Dr Rosanna Garcia, Faculty Director Business Sustainability Collaborative at NC State University USA will join us at the National Sustainability in Business Conference in March 2017 and will discuss ‘Driving the Benefit Corporations Movement with University Collaborations’. Rosanna’s paper was co-authored by colleague Prof. Jessica Thomas.
In this presentation we will introduce the concept of Benefit Corporations and BLab Australia as it is a new movement in Australia. As a case study example we will present how Universities in the United States are partnering with local incubators to assist entrepreneurs as they undertake Benefit Corporation certification through BLabs. This experiential model of learning matches students with aspiring Benefit Corporations to help them through the rigorous certification process that is required by BLabs to ensure that companies are following the triple bottom line strategy of the Benefit Corporations. A representative of BLab Australia & NZ (to be determined) and a representative from North Carolina State University will be presenting.
Rosanna Garcia joined NC State University in August 2014 as a Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster hire in Innovation+Design. In this role, she serves as an associate professor in the Department of Business Management in the Poole College of Management in conjunction with the College of Design.
Dr Rosanna Garcia
As an expert in the diffusion of innovations, Dr. Garcia’s research has focused on how to introduce ‘resistant’ innovations to a reluctant marketplace. As a co-PI on a National Science Foundation Grant, “Implications of automotive greenhouse gas policies on materials flows: A life cycle approach integrating engineering, public policy, and market decisions,” her recent work has concentrated on the diffusion of electrical vehicles into the U.S. market. She is an expert on agent-based modeling, a simulation technique that models consumer decision making in complex market situations which she uses in her research studies.
Dr. Garcia’s teaching focuses on entrepreneurial marketing and new product launch. She is author of the textbook, Creating and Marketing New Products & Services, published by CRC Press.
Her recent research and teaching centers on sustainable innovations and the role of trust in sharing communities that often evolve in societies concerned about environmental sustainability. Her role within the Innovation+Design Cluster is to develop curriculum and student-focused programs that help develop and launch technologies germinating from student ideas and faculty research, especially those around environmental sustainability.
Prior to joining NC State, Dr. Garcia was an associate professor of marketing and innovation at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass. She has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation, the Marketing Science Institute and the Product Development Management Association, among others for her work on diffusion and agent-based modeling. She sits on the board of several start-ups due to her expertise in entrepreneurial marketing and is a sought-after consultant for her work in market simulation.
The National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held the Hotel Grand Chancellor Brisbane from the 23-24 March 2017. For more information on the conference and to register your spot today please visit www.conference.sustainability.asn.au
