Corporate Social Responsibility

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 5. Gender equality
• 10. Reduced inequalities
• 12. Responsible consumption and production
• 16. Peace, justice and strong institutions

Objectives

From global corporations to local businesses, companies around the world are talking about corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to try to educate stakeholders about their contributions to society.

CSR initiatives are also a useful tool for society, improving companies perception and consequent impact on consumers, partners and other stakeholders.

Learning outcomes

Under review. Pending publication

Content

1. Introduction to CSR principles
2. History, concepts, stakeholders
3. Reading review : types of CSR projects to impact, the triple bottom line
4. Communicating CSR, the role of PR
5. Involving external stakeholders: media, critical groups, governments, citizens
6. Involving internal stakeholders: leaders, employees, volunteers, etc.
7. Reputation: achieving objectives, techniques and tactics
8. Message, tone, channels, and spokespersons
9. Reporting impact: transparency and trust 
10. Transformational organisations
11. CSR and consumer perceptions and decisions
12. Collecting data, measure and evaluating outcomes, CSR memory
13. The Future of CSR: key trends and opportunities

Evaluation

• 30% : Assignments, case studies and readings
  • 1 reading task (individual)
  • 1 case study done in class (group)
  • 1 a successful CSR case study (group)
• 50%: Final project (presentation + PPT)
  • 2 presentations (Groups of 4 people)
• 20%: Participation
  • Quality comments about case studies + attendance

Deadlines are important: if they are not respected the assignment will not be accepted.

Methodology

The course will combine the explanation of theoretical aspects along with practical exercises. During the semester real examples and case studies are provided and discussed in order to achieve the established learning outcomes. The lectures, materials and case studies are entirely in English.

We also learn CSR good practices from successful cases that students present in class. At the end of the course, the students have to develop and present a CSR plan for a real company.

Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.