Villa La Pietra, Florence, Italy
May 31-June 3, 2007

The International Association for Business and Society (IABS) will hold its 2007 annual conference at Villa La Pietra in Florence, Italy. Named after the stone pillar indicating one Roman mile along Via Bolognese from the city gate, the Villa offers a majestic view of the city centre. For many centuries it was the home of prominent Florentine families.

The theme of the conference is advising practitioners. This is inspired by one of Florence’s most famous sons, Niccoló Machiavelli, who lived and worked here from 1469-1527. Machiavelli has been characterized as arguably the most political of all great political thinkers (Pitkin, 1984). He had an acute insight into the nature of politics, yet he was never in a position to exercise formal political power. The only way for him to actually exercise influence was through his advice to the rulers of his times, as he attempted in The prince, the famous treatise on statecraft he wrote for Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1513. But the fragility of his enterprise is illustrated by the fact that by then he had already fallen into disgrace and saw himself forced to retire to his family estate.

Business & Society scholars typically also find themselves in the role of advisor to practitioners. As academics they often have advanced insights but in order to apply these they need to be made available to practitioners in one way or the other.

IABS, a learned society devoted to research and teaching in the area of business, government, and society, is also a collegial community. Founded in 1990, it has more than 300 members worldwide. Its research domain covers the various aspects of the interface between business and the socio-political dynamics of its environment. Topics include stake-holder theory, corporate social responsibility and performance, business ethics, environmental affairs, business and government relations, corporate governance, and cross-cultural issues. IABS also sponsors a highly ranked, widely indexed journal, Business & Society, the only peer-reviewed scholarly journal devoted entirely to research into and analysis of the relationships between business and society.

We invite a variety of formats:

Abstracts, 3-5 pages double spaced, should fully describe the objectives and scope of your research. All conference proposals will be subjected to a blind review process. Each submission should include a cover sheet with author information (name, address, phone, fax, email); corresponding author; and inten-ded session format (discussion, workshop, paper, or symposium). Submission of an abstract for review constitutes a commitment that one paper author or all panelists or symposium members will attend the conference if the submission is accepted.

E-mail one copy or mail five copies of proposals for consideration by December 1, 2006, to:

Ben Wempe, IABS 2007 Program Chair
RSM Erasmus University
Department of Business – Society Management
Room T7-13
P.O Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Tel. ++31-(0)104082435
E-mail:

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