W&L Business Administration Professor’s Paper Selected as a Finalist for Best Paper Award Pooja Thakur-Wernz presented her paper at the Academy of International Business Conference in Warsaw, Poland on July 9.

By Brian Laubscher
July 20, 2023

Pooja Thakur-Wernz, assistant professor of business administration at Washington and Lee University, co-authored a paper titled “Who Spends Beyond the Mandatory CSR Requirement and Why? Evidence on CSR Spending of MNEs and Domestic Firms in India” that was recently selected as one of three finalists for the Best Paper Award in Emerging Economies Research sponsored by the International Business program at Bryant University.

Thakur-Wernz and her co-author, Olga Bruyaka of West Virginia University, presented their paper at the Academy of International Business Conference on July 9 in Warsaw, Poland.

“Olga and I were delighted to hear about our nomination for this award,” said Thakur-Wernz. “My research focuses on emerging economies, so it was rewarding to see my work recognized by the academic community.”

Thakur-Wernz and Bruyaka were the last of the three finalists to present at the conference, which was held at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics on July 5-9. A paper titled “Innovative Collaboration Among Developing Countries: The Role of National Innovation Systems in Latin America” won the top prize in the category.

The paper presented by Thakur-Wernz and Bruyaka focused on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spending for firms in India after the country designated that CSR spending would become mandatory in 2013. This legislation made India one of the first countries to mandate CSR spending but did so without instituting penalties for failing to meet the required levels of CSR.

Thakur-Wernz and Bruyaka looked at the impact of this legislation on the actual CSR spending by firms in India and found that firms are more likely to look at their peers when deciding where to meet or exceed the legislated spending. Specifically, they found that Indian-owned firms spend more than the required amounts, compared to foreign-owned Multinational Enterprises (MNE) operating in India. Furthermore, firms affiliated with business groups and state-owned enterprises spent the most among Indian firms.

Thakur-Wernz has served as a member of the W&L faculty since 2020. She holds a bachelor of commerce from Osmania University (India), a master of business administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in management from Rutgers University.

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