In total 235 participants from 25 countries took part to the colloquium.

Male participants were more numerous than females: male 40% and female 60% of the colloquium participants.

Academics were the largest group represented with 137 representatives that is 58% of the attendees.

Business represented 29% of the attendees and PhD students 9%. Two other categories were present, namely governmental and intergovernmental organisations (1.7%) and NGOs (2.6%).

In total, 25 countries were present at the colloquium. The most represented country was Belgium with a total of 81 participants that is 34,50% of the audience, followed by UK (17,90%), the Netherlands (6,40%), France (6,40%), Spain (5,53%), Italy (5,11%), Denmark (4,68%), Switzerland (4,26%) and the USA (3,83%). The sixteen other countries represented had a number of participants equal to 4 or lower.

Workshop attendance

Workshops were organised around seven management functions namely Governance, Strategy, Marketing, Leadership, learning and human resource management, Operation and supply chain management, Finance and accounting, and Policy.

Over the two days, we can see a similar distribution between the workshops. Strategy was clearly the most popular workshop during both days attracting almost 30% of the colloquium attendees. The second most popular workshop was Governance with 17-18% closely followed by Policy with 15-17% and Leadership with 13% on Day 1 and 15% on Day 2. Marketing, Operation & Supply Chain Management and Finance & Accounting have attracted less people, counting less than 10% of the attendees.

Other items:

• 21 participants took part in the PhD workshop.
• 52 participants registered for the EABIS General Assembly

Evaluation

Attendees have been asked to evaluate the colloquium in terms of content as well as organisation and logistic.

The analysis of the evaluation forms clearly reveals that the 3rd EABIS colloquium has been highly appreciated by participants. The overall organisation was assessed as very good and the programme, plenary sessions and workshops were rated between good and very good.

Strong and weak points

The strongest points (above 4 points that is between Very Good and Excellent) were the following:

• The overall organisation and more especially the venue and the colloquium facilities, the Ghent Campus of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, the registration.
• The Opportunity to interact during the colloquium
• And the quality and interest of the key note speaker on Day one.

None of the assessment areas got an average score under 2. However weakest points in terms of score but also according to the comments we received were the following:

• The quality and range of exhibitors
• The opportunity to interact with the panel members both on Day 1 and 2
• And the number of presentations per workshop

Challenges for next year Colloquium

Out of this evaluation, a number of challenges come out and need to be taken in into account when organizing the next colloquium. Some of the challenges for next year colloquium are directly linked to the challenges the CSR field and the business community as a whole are facing that is:

• An equal representation of men and women on the panel sessions
• Involvement of a more various range of countries to the colloquium in order to break the dominance of some countries such as the UK or the Netherlands.

Other challenges are more specific to the colloquium:

• Go further in organizing a sustainable colloquium (walk the talk)
• Make the teaching fair and exhibitors display much more exiting and innovative
• Stimulate the online discuss in order to make it more alive
• Find a good balance between business and academic expectations and needs (this was not yet fully realized)
• Ensure the involvement of the workshop’s chairs in order to create vivid and stimulating sessions
• More interaction during plenary sessions
• Strengthen the selection of papers for the workshops; select the papers in order to make a more coherent workshop; and select a limited amount of papers in order to allow space for discussion