Our Story: Building a Centre of Excellence
Established at the Faculty of Business Studies, University of Rajshahi, CISR grew out of a decade of empirical field research in enterprise sustainability, governance, and technology adoption.
Genesis: From Grassroots Fieldwork to Institutional Research
The foundations of CISR trace back to foundational field research conducted across Bangladeshi industrial clusters and rural enterprises beginning in 2013. Early investigations into micro-credit governance, marginal female entrepreneurship, and pharmaceutical HR practices highlighted the urgent need for an independent, rigorous research center anchored in emerging market realities.
Strategic Focus Areas
Today, CISR is organized into five core interdisciplinary research thrusts:
- Circular Business Models: Investigating resource efficiency and waste minimization across South Asian manufacturing.
- Responsible AI Governance: Establishing ethical policy benchmarks for artificial intelligence in higher education and developing-economy institutions.
- Corporate Social Responsibility & ESG: Examining stakeholder accountability, corporate transparency, and sustainable finance.
- Marginal Entrepreneurship: Supporting female founders, grassroots innovators, and resilient micro-enterprises.
- Inclusive Economic Growth: Bridging policy instruments with empirical enterprise productivity.
Global Vision
With partners spanning the United Kingdom, Germany, and Southeast Asia, CISR is establishing itself as a premier hub for high-impact scholarship, international conferences, open-access journals, and doctoral mentorship.