Conferences
2–4 September 2020, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK
BAM2020 Conference
Innovating for a Sustainable Future
Innovation has transformed, and continues to transform, our world. Innovation creates new products, new technologies, and new business models. Our knowledge of how to manage the innovation process, and the organisational systems used to guide it, has grown in depth and sophistication. However, while the benefits of innovation are there for all to see, the negative impact on society and the environment are difficult to ignore. We are at a pivotal moment in the history of innovation where our ideas of how innovation should be managed and directed are undergoing profound change. The models of innovation that dominate today reflect the goals of the profit-making enterprise. These goals shape project selection, resource allocation, and marketing strategy. The negative externalities of this model - the costs to society and the environment - were always visible but were tolerated as necessary for economic growth. As we come to realise that growth at any price is no longer acceptable, we also see that it is not enough for innovation to create new products and new technologies. Managing the innovation process must now take into consideration responsibility to society and the environment.
Alliance Manchester Business School is a world leading centre of research on sustainable business and responsible innovation. Researchers at the school have made significant contributions to our understanding of innovation and sustainability, focusing on transition pathways, sustainable consumption, business response to climate change, renewable energy, and impact of environmental regulations on technological change.
Manchester is the cradle of the industrial revolution. Manchester is also the place where the environmental costs of industrialisation became apparent. BAM2020 will provide researchers with the opportunity to experience a city where a transformation of the relationship between business and the environment is creating a sustainable future.
