At the end of the course, the student should be able to:
– Identify different possible paths through which business organizations can generate positive social and environmental impact
– Develop a vision for business organizations that emphasizes sustainable business value creation, innovation, and responsible leadership.
– Use concepts, models and analytical tools to address responsibility- and sustainability-related questions at different levels of the business organization;
– Understand how perspectives and challenges linked to ethics, responsibility and sustainability can influence managers’ behavior inside organizations and in their interaction with their stakeholders
n this course, we will engage in reflecting upon the role and purpose of business organizations in society. In the first part of the course (common to all students), after having introduced the debate about the role(s) and impact of business and corporate actors in society, we will address the principles and practices covered by the field(s) of stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility, corporate sustainability and associated notions such as integrity. We will look into business organizations’ increasing self-awareness and capabilities in terms of social and environmental performance, and at potential innovation incubators in the context of the rising challenges of competitiveness, sustainability and governance. Several unconventional values-based business and management models will also be examined. All this will be done through interactive sessions. In the second part of the course –which will be track-specific– students of the different tracks will be exposed to ethical, social responsibility and/or sustainability contemporary challenges that are particularly relevant at the moment in their domain of specialization. These specific questions will be approached through interactive seminars, sometimes complemented by practitioners’ presentations.
