The Centre for Sustainable Business Practices (CSBP) aims to encourage, facilitate, capture and promote research and consultancy into business sustainability. In this context sustainability is being defined as “an ultimate objective of maintaining indefinitely the viability of our economies, the societies in which they exist and the physical environment on which they all depend.” (Jenkins, 2009 p.21). The impact of sustainability is being felt across all business activities. It is a consideration with any stakeholder relationship, whether it is adopting a corporate social responsibility approach with customers, defining environmental regulations with suppliers or exploring ways to protect shareholders. The intended impact of this centre also links closely with the University’s Social Impact agenda, particularly Challenge 4: Make Northamptonshire the best county in the UK to start, build and run a business.

This Centre creates an interdisciplinary platform for research activity across the Faculty of Business and Law through the development of four research groups within the Centre. In addition to this, CSBP work closely with colleagues across the University and with external partners to produce valuable research with demonstrable impact.

The Centre for Sustainable Business Practices has a wide range of research interests. Four main themes have been used to create four research groups within the Centre. Below are only some selected topics currently under study with these groups:

• Entrepreneurship and small Business Development
  • Corporate Social Responsibility and SMEs
  • Measuring Social Value
  • Empathy in Social Enterprise
• Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Advertising ethics and regulation
  • The ethics of business gifting
  • Politics and consumption
• Economies and Markets
  • Takeover regulations to protect shareholders
  • Supply chain management
  • Public-Private buisness collaborations
• Legal Frameworks and Regulated Markets
  • Trafficking of illegal commodities
  • Empowerment and oppression in higher education
  • Driscrimination and equality