Sustainability Events and Activities

As FBA, we organized an event led by Banu Sultanoğlu, PhD, in collaboration with UNDP on Tuesday, March 12th. The event commenced with an opening session led by Dean, Prof. Dr. Selim Aktürk, followed by a speech from the Resident Representative of UNDP TÜRKİYE, Louisa Vinton. After a brief Q&A session, the focus shifted to discussions on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with Assistant Resident Representative, Seher Alacacı Ariner, presenting SDGs and UNDP’s role. This was followed by presentations from guest speakers on Best Practices related to SDGs and UNDP TÜRKİYE. Then, the event transitioned to exploring career opportunities within UNDP, with UNDP HR Administrators, İpek Özel & İrem Yılmaz, discussing internships and career pathways. The session concluded with a Q&A session, marking the event’s closing.

MODAV-ICA 2023, the 20th International Conference on Accounting, was held on September 20, 2023, in collaboration with Bilkent University Faculty of Business Administration and MODAV FOUNDATION (MODAV: Turkish Accounting Academicians’ Collaboration & Research Foundation) at Bilkent Hotel. The theme for this year was “Climate Change: Accountancy & Good Governance”. All the participants exchanged views on climate change within the context of good governance from the specific perspective of Accountancy. Distinguished invited speakers from both academia and regulatory bodies were hosted, along with participants from 55 universities, and fifteen papers were presented.

The “Sustainability: Issues, Solutions, and Opportunities” panel, held within our faculty on Wednesday, May 18, 2022, began with opening speeches from our Rector, Prof. Dr. Abdullah Atalar, and our Dean, Prof. Dr. Ülkü Gürler. It was moderated by our faculty member and Novartis Corporate Relations Director, Selcen Erdem. Panelists and speakers included: Prof. Dr. Güler Aras (Yıldız Technical University), Nilüfer Aktaş (Impactmaze Consulting), Dr. Neyran Akyıldız (WWF Turkey), Fatih Özkadı (Arçelik), and Pırıl Kadıbeşegil Yaşar (Allianz Group).

A workshop on the topic “Nonfinancial Information Reporting and Assurance Within the Framework of Corporate Sustainability: Regulations and Practices,” organized by the university’s Faculty of Business Administration and Center for Research in Transitional Societies in partnership with the Turkish Accounting Academicians’ Collaboration and Research Foundation (MÖDAV), took place on Friday, April 22.

The workshop opened with introductory remarks from Prof. Ülkü Gürler, dean of the Faculty of Business Administration; Prof. Nuran Cömert, chair of MODAV; Yahya Arıkan, general secretary of the Turkish Union of Chambers of Certified Public Accountants (TÜRMOB); and Dr. Hasan Özçelik, chair of the Public Oversight, Accounting and Auditing Standards Authority (KGK).

The keynote speaker for the event was Dr. Tamer Atabarut, a faculty member at Boğaziçi University and the director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network in Turkey, who discussed issues relating to sustainable development and corporate sustainability reporting.

The workshop consisted of two sessions. During the first session, Dr. Banu Sultanoğlu (Bilkent University), Prof. Yıldız Özerhan (Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University) and Prof. Lerzan Kavut (İstanbul University) spoke about corporate sustainability reporting and its assurance.

In the second session, Murat Yünlü, vice chair of KGK; Dr. Hüseyin Yurdakul, a specialist with the Capital Markets Board of Turkey; Burçun İmir, sustainability and communications leader at the Coca Cola group; and Zeynep Okuyan, assurance partner and sustainability leader at EY, gave talks about regulations and business practices relating to sustainability reporting, the Green Deal and carbon taxation.

Our Faculty members Associate Professor Lale Tomruk Gümüşlüoğlu & Associate Professor Zahide Karakitapoğlu-Aygün published an article in Harvard Business Review Türkiye based on a cross-cultural data set collected from Turkey, Taiwan and the US. They studied how two dimensions of paternalistic leadership, namely authoritarian and benevolent leadership, influenced justice and ethical climate perceptions in different cultural contexts. Their results revealed very striking differences across cultures. You can access this interesting article at hbrturkiye.com or April issue of Harvard Business Review Türkiye.

The 3^rd NIBES Research Session with the research theme “Sustainability Research in Business and Economics” was held online on November 23, 2021. The conference was hosted by the Faculty of Business Administration, Bilkent University under the auspices of the Bilkent University Centre for Societies in Transition in collaboration with the Cracow University of Economics. The research workshop was co-chaired by Associate Professor Emre Berk and Associate Professor Ahmet Ekici from FBA – Bilkent University. The aim of the workshop was to exchange research interests and ideas among members of the Network of International Business and Economics Schools (NIBES).

The session was focused on research on sustainability issues in business and management as well as economics. The presented research was about sustainable consumption attitudes, societal marketing for alternative food networks, legacy narratives in regional construction and infrastructure projects, material flow cost accounting for resource efficiencies, multi-dimensional emission balancing for businesses, clean technology selection with carbon taxation, a meta-analysis of IFRS adoption effects, and case studies of sustainable finance and development, governance in renewable energy innovation, and best practices for resource efficiency measures.

A research day in operations management was organized online by FBA on December 1, 2021. Our keynote speaker was Professor Onur Boyabatlı from Singapore Management University.  He delivered a talk about “Integrated Optimization of Farmland Cultivation and Fertilizer Application: Implications for Farm Management and Food Security”. The entire program and other details can be reached from here.