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November 2007
 As corporate social responsibility has taken hold across the globe, more and more international players are becoming active in the corporate citizenship community. Like The Center, some members are housed at respected universities, while others have developed independently in response to the growing demand of local business for support in this area.
The Center has spent the last few years building relationships with these organizations, and this networking process has now resulted in the launch of a formal Global Education and Research Network (GERN), a cooperative forum of like-minded academic centers from all corners of the globe. These institutions share the common goal to drive the advancement of corporate citizenship worldwide through research and education.
The newly established network will collaborate on developing knowledge and education initiatives in this space, with the hope that their collective global perspectives will guide today's corporate citizenship practitioners in a constantly evolving world.
Bradley Googins, executive director of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, believes that The Center's member companies would greatly benefit from an expanded network of knowledge. "Corporate citizenship continues to grow globally," he noted, "but no major vehicle exists to get to global from provincial practice."
At the group's first gathering in March, GERN founding members realized that a significant knowledge gap persists in existing corporate citizenship research. As Frank Heuberger, board member of the Center for Corporate Citizenship Deutschland (CCCD) remarked at the outset, "Central to our efforts here is to understand which factors relating to corporate citizenship are universal, and which are culturally-specific."
To begin the knowledge-sharing process the founding members – who include representatives from The Center's counterparts in Germany, Brazil, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Chile and the Philippines - "mapped" the state of corporate citizenship in their respective regions.
One of the first objectives of the Network is to disseminate this knowledge on the nature, practice, and trends of corporate citizenship in different regions of the world.
Speaking to the value proposition of the Network, Derick DeJongh, Director of the Centre for Corporate Citizenship at the University of South Africa, stated that "the current international corporate citizenship landscape demands global perspectives on the defining characteristics of corporate citizenship across regions and sectors." Providing this knowledge would help The Center's members to navigate the global marketplace and to understand the unique aspects that define and drive corporate citizenship in the world's diverse regions. Members also will benefit from access to The Center's growing network of corporate citizenship experts around the world.
The output of the Network will add to the capability and credibility of its member institutions. David Halley, International Development Director for Business in the Community (BITC) in the United Kingdom, asserted, "For BITC the meeting to set up the global network was extremely important and timely. The organizations who participated bring an excellent cross-section of skills and regional expertise which will be critical to the success of the project."
This unique opportunity to collaborate across continents will advance the member organizations' own missions and ability to advocate for a greater role for business in tackling today's increasing global challenges.
The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship is looking forward to working closely with these counterpart organizations as well as expanding the Network to include a more comprehensive global perspective.
View a complete list of Global Education Research Network members. For more information, contact Sylvia Ciesluk at 617.552.2943, sylvia.ciesluk.1@bc.edu.
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