Program
Pre-conference PhD Seminar
MONDAY 21 SEPTEMBER
Venues: LUT University and Tuju Taproom (dinner)
12:00-13:00 Registration and lunch
13:00-14:30 Opening session
14:30-15:00 Coffee break
15:00-17:00 Sessions and mentor meetings
19:00-21:00 PhD Seminar Dinner
TUESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER
Venue: LUT University
9:00-13:00 Sessions and mentor meetings
13:00-14:00 Lunch
CSRCOM 2026 Conference
TUESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER
Venue: Lappeenranta City Theatre
17:30-18:00 Conference registration
18:00-19:30 Opening and keynote
19:30-21:00 Welcome reception
WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER
Venues: LUT University and Kehruuhuone restaurant (dinner)
07:30-8:30 Optional cold morning swim and sauna at LUT lakeside sauna
9:00-9:30 Opening of Day 2 & Meet the Editors for CCIJ Special Issue
9:30-10:30 Keynote
10:30-10:45 Coffee break
10:45-12:00 Parallel paper sessions 1
12:00-13:15 Parallel paper sessions 2
13:15-14:15 Lunch break
14:15-15:45 Practitioners’ panel
15:45-16:00 Coffee break
16:00-17:30 Parallel paper sessions 3
19:00-23:00 Conference dinner and award ceremony
THURSDAY 24 SEPTEMBER
Venue: LUT University
07:30-8:30 Optional cold morning swim and sauna at LUT lakeside sauna
9:00-10:00 Keynote
10:00-10:30 Coffee break
10:30-11:45 Parallel paper sessions 4
11:45-13:00 Parallel paper sessions 5
13:00-14:00 Lunch break
14:00-17:00 Optional social program
Keynote speakers for CSRCOM 2026
Professor Laura Marie Edinger-Schons
University of Hamburg Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences
Laura Marie Edinger-Schons is Professor of Sustainable Business at the University of Hamburg and Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) of the University of Hamburg. Her research focuses on how organizations (from for-profit to non-profit) can contribute to sustainable development as defined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Specific topics that she is interested in include Employee Engagement in Sustainability, Social Entre-/Intrapreneurship, Digital Social Innovation, Corporate Democracy, and New Work. Her work has been published in prestigious academic journals including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Business Ethics. She received the Overall Best Paper Award at AMA Winter 2014, was selected as one of the Top Ten Junior Academics 2015 (by Zeit and researchers) and received the 2016 Deutschen Wissenschaftspreis for best collaboration with the private sector. She received the 2017 AACSB Innovations that Inspire Award for her teaching, and the 2017 Wolfgang-Ritter-Preis, the 2018 Roman-Herzog-Forschungspreis, and the 2018 Max-Weber-Preis für Wirtschaftsethik for her postdoctoral dissertation. In 2019, she was named to the Top 40 Under 40 by Capital magazine.
Professor Lars Thøger Christensen
Copenhagen Business School
Lars Thøger Christensen (PhD, Odense University, 1993), is Professor of Communication and Organization at the Copenhagen Business School (Denmark). His research focuses on how organizations make sense of themselves and their surroundings through communicative practices such as auto communication, aspirational talk, hypocrisy, and bullshit. Drawing on sociology, semiotics, organization, and the philosophy of language he especially studies how such practices shape organizational engagement in the areas of social responsibility, transparency, sustainability, and voice. In addition to six books, such as “Organizational Communication in an Age of Globalization”, and contributions to many edited volumes, his research appears in Organization Studies, Organization Theory, Organization, Human Relations, Communication Theory, Journal of Business Research, Management Communication Quarterly, and elsewhere.
Dr Emilia Palonen
University of Helsinki
Emilia Palonen (PhD, Essex, 2006), is a tenured Associate Professor in Political Science at University of Helsinki (Finland), where she leads a multi-disciplinary research group ‘Helsinki Hub on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation’ (HEPPsinki). She works in the interconnection between politics and communication with background in Discourse Theory (Laclau & Mouffe) and focus on meaning-making, memory, identification and politics in Hungary, Finland and the European Union. Since 2018 her work has been focusing on social media communication particularly around the European Parliamentary Elections and developing methodologies to comparative cross-country large data studies. Over her career, she has published multiple books on populism and polarization, as well as led large research projects funded by the European Commission, Research Council of Finland and the Kone foundation. The initial results of the EP2024 analysis have been co-edited with Alexander Alekseev and Szilvia Horváth (2025) The 2024 European Elections through Short Videos: Navigating Social Contracts and Grievances in the Era of Algorithmic Politics (HEPP working paper series). She is active in scholarly associations with impact in science policy and regularly comments contemporary politics in the media.Practitioners’ panel
Speakers of the 2026 Practitioners’ Panel are:
Inna-Pirjetta Lahti, Founder & CEO of Impact Agency PING Helsinki;
Niklas Kaskeala, co-founder of The Activist Agency;
Sophia Lawson Hellu, Programme Manager for Social Responsibility & Human Rights at UN Global Compact Network Finland.