secure a sponsorship.

“Amidst the background noise of multiple sponsorships,” said the researchers, “this highly poignant event stuck in people’s memory such that when they were asked to recall who the official sponsor of athletic footwear was for the Beijing Games, more of our respondents thought it was Li Ning than Adidas.”

The study, “Event sponsorship and ambush marketing: Lessons from the Beijing Olympics”, offers important advice for marketers trying to see through successful sponsorship investments in future events, such as the London Summer Games.

“Don’t naively put yourself in a position to be ambushed; remember, large sporting events provide optimal venues and occasions for this to happen,” the authors suggest. “This does not mean that firms should abstain from sponsorship; large global events can provide superlative opportunities for marketing communication.

“However, walking into sponsorships and blithely ignoring the lessons from the Li Ning affair would be asking for trouble. If you do decide to sponsor a major event, anticipate and behave as though an ambush will happen.”

The co-authors of the study offer several lessons regarding event sponsorship that marketers should remember:

• Expect the unexpected — ambush attacks won’t come in a form you anticipate.
• Event organizers won’t always keep their word.
• Don’t rely on governments to protect you — their own interests will always trump yours.
• Be constantly aware of the likelihood of an ambush.
• Remember that customers don’t care — they won’t share your moral indignation regarding an ambush event.
• Don’t overreact to an ambush — it will only compound the problem.
• Sponsorship is only the first stage of marketing in an event setting — a firm needs to be proactive in all marketing efforts and defensive in anticipating ambush.

And don’t forget to watch out for the inhabitants of picturesque English villages (including this author’s mother!). They’re the most dangerous and ruthless ambushers of them all.

View the article in its entirety at Forbes.com.

Professors Leyland Pitt and Michael Parent from SFU’s Beedie School of Business examined data from the 2008 “Li Ning affair”, which saw Olympic sponsor Adidas ambushed by lesser-known Chinese sportswear company Li Ning at the Beijing Summer Olympics.

The Chinese company’s namesake founder, Li Ning, was China’s most decorated Olympian and it was he who lit the Olympic flame at the 2008 opening ceremony.

Data collected after the closing of the Beijing Games isolated what the researchers called the “Li Ning effect” – which describes being incorrectly identified as an official sponsor, and the positive effects accrued to a company’s brand as a result.

In the footwear category at least, Li Ning was the clear brand winner of the 2008 Olympics, in spite of the millions spent by Adidas to secure a sponsorship.

“Amidst the background noise of multiple sponsorships,” said the researchers, “this highly poignant event stuck in people’s memory such that when they were asked to recall who the official sponsor of athletic footwear was for the Beijing Games, more of our respondents thought it was Li Ning than Adidas.”

The award-winning study, “Event sponsorship and ambush marketing: Lessons from the Beijing Olympics”, was published in the March 2010 issue of Business Horizons. Researchers offered important advice for marketers trying to see through successful sponsorship investments in future events, such as the London Summer Games.

“Don’t naively put yourself in a position to be ambushed; remember, large sporting events provide optimal venues and occasions for this to happen,” the authors suggest. “This does not mean that firms should abstain from sponsorship; large global events can provide superlative opportunities for marketing communication.

“However, walking into sponsorships and blithely ignoring the lessons from the Li Ning affair would be asking for trouble. If you do decide to sponsor a major event, anticipate and behave as though an ambush will happen.”

The study was co-authored with Pierre Berthon of Bentley University and Peter G. Steyn of Lulea University of Technology. Last year, it was the winner of the Business Horizons/Elsevier Publishing Award for Best Paper in Business Horizons for 2010.

Backgrounder: Study’s key lessons

Researchers offer several lessons regarding event sponsorship that marketers should remember:

• Expect the unexpected — ambush attacks won’t come in a form you anticipate.

• Event organizers won’t always keep their word.

• Don’t rely on governments to protect you — their own interests will always trump yours.

• Be constantly aware of the likelihood of an ambush.

• Remember that customers don’t care — they won’t share your moral indignation regarding an ambush event.

• Don’t overreact to an ambush — it will only compound the problem.

• Sponsorship is only the first stage of marketing in an event setting — a firm needs to be proactive in all marketing efforts and defensive in anticipating ambush.
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Contact: Derek Moscato, business, 778.782.5038; derek_moscato@sfu.ca

Few candidates for city council in Richmond (and Metro Vancouver more generally) have taken to social media despite it being a great way to engage voters, according to one expert.

“What surprises me more (than candidates’ lack of use) is that they haven’t realized the power of being able to tap into communities through social media,” said Michael Parent, a business professor at Simon Fraser University.

Just seven of 19 candidates for city council have accounts on Twitter—an online social networking service allowing users to send and read short posts. Five have tweeted less than 50 times.

Many have accounts on Facebook—a social utility connecting people via profiles—but just one, Cynthia Chen, has a current, publicly accessible Facebook page.

Two political organizations have Facebook pages, and while Richmond First posts regular updates, the Richmond Citizens Association’s page hasn’t been updated since 2008.

Parent, who co-authored a study on the participation of businesses in social media, said sites like Twitter and Facebook give candidates a place to get their message out to many people who in turn propagate that message.

“The initial content that you push out is the seed that is used to create all these generative conversations on the part of the community, so it’s a great way for politicians to get their core message out,” he said.

Social media is also a place where candidates can “humanize” themselves and test their ideas with the public, said Parent.

“It’s a good litmus test for their opinions or their positions because the community will react quickly—either positively or negatively—to any message that goes out.”

In his research, Parent found businesses must be willing to cede control, as unwanted conversations could take place. But since everyone has an equal voice, social media has a “democratizing effect.”

“To a politician, this would be both exhilarating as well as frightening. Exhilarating because you’re getting one of the purest forms of democracy possible, frightening because if it goes wrong, it goes wrong in a very bad way and very quickly and very visibly.”

One politician who has used Twitter effectively is  Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Parent said. He’s used the website to connect with people since 2008—not to send out political messages, but to engage in a dialogue with people that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.

Eric Yung, a candidate for school board, maintains  Richmond First’s social media platforms, which he said are great places to broadcast timely information and engage youth.

“They’re all on their cellphones, they’ve all got a Twitter account, they’ve all got Facebook, they’re all checking them, and the hundred characters out to tell them about something on Twitter gets through to them much more than any press release.”

Linda McPhail is the most prolific tweeter among Richmond’s council candidates,  with 120 messages as of yesterday, but just 108 followers who read them.

McPhail, who also uses Facebook regularly, got hooked on Twitter earlier this year after attending a workshop on the website.

“It’s a way of getting instant updates and keeping in touch,” she said. “But I’m aware it’s just a tool and you have to be careful.”

Noting the dismal voter turnout in the last civic election—22.1 per cent—McPhail hopes social media will help draw younger voters to the polls.

Candidate Linda Barnes, however, hasn’t taken to social media. The four-term councillor said she doesn’t have the time to learn about it nor keep up with online conversations.

“I don’t like to start something just for the sake of a campaign and abandon it,” she said. “I just really feel if you’re going to connect with people in social media it’s incumbent upon you to keep up with those connections.”

Barnes said she sees the value of social media but given her lack of familiarity with the technology, she prefers to connect with voters in “relationship based” ways.

Candidates and social media

•Incumbent mayoral candidate  Malcolm Brodie joined Twitter in June. He has since tweeted 31 times and has 198 followers. In Vancouver, Mayor Gregor Robertson joined Twitter in 2008. He has tweeted 1,069 times and has 17,809 followers.

•Among Richmond candidates,  Alexa Loo has the most Twitter followers, 233, but has tweeted just eight times in four years.

•Richmond First Voters Society is the most active local political body in social media, with regular updates posted on  Twitter and Facebook.

By Matthew Hoekstra – Richmond Review

Click here to read the complete article on the Richmond Review website.