Gray and Stites to Study Sustainability-Related Collaborations in Business

Barbara Gray, Smeal Executive Programs Fellow and professor of organizational behavior at the Penn State Smeal College of Business, and Smeal Ph.D. candidate Jenna Stites have received a CAD$25,000 award to study multi-stakeholder collaborations—particularly collaborations between businesses and stakeholders—from the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS).

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (March 4, 2013) -- Barbara Gray, Smeal Executive Programs Fellow and professor of organizational behavior at the Penn State Smeal College of Business, and Smeal Ph.D. candidate Jenna Stites have received a CAD$25,000 award to study multi-stakeholder collaborations—particularly collaborations between businesses and stakeholders—from the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS).

Gray and Stites will conduct a systematic review of the literature on multi-stakeholder collaborations to identify best practices for firms to collaborate with government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders on implementing sustainability solutions.

“The product of our research needs to be very practical from a business standpoint,” said Gray. “Our aim is to help inform how businesses and stakeholders can best approach collaborative partnerships among organizations to meet sustainability goals.”

Gray and Stites will present their report at the NBS Annual Conference in September, and it will be disseminated widely to businesses interested in improving their sustainability partnerships.

Gray is also the director of the Center for Research in Conflict and Negotiation and has research expertise in public/private partnerships, cross-sector collaboration, team building and conflict resolution (particularly in the environmental arena). Stites is pursuing a Ph.D. in business sustainability, and her research addresses corporate social responsibility and sustainability image and reputation, corporate reaction to institutional pressures, and corporate social performance.

The NBS is a Canadian non-profit organization networking international academic experts and business leaders to shape management practices and research in sustainability issues.

REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Victoria Fryer in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or mediarelations@smeal.psu.edu.

Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, management and organization, marketing, risk management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.