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Fighting Poverty through Management

Education: Challenges, Opportunities,

Solutions

Report to the 3rd PRME Global Forum

Rio de Janeiro, 2012

Prepared by

PRME Working Group on

Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education

Supported by European Quality Link (EQUAL)

Final Report

Fighting Poverty through Management Education:

Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... 1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... 2

METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................. 10

RESPONDENT DEMOGRAPHICS .................................................................................... 12

RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT EDUCATION – QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS ...... 15

PERCEIVED BARRIERS – QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS ................................................ 20

QUALITATIVE RESPONSES............................................................................................... 22

CHALLENGES ...................................................................................................................... 23

SOLUTIONS ........................................................................................................................... 28

OPPORTUNITIES .................................................................................................................. 33

PRME-RELATED IMPLICATIONS/ REFLECTIONS ...................................................... 36

APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................ 41

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education (Anti-Poverty

Working Group) wishes to acknowledge the generous support of EQUAL (European

QUAlity Link) for the research described in this report.

The Working Group consists of 87 members from 68 institutions from 35 countries. In July

2011, the steering team of the Working Group met at a workshop in Bled, Slovenia, to help

design this global research effort. Participants in that workshop were:

Maritana Sedysheva, Estonia

Irina Sennikova, Latvia

Shuan SadreGhazi, the Netherlands

Milenko Gudić, Slovenia/Serbia

Sophia Opatska, Ukraine

Carole Parkes, United Kingdom

Al Rosenbloom, USA

The workshop also received contributions from:

Danica Purg, Slovenia

Nadya Zhexembayeva, Slovenia/Kazakhstan

Olga Veligurska, Slovenia/Latvia

The authors wish to acknowledge the special contribution of Alejandra Pollesello and Miguel

Angel Gardetti, Center for Study of Corporate Sustainability, Buenos Aires, Argentina, as

well as Maria Potapkina, Baikal International Business School, Irkutsk, Russia for survey

translation assistance.

Report authors:

Milenko Gudić Carole Parkes Al Rosenbloom

Slovenia/Serbia United Kingdom USA

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Report on Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities,

Solutions is the third in a series of global surveys conducted between 2008-2011 on the role

that management education could play in helping to achieve the first of the eight Millennium

Development Goals: To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. A total of 435 individuals

from 70 countries participated in the survey. The survey included quantitative as well as

qualitative questions. The survey was conducted autumn/winter 2011.

Respondent demographics

Respondents represented all major management education disciplines.

Respondents were almost evenly split between private and public business

schools/programs.

About 50% of respondents identified themselves as faculty members who also had

some administrative duties.

Over two thirds of respondents said their school’s student body was predominantly

national, with some international students.

Opportunities for students to study responsible management

Undergraduate level:

Undergraduate students had the greatest opportunity to study the following five

topics: ethics, corporate social responsibility (CSR), international development,

corporate governance and sustainable development.

Opportunities to study the topic of poverty and inequality ranked next to last out of

14 responsible management topics for undergraduates.

Undergraduate students studying in schools that were PRME signatories had

statistically significant greater opportunities to study international development,

sustainable development, social entrepreneurship, public policy, political stability,

third sector/NGO/civil society, human rights and climate change than students in

schools that were not PRME signatories.

Graduate/Post Graduate level:

Graduate/postgraduate students had the greatest opportunity to study corporate

governance, corporate social responsibility (CSR), international development, ethics,

sustainable development, and social entrepreneurship.

Opportunities to study poverty and inequality ranked next to last out of 14

responsible management topics for graduate/postgraduate students.

Graduate/postgraduate students studying in schools that were PRME signatories had

statistically significant greater opportunities to study ethics, international

development, sustainable development, social entrepreneurship, environmental

sustainability, public policy/governmental studies, third sector/civil society/NGO

relationships, political stability, human rights, climate change and poverty &

inequality than students in schools that were not PRME signatories.

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Barriers and obstacles to the study of poverty

The lack of outside funding support was identified as the greatest perceived barrier/

obstacle to the inclusion of poverty discussions in current educational programs.

Other barriers/obstacles included: The lack of time to develop appropriate teaching

materials, the lack of faculty development funds, and the lack of room in current

courses to cover the topic.

Challenges

Issues about the very term itself. What does “poverty” actually mean? “It would be

necessary to have a better understanding about the term 'poverty' in a global context and to

change the mindset.”

There were questions about topic legitimacy: Why should “poverty” even be

considered a business topic at all? “Business oriented topics are seen as inconsistent with

a focus on poverty issues.”

Prevailing/existing mindsets/attitudes of faculty members hindered poverty

discussions. “[Our biggest challenge is] conventional mindsets around what

management/business as a discipline does/should consist of.”

The primacy of the quantitative disciplines (accounting, finance and economics) and

the faculty members teaching in those disciplines viewed as gatekeepers of the

curriculum and impediments to topic development. “The dominance in business schools

of very conservative finance, economics, and quantitative disciplines, and the faculty

socialized by PhD and disciplinary professional training into those disciplines.”

A “silo mentality” between disciplines thwarted poverty discussions. “Faculty are

entrenched in functional silos and believe students need greater depth in functional knowledge

such as accounting, finance, marketing, etc.”

Perceptions that there was no room within the current curriculum and that the

curriculum as a zero-sum game. “Fitting poverty into an already overcrowded curriculum

- the reality is to determine what would have to be taken out to create this space.”

There is a lack of content experts to teach the topic, especially faculty members who

have done research in this field. “[We] lack specialists and teachers with PhDs to teach this

topic.”

There is lack of student interest in issues related to poverty. Students did not see any

relation between poverty topics/issues and possibilities of employment upon

graduation. “The most important barrier perhaps is that students may not immediately find

a benefit by way of improved placement opportunities.”

Perceptions that accreditation bodies are not supportive. “Should accreditation bodies

include poverty as part of their expectations it would make the development of such modules

much easier.”

Solutions

Successful individuals and program include poverty-focused items/discussions in

domains of interest that were literally close to home. Typically this included

course(s) that the respondent already taught, existing faculty with whom the

respondent typically interacted, and programs with local community organizations.

“I try to spend at least 20 minutes on the topic (which may not seem like much, but it is still

much work wedging this into the course).” “I plan on running sensitization and motivation

workshop for this purpose.”“[We are involved] with the neighboring slum community and

developing a closer relationship with its representatives.”

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Students become actively engaged with poverty issues through co-curricular

activities. “We support student-run initiatives (clubs, outreach events) that help create and

nurture community around social change and doing good. As students are attracted and

validated by their peers, they gain courage in pursuing this path.”

Action/service learning projects meaningfully engaging students with poverty-based

issues. “Our students do a fairly extensive servant-leadership project that often provides

them with exposure to non-profits addressing issues in poverty.”

Poverty discussions are integrated into newly created courses, minors and

certificates on sustainability, sustainable development and social entrepreneurship.

“We have added concentrations in social entrepreneurship in both our undergraduate and

graduate programs. These concentrations have allowed our students to consider deeply the

intersection of business with issues of poverty often with students from other disciplines.”

Students are directly engaged with poverty issue through a course or a service/action

learning project that is required for graduation. “Every student has to carry a project

addressing corporate social responsibility (like raising funds for the fight against AIDS, for

the fight against poverty or hunger, etc.).”

Strategies for legitimizing the topic included conferences, student projects,

identified these topics, and specialized centers. “Students are encouraged to think about

Bottom of the Pyramid (or relevant concepts) when they search for a master thesis.” We host a

bi-annual "Business and Global Poverty" conference that focuses on the role of business in

alleviating poverty.”

Participation in PRME, itself, created opportunities to discuss poverty-related issues.

“We use the PRME-initiative to comprehensively integrate Sustainability and BoP issues in

our curricula and research.”

Opportunities

Foremost among perceived opportunities is the need to create a strong, compelling

business case for poverty as a legitimate business topic. “Without a compelling case, it

is unlikely that my faculty would be engaged with a change.”

Equally important is to find and leverage champions. “A faculty member or student

grassroots group would have to "champion" the idea and its importance.”

Other opportunities are created when stakeholder attitudes change. “We have to do two

things for our Dean and teachers: 1. Convince them that a certain part of their courses can and

should be given to poverty discussion. 2. Educate them on how to do it“

There is a strong desire to share best practices. “Information exchange on teaching -

materials, best practices and so on - will be of great help.”

There is a need to find the right vocabulary so that shared and common meaning can

develop within and outside the academy. “It is a challenge to find the right

vocabulary/language to talk about poverty in the business schools and discuss the ‘value’ and

‘opportunities’ associated with considering it in the curriculum.”

There is a strong desire to develop closer working relationship with corporations.

“We need more projects with companies.” “[We must] look for champion companies that wish

to share their experiences and spread their cases.”

New teaching materials are needed. “[We need] the books and the study material to back

the issues.” “Instructional materials and good case studies.”

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Survey findings and PRME six principles

Principle 1: Purpose. This survey reflects a growing awareness among business schools that

the need for sustainable development and responsible leadership has never been greater.

Business schools, their associations, and other stakeholders need to develop new ways and

means to contribute to a better world. In this context, fighting poverty is not only one of the

major Millennium Development Goals, but also a big challenge for all management

education stakeholders.

Principle 2: Values. Challenges still remain for providing students with more opportunities

to study poverty-related issues. Some schools are finding ways to do this through the

development of new courses, either under the umbrella of CSR and responsible

management, or as various interdisciplinary courses on Base of the Pyramid issues, business

and poverty, social entrepreneurship, social impact, etc. Leveraging the co-curriculum in a

number of ways serves as another response to the “over full” curriculum. Among the

strongest opportunities identified is the need for a strong, compelling business case.

Principle 3: Methods. Solutions in these areas are encouraging. Poverty-related cases are

included in various courses. Students are asked to make presentations or take part in

debates, role plays and other interactive learning methods. Invited speakers, along with the

organization of thematic conferences and events, are also good examples – as are service

learning opportunities, project work, student-led campaigns, events and other initiatives and

volunteering activities, including those co-organized with the local communities and bodies.

Opportunities in this area include: creating new teaching materials, sharing best practices,

creating electronic platforms/forums for sharing ideas among faculty and students, faculty

development, as well as developing corporate and community partnerships. Overall, survey

responses under Principle 3 support the need for the Collection of Best Practices and

Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education, a document that has

been developed as a complement to this report.

Principle 4: Research. The field of research is both a main challenge and a main opportunity.

Questions related to topic legitimacy and the related lack of understanding and appropriate

vocabulary have impeded research. The lack of funding, the lack of time, the

interdisciplinary nature of the topic, the lack of faculty competence and confidence, as well

as various self-imposed internal and external limitations, including international

accreditation, also contribute to the limited body of relevant management research.

Principles 5: Partnerships. Partnerships with businesses, social entrepreneurs, business

incubators, cooperatives, local and international NGOs, governmental agencies and local

community provide answers for many challenges identified in the survey. Partnerships

create opportunities for bringing real-life experience and business practice into the

classroom, for inviting speakers from the corporate world to serve on panels and participate

in conferences on the role of business in alleviating poverty, as well as for sponsoring centers

for social innovation at business schools.

Partnerships are also a legitimizing strategy for changing the mindsets and attitudes of

internal and external stakeholders. Quite often business schools have a wrong perception of

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what the educational market needs and wants are. Bringing faculty champions together with

corporate champions could have a high synergy-making potential.

Principle 6: Dialogue. Challenges, solutions and opportunities in this area indicate the need

for a wider and more intensive dialogue among all stakeholders, interest groups and social

partners on the role that businesses as well as management education could and should play

in both fighting poverty and achieving the first Millennium Development Goal.

* * *

The Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education will continue to

facilitate dialogue and implementation of the report’s main findings and recommendations.

This dialogue will enable:

(a) Individual schools to start and/or lead poverty-related initiatives on their own;

(b) Groups of schools and their stakeholders to collaborate on projects that will integrate

poverty-related issues into management education; and

(c) PRME to further enhance its value as a learning and action network for fighting

poverty through management education.

In this context, the Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty

through Management Education, another Working Group deliverable for the PRME 3rd Global

Forum, will be developed into an online platform through which management educators will

be able to learn but also contribute their own experiences and insights.

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INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

The PRME Anti-Poverty Working Group Report on Fighting Poverty through Management

Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions is the third in a series of global surveys

conducted between 2008-2011, each of whose aim was to better understand the role that

management education and management educators can and have played in alleviating

global poverty – thereby helping to achieve the first of the eight Millennium Development

Goals: To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

In 2008 CEEMAN, an international management association of more than 200 members from

51 countries from all over the world, sponsored the first global survey on poverty and its

relationship to management education: The CEEMAN Survey on Management Education:

Corporate Social Responsibility and Poverty. A total of 154 respondents from 33 countries, from

four continents (Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia), shared their opinions

about the importance of CSR and global poverty in management education.

According to the survey results, the three highest mean ratings regarding personal attitudes

towards the poor were as follows:

(d) society has a responsibility to help poor people;

(e) poor people are discriminated against; and

(f) the private sector is best able to reduce global poverty.

Two thirds of the survey respondents said global poverty was “a very serious problem”,

while almost three-quarters (72%) of respondents said global poverty was a legitimate topic

that should be included in a management education curriculum.

When asked why global poverty is a legitimate topic in management education, respondents

noted the following:

Combating poverty is a part of CSR

Poverty prevents people from developing in every sense of the word. Not only do societies not

benefit from this situation but they spend a large part of their resources "patching up” the

consequences. I believe to allow the status quo is one more crime against humanity.

The solution of such a complex problem as poverty needs the participation of all actors in

society: governments, civil society, and the private sector. Business students need to be aware

of the complexity and importance of dealing with this topic.

Business players have the possibility of reducing global poverty - so they need to be sensitized

to the topic.

Businesses are among the main change agents and their leaders and managers bring important

values and attitudes from the management education inputs they received.

Future managers should not only do well but also do good. A solid understanding of what is

needed to make this world a better place should be considered crucial.

For better decision making on company, government and individual level.

It gives an opportunity to educate people to be more responsible.

Understanding of social responsibility is not a fashion but a necessity for business.

Because... it is important for sustainable development … Management education is an

important part of sustainable development.

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Following this and the 1st PRME Global Forum in New York in December 2008, the PRME

Secretariat established the Anti-Poverty PRME Working Group, which developed its vision

statement and a general frame of work, aimed at helping business schools and management

educators integrate poverty-related discussion into all levels of management education

worldwide. The Working Group now consists of 87 members from 68 institutions in 35

countries from all the continents.

The Working Group designed and administered the 2010 CEEMAN/PRME Survey on

Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education, whose aim was to capture innovation and

creativity in terms of teaching about poverty and the responsibilities of leadership in

management education. The survey included 377 respondents, from all levels of

management education, from 51 countries from all over the world.

The survey results, which were presented in the 2nd PRME Global Forum in New York in

June 2010 and at the 19th CEEMAN Annual Conference in Caserta/Naples, Italy in September

2010, reported on numerous innovations taking place across all major segments of

management education programs: undergraduate, MBA, EMBA and PhD, as well as across

all aspects of management education, including educational content, programs and courses,

educational processes, materials and tools, and institutional arrangements and partnerships.

The Working Group found that many of the initiatives briefly described in the survey had a

potential to be further elaborated and broadly exposed as best practices and inspirational

solutions.

Recognizing the role that corporate social responsibility and business ethics courses could

have in integrating poverty-related issues into educational content and programs, the survey

respondents strongly advocated the need to integrate poverty into the foundation and core

courses as well.

This requires an agreement among schools’ faculty that poverty is an important topic.

However, respondents said there was a wide range of opinion about the relevance of poverty

in management education within their own faculty. So, where do we stand? Do we teach

about poverty? Some said, “Yes we do.” Others answered, “We do not.” These varied views

indicated that there were still challenges, but also opportunities, and in some cases already

successfully implemented solutions.

Therefore the Working Group decided that its future work should focus on the challenges,

opportunities and solutions for fighting poverty through management education. The

decision was supported by the results of a three-round Delphi survey carried out among

Working Group members in order to assess the Working Group’s priorities regarding future

work areas and methods.

In parallel, the PRME Steering Committee invited the Working Group to present the results

of its work as deliverables for the 3rd PRME Global Forum, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

in June 2012 in conjunction with the Rio50+20 Meeting. Additional support came from

EQUAL, the association of European associations involved in the improvement of the quality

of management education, which decided to support the project due to its relevance for the

both management education and business communities.

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In May 2011, the PRME Secretariat facilitated a Webinar for Working Group members.

During that Webinar, Working Group members were introduced to the UNDP initiative

Growing Inclusive Markets (GIM). Because the perspective of the GIM approach is “to

demonstrate how business can significantly contribute to human development by including

the poor in the value chain as consumers, producers, business owners or employees

(‘inclusive business models’, GIM website), the GIM “model” was thought to be relevant to

the Working Group.

In July 2011, the Steering Committee of the Working Group met at a workshop in Bled,

Slovenia, to follow up on ideas presented in the May Webinar. A significant part of the

meeting’s agenda was devoted to discussing and evaluating projects relevant to the Working

Group’s mission. Using a model similar to GIM, the Steering Committee agreed to develop

and launch a third global survey on poverty and management education, this time with an

emphasis on identifying specific challenges, opportunities and solutions business

schools/management education programs face as they integrate the issue of poverty in their

school’s curricula. This survey is the basis for the Working Group’s main deliverable for the

3rd PRME Global Forum: PRME WG Report on Fighting Poverty through Management

Education: Challenges, Opportunities, Solutions.

Closely linked with the survey, the Steering Committee agreed, would be a Collection of Best

Practices and Inspirational Solutions for integrating poverty issues into management education

curricula and practice, which also will be presented at the PRME 3rd Global Forum as

another deliverable of the Working Group.

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The first step is personal -

whether I believe this subject is

worth being taught. The second

is intellectual - how does it fit to

a broader philosophy of business

education. The third is properly

institutional - what measure

should we take on the level of

programs, courses' syllabi and

cases.

--- Survey Respondent,

Russia

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METHODOLOGY

As noted in the Introduction and Background Section, a Delphi decision-making process

began the survey development. During three rounds of consensus decision making (January

– June 2011), Working Group members brainstormed and then ultimately reached consensus

on nine topics and projects supportive of the Working Group’s mission. At a July 2011

Steering Committee meeting in Bled, Slovenia, the Steering Committee agreed to launch the

challenges, opportunities and solutions global survey. Steering Committee members spent

an afternoon suggesting content areas to be included in the survey.

In August 2011, survey questions were drafted. To assure uniformity and completeness of

meaning, survey items were reviewed by experts from the United Kingdom, central Europe

and the United States. Some items were rewritten to clarify meaning. A draft of the complete

survey was then circulated to all members of the Working Group for review. Additional

changes were made based on member feedback. At that point, the revised survey was

translated into Russian, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian. All four survey versions (English,

Russian, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian) were posted on a web-based survey hosting service for

ease of access. The survey had five sections:

1. The degree of opportunity undergraduate and graduate students have to study

various topics on responsible management in the formal curriculum (quantitative

assessment)

2. Obstacles or barriers to the inclusion of poverty in the school’s current curricula,

courses or modules (quantitative assessment)

3. Explanation of obstacles, barriers and challenges and whether there was an action

plan to overcome the obstacle (open-ended, qualitative)

4. Success stories for integrating poverty topics into courses, modules, curricula

(open-ended, qualitative)

5. Demographics (quantitative)

Initial invitations to participate in the survey were sent to all Working Group members, all

PRME Steering Committee associations, alumni of the CEEMAN’s International

Management Teachers Academy (IMTA), CEEMAN members and contacts, and members of

selected special interest groups of the Academy of Management in early September 2011. In

conjunction with The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October 2011,

survey reminders were sent. The survey closed on 9 December 2011. Survey responses

written in Russian, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian were translated into English.

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RESPONDENT DEMOGRAPHICS

A total of 435 individuals from 70 countries responded to the survey. Table 1 lists the

countries represented in the survey.

Table 1. List of Countries

Albania Argentina Australia Austria

Belarus Belgium Bosnia and

Herzegovina

Brazil

Bulgaria Canada China Colombia

Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark

Ecuador Egypt Estonia Finland

France Georgia Germany Greece

Hungary Iceland India Ireland

Italy Japan Kazakhstan Kenya

Korea Kuwait Latvia Lithuania

Macedonia Mauritius Mexico Montenegro

The Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria Norway

Pakistan Papua New Guinea Peru Poland

Portugal Romania Russia Saudi Arabia

Serbia Singapore Slovenia South Africa

Spain Sweden Switzerland Tanzania

Turkey UAE Uganda UK

Ukraine Uruguay USA Uzbekistan

Venezuela Vietnam

Respondents represented all major business disciplines (see Table 2). Seventy-five percent of

the entire sample was clustered in the following five disciplines: management, marketing,

strategy, HR and economics.

Respondents were almost evenly split between private and public institutions, with 51% of

those who answered this question identifying themselves as working in a public institution

and 49% in a private institution. Table 3 indicates that the largest group of respondents

identified themselves as faculty members who also had some administrative duties (45%).

Least represented in the sample were individuals who were fulltime administrators with no

faculty duties (9%).

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Table 2. Disciplines of Respondents

Frequency Valid

Percent

Management 73 26.1

Marketing 44 15.7

Strategy 36 12.9

Human Resources

Management

28 10.0

Economics 27 9.6

Finance 18 6.4

Ethics 17 6.1

Administration 11 3.9

Accounting 9 3.2

Statistics/Quantitative

Methods

8 2.9

Operations 5 1.8

Information systems 4 1.4

Total 280 100.0

Table 3. Job Duties of Respondents

Frequency Valid

Percent

Faculty with some administrative

duties

142 44.9

Faculty with no administrative

duties

76 24.1

Manager/Administrator with some

teaching duties

71 22.5

Manager/Administrator with no

teaching duties

27 8.5

Total 316 100.0

Respondents also classified their student body as to its relative mix of international students

to national students (see Table 4). Over two-thirds of respondent schools identified the mix of

students as being predominantly national, with some international students. Only 6% of the

respondents said their school had a totally international student body.

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Table 4. Relative Mix of International to National Students

in the Student Body

Frequency Valid Percent

Predominantly national 217 69.1

Completely national 45 14.3

Predominantly international 32 10.2

Completely international 20 6.4

Total 314 100.0

Table 5 identifies the known accreditation of respondent schools. The large number of

missing responses to this question might not accurately reflect the true accreditation status of

the institutions represented in the survey.

Table 5. School Accreditation

Frequency Percent

AMBA 58 13.3

AACSB 44 10.1

EQUIS 31 7.1

CEEMAN IQA 22 5.0

Sub-total 155 35.5

Missing 282 64.5

Total 437 100.0

Additional data tables on accreditation are in the Appendix.

Finally, Table 6 presents the number of respondents who knew whether their school was a

PRME signatory. Similar to Table 5, a large number of respondents didn’t know the PRME

status of their school.

Table 6. Respondent’s Knowledge of Whether

their School is a PRME signatory

Frequency Percent

Yes 101 33.0

No 64 20.9

Don't know 141 46.1

Total 306 100.0

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“Economists often assume

that markets are inert, that

they do not affect the goods

being exchanged. But this

is untrue. Markets leave

their mark. Sometimes,

market values crowd out

nonmarket values worth

caring about.”

--- Michael Sandel.

(2012). What Money Can't

Buy: The Moral Limits of

Markets

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RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT EDUCATION – QUANTITATIVE

FINDINGS

Respondents were asked to evaluate the opportunity students had to study 14 topics/issues

that fell under the broad umbrella of “responsible management,” and they were asked to do

that separately for undergraduate and graduate programs.

Table 7 presents a rank ordering of the fourteen topics from most extensive opportunity for

undergraduate students to study to least extensive opportunity to study. The ranking order

in Table 7 is based on mean scores.

Table 7. Undergraduate Opportunities to Study Topics of Responsible Management

(Rank Ordered by Mean Scores)

Mean Std. Deviation

Statistic Std. Error Statistic

Ethics (n=380) 3.77 .051 .993

Corporate Social Responsibility

(n=380)

3.65 .051 .992

International Development (n=375) 3.64 .057 1.097

Corporate Governance (n=378) 3.62 .056 1.094

Sustainable Development (n=371) 3.32 .060 1.158

Social Entrepreneurship (n=376) 3.07 .059 1.148

Environmental Sustainability

(n=371)

3.02 .057 1.095

Public Policy/Governmental

Studies (n=363)

3.01 .064 1.227

Political Stability (n=367) 2.74 .061 1.165

Third Sector/Civil Society/NGO

Relationships (n=364)

2.71 .060 1.137

Human Rights (n=367) 2.67 .057 1.093

Corruption (n=365) 2.65 .058 1.108

Poverty & Inequality (n=371) 2.51 .057 1.089

Climate Change (n=365) 2.41 .058 1.101

Scale used: 1= no opportunity to study, 2= little opportunity to study, 3=some

opportunity to study, 4=significant opportunity to study, 5=extensive opportunity to

study.

As evident in Table 7, undergraduates have the greatest opportunity to study issues related

to responsible management within ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) courses.

Given many recent examples of corporate misbehaviour and societal demands for greater

accountability for private sector businesses, it is not surprising that ethics and CSR stand in

the first and second position for undergraduate study opportunities. Of major interest for

this research, though, is the relatively low ranking for undergraduates business to study

about poverty and inequality (mean=2.51). The topic of poverty and inequality ranked next

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to last. Only climate change ranked lower in terms of undergraduate student opportunities

to study.

Table 8 presents a rank ordered of the opportunity graduate students have to study the 14

topics that broadly encompass responsible management. Again, the ranking order is based

on mean scores.

Table 8. Graduate Opportunities to Study Topics of Responsible Management, Rank

Ordered by Mean Score

Mean Std. Deviation


Corporate Governance (n=344) 3.80 .056 1.034

Corporate Social Responsibility

(n=353)

3.77 .053 .990

International Development (n=345) 3.71 .057 1.061

Ethics (n=351) 3.68 .053 .998

Sustainable Development (n=341) 3.42 .060 1.115

Social Entrepreneurship (n=344) 3.13 .059 1.090

Environmental Sustainability (n=347) 3.07 .060 1.110

Public Policy/Governmental Studies

(n=340)

3.05 .064 1.189


Relationships (n=341)

2.80 .064 1.183

Political Stability (n=333) 2.74 .062 1.140

Corruption (n=335) 2.73 .062 1.132

Human Rights (n=334) 2.66 .062 1.128

Poverty & Inequality (n=343) 2.60 .058 1.082

Climate Change (n=334) 2.46 .062 1.140

Scale used: 1= no opportunity to study, 2= little opportunity to study, 3=some

opportunity to study, 4=significant opportunity to study, 5=extensive opportunity to

study.

Graduate students have the most opportunity to study issues related to responsible

management as part of corporate governance and CSR topics. Given the emphasis on

corporate leadership and strategic management at the graduate level, it is not surprising that

graduate students have the greatest opportunity to study corporate governance. Similar to

the rank order of topics at the undergraduate level (Table 7), graduate opportunities to study

poverty and inequality ranked very low. Again, it was next to last in the rank ordering.

A comparison of means was conducted to determine whether there were any statistically

significant differences between schools that were PRME signatories and schools that were

not, with regard to the degree of opportunity students had to study the 14 identified

responsible management topics. Table 9 presents the differences in opportunity to study

these topics at the undergraduate level. The scales used for this question were: 1= no

opportunity to study, 2= little opportunity to study, 3=some opportunity to study,

4=significant opportunity to study, 5=extensive opportunity to study.

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Undergraduates had statistically significantly greater opportunities to study the following

eight topics: international development, sustainable development, social entrepreneurship,

public policy, political stability, third sector/NGO/civil society, human rights and climate

change.

Table 9. Opportunities for Undergraduate Students to Study Responsible

Management Topics Compared Between PRME and non-PRME Schools

Is your business school a PRME

Signatory?

Yes No

Opportunity to study topic in

undergraduate curriculum

Mean (n=85)

Mean (n=59)

Ethics 3.98 3.73

Corporate Social Responsibility 3.85 3.68

International Development 3.83 3.39 *

Corporate Governance 3.75 3.47

Sustainable Development 3.61 3.10 **

Social Entrepreneurship 3.44 2.76 ***

Environmental Sustainability 3.24 3.02

Public Policy/Governmental Studies 3.22 2.79 *

Political Stability 3.01 2.59 *


Relationships

2.95 2.42 **

Human Rights 2.91 2.55 *

Corruption 2.87 2.79

Climate Change 2.80 2.36 *

Poverty & Inequality 2.69 2.39

* significant at the .05 level; ** significant at the .005 level; *** significant at

the .001 level

Table 10 presents a similar comparison of means between PRME and non-PRME signatory

schools and the opportunities graduate students have for studying the 14 identified

responsible management topics. Table 10 indicates that except for corporate governance,

corporate social responsibility and corruption, graduate students in PRME schools had

statistically significant greater opportunities to study the remaining 11 topics.

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Table 10. Opportunities for Graduate Students to Study Responsible

Management Topics Compared Between PRME and non-PRME Schools

Is your business school a PRME

Signatory?

Yes No

Opportunity to study topic in

graduate curriculum Mean (n=96) Mean (n=57)

Ethics 4.01 3.61 **

Corporate Governance 3.98 3.82

Corporate Social Responsibility 3.96 3.79

International Development 3.89 3.44 **

Sustainable Development 3.76 3.32 **

Social Entrepreneurship 3.38 2.77 ***

Environmental Sustainability 3.36 2.98 **

Public Policy/Governmental Studies 3.32 2.88 *


Relationships

3.18 2.58 ***

Political Stability 3.15 2.55 ***

Human Rights 3.00 2.46 **

Corruption 2.97 2.73

Climate Change 2.88 2.38 **

Poverty & Inequality 2.86 2.40 **

* significant at the .05 level; ** significant at the .005 level; *** significant at

the .001 level

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PERCEIVED BARRIERS – QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS

An important part of this research was to identify the challenges respondents perceived to be

either obstacles or barriers to the inclusion of poverty in their school’s current curricula,

courses or modules. We note that care was taken to explain the survey’s use of the word

“poverty.” Survey sections included this statement: “The survey uses the word ‘poverty’

broadly and refers to teaching and learning about any of the following: the base/bottom of

the pyramid, pro-poor business models, low income, subsistence or inclusive markets, etc.”

This survey section listed 23 items for respondent evaluation. The broad domains covered in

these items were program leadership, pedagogy, accreditation, employer and student

markets, funding, faculty development and curriculum. A five-point scale was used for all

items as follows: 1=not an obstacle/barrier, 2=a slight obstacle/barrier, 3=somewhat of an

obstacle/barrier, 4=a significant obstacle/barrier and 5=a very significant obstacle/barrier.

Respondents were asked to evaluate each item in terms of the degree to which it was

perceived as a barrier/obstacle in their school or program. Table 11 presents a rank ordering

by mean score of the 23 items.

Table 11. Perceived Barriers/Obstacles to the Inclusion of Poverty Discussions in

Programs, Modules, Curricula (Rank Order by Mean Scores)

Mean Std. Deviation


Outside funding support (n=328) 3.25 .068 1.240

Time to develop appropriate teaching

materials (n=329)

3.10 .067 1.213

Faculty development funds (n=329) 3.08 .070 1.308

Expectations of content coverage (i.e., no

time in current course for topic) (n=331)

3.06 .066 1.207

Knowledge of “best practices” (n=331) 2.91 .068 1.238

Knowledge of appropriate cases with

teaching notes (n=325)

2.90 .068 1.221

PhD educated faculty to teach topic

(n=352)

2.89 .069 1.296

Publication outlets for research in this area

(n=352)

2.86 .067 1.264

Employer market(s) (n=329) 2.84 .068 1.240

Faculty members willing to do research in

the area (n=352)

2.83 .067 1.255

Support from managers/administrators

outside business programs/business

school (n=327)

2.72 .069 1.251

Disciplinary norms as to topic legitimacy

(n=326)

2.63 .069 1.240

Faculty members ability to make the 2.63 .064 1.190

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business case for the topic (n=351)

Knowledge of what other

schools/programs are doing (n=350)

2.61 .068 1.263

Personal confidence to teach the topic

(n=329)

2.56 .069 1.253

Institutional culture (i.e., openness to

innovation & change) (n=329)

2.51 .072 1.302

Knowing the right place in the curriculum

for the topic (n=333)

2.47 .062 1.134

Access to external speakers/contacts

(n=350)

2.44 .068 1.278

Accreditation standards (n=347) 2.39 .071 1.326

Assessment of student learning on the

topic (n=330)

2.30 .062 1.126

Student resistance to the topic (n=332) 2.10 .058 1.061

Dean’s support for including the topic in

the curriculum (n=349)

1.97 .063 1.184

Dean’s understanding of the topic (n=351) 1.81 .060 1.128

Scale used: : 1= not an obstacle/barrier, 2=a slight obstacle/barrier, 3=somewhat of an

obstacle/barrier, 4=a significant obstacle/barrier and 5=a very significant obstacle/barrier

The greatest perceived barrier overall to the inclusion of poverty discussions in current

business programs was the lack of outside funding support. The lack of time to develop

appropriate teaching materials, along with the lack of faculty development funds and lack of

room in current courses to cover the topic, were also identified as being barriers somewhat.

Overall, respondents did not think designing assessments of student learning, outright or

covert student resistance, or lack of support from the Dean were obstacles to including

poverty discussions in courses, modules or in the curriculum.

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QUALITATIVE RESPONSES

In addition to the quantitative sections mentioned above, the survey two sections that asked

respondents to more fully explain both the challenges and the successes they have had

relative to the topic of poverty. In addition, they were asked for their perspectives on the

possible opportunities in this respect.

The first qualitative section focused on challenges. Respondents were asked to identify their

first and second greatest challenge for including the topic of poverty into their curriculum,

courses or modules. Respondents were then asked whether there was a plan for dealing with

stated challenge(s). The survey skip logic led respondents to separate questions where

respondents could either describe (a) how they or their school actually met or addressed the

challenge(s) just identified or (b) what resources they would need in the next two years to

overcome the challenge(s) identified.

The second qualitative section focused on successes. Respondents were asked to briefly

describe two success stories or success examples at either the school or course level that

illustrated how poverty issues were incorporated into the curriculum, modules, or courses.

The first qualitative section about challenges and plans resulted in 453 unique responses. The

successes section had 210 total entries.

The qualitative responses must be interpreted with care. Links between a respondent’s

quantitative evaluation of obstacles/barriers and their qualitative response (if any) have not

been made.

The pages below present some of the key findings related to challenges, solutions, and

opportunities for integrating poverty-related issues into management education.

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[The greatest obstacle is that] the

focus of our teaching disciplines often

competes with our ability to focus on

what is important… If something

doesn't help us teach the disciplines,

it faces higher hurdles for getting

funding, teaching slots, etc. We're

very rigorous, but are we relevant in

a world where most economic growth

is happening in emerging markets,

where many of our existing tools and

frameworks seem like corner cases?

We teach to and for the developed

world and ignore about 4-5 billion of

the world's citizens, because their

circumstances don't fit the

assumptions of our disciplines very

well.


United States

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CHALLENGES

This section identifies the main challenges respondents identified in the open-ended sections

of the survey.

A Need to Better Understand “Poverty”

At the highest yet most foundational level of understanding, respondents raised issues about

the term itself. What does “poverty” actually mean and what should be included in that

term? A representative comment is:

It would be necessary to have a better understanding about the term 'poverty' in a global

context and to change the mindset.

Topic Legitimacy

A strong, recurrent theme from respondents was that of topic legitimacy: Why should

“poverty” be considered a business topic at all? Representative comments include the

following:

The topic is not considered as legitimate and it is not on the radars [of stakeholders]… There is

no evidence why the subject should become part of mainstream business education, although

‘social responsibility’ and ‘sustainable development’ [are] widely accepted.

…not considered a BUSINESS topic/issue

The sense that poverty is a bit peripheral - not central to what we do as a business school.

Poverty is considered a sociology topic and is taught by the sociology department.

Business oriented topics are seen as inconsistent with a focus on poverty issues.

These are topics that are seen as more natural part of policy studies rather than business.

The nature of management education generally (focused on the bottom line) [so that]

challenges like addressing climate change, ethics, and poverty are seen as 'secondary' or even

'soft' subjects.

Not a ‘hot’ topic at the school... our school is primarily looking at business ‘growth’ models

rather than difficult social issues.

How do we justify having this course in a business school? It is the job of business to address

poverty? I may think it is, but I need to have a good argument for that and I'm not sure I do at

this exact moment.

Mindsets

Closely related to the above quotations on legitimacy, many respondents noted that

prevailing/existing mindsets/attitudes hindered poverty discussions. Some representative

comments follow:

[Our biggest challenge is] conventional mindsets around what management/business as a

discipline does/should consist of.

[We need] a different mindset and leadership.

The managers (including the Dean) and the faculty of our school don't see a reason why they

should include such topics in the curriculum.

I think it would be difficult for our University management to understand and accept that

poverty issues should be included in the MBA curriculum.

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Disciplinary Barriers/Boundaries

Respondents noted as well the primacy of the quantitative disciplines (accounting, finance

and economics) in their school/program. As such, faculty members in these disciplines were

often viewed as gatekeepers of the curriculum, often impeding inclusion of poverty-related

topics:

The dominance in business schools of very conservative finance, economics, and quantitative

disciplines, and the faculty socialized by PhD and disciplinary professional training into those

disciplines.

Creating a case for legitimacy among finance and accounting professors.

Prevailing in the teaching of Economics: Simplistic liberal concepts, focused on the pursuit of

profit and ignoring the other motives of human activity.

Closely allied with this perspective were observations that a “silo mentality” existed within

business programs/schools, similarly thwarting poverty discussions:

Faculty are entrenched in functional silos and believe students need greater depth in

functional knowledge such as accounting, finance, marketing, etc.

Dominance of 'functional' subjects.

Most faculty members remain focused on their disciplinary speciality and are protective of the

amount of their discipline covered in a general business degree; thus finding additional 'space'

for important topics is challenging.

Silo-thinking within subjects; ‘not-invented here’ resistance to topics.

Poverty issues are very cross-disciplinary and just to add a BOP-course (situated e.g. in

marketing) would not really solve the issue… We have very few true incentives for cross-

disciplinary courses.

A Congested Curriculum

A common observation was that even if faculty members were supportive of this topic, there

was simply no room within the current curriculum to place it. Respondents frequently

viewed the curriculum as a zero-sum game: If something new went in, something else would

have to be taken out:

Limitations in the number of credits within the program and the need to cover certain basic

concepts often leads to heightened competition for ‘extras.’ There is always a reason why there

isn't room for the topic.

I teach in an undergraduate-only business program. The focus of the program is basic business

knowledge. There is not much room in the curriculum to address these issues in any kind of

depth.

Not enough room in the curriculum once the core knowledge is covered.

Lack of overall agreement that our curriculum should shift to spend more time on poverty -

there are so many topics to cover, so courses and topics compete for limited time.

Finding time in the current curriculum to fit it in.

The curriculum is already congested.

Fitting poverty into an already overcrowded curriculum - the reality is to determine what

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would have to be taken out to create this space.

I think the biggest challenge is simply a matter of ‘space’ in the curricula. Many faculty

already feel we are trying to do too much (and not as well as we might like to). This is

certainly an important topic, but I think it needs to be part of a more broadly based ‘design of

curricula’ discussion - i.e., which topics will be focused upon where.

Faculty Competence and Confidence

Respondents frequently mentioned the lack of content experts to teach this topic. Often

mentioned was the need to hire new faculty members who have done research in this field.

Representative comments include the following:

[The lack of] qualified (PhD) professionals in the area.

Lack of specialists and teachers with PhDs to teach this topic, lack of interest among teachers

to do research on this topic.

The most important challenge is that we don’t have enough faculty members who can make

some business case for this topic and who are willing to do research in this area.

Above all, additional human resources, since all people are overloaded. I, for instance, lecture 5

undergraduate courses in the winter semester, while in the summer semester I have 1 course

in the undergraduate and 4 in the postgraduate programs. With all the projects, one simply

cannot find time for drastic changes. Consequently, only incremental changes happen or

people try to maintain the status quo.

Student and Employer Markets

Student and employer markets are both critically important to business schools and business

programs. Organizations want individuals who can solve problems and who can help them

achieve their organization’s mission efficiently, effectively and responsibly. Students, in turn,

want the certification that formal business education provides. Management education is the

intermediary between the two markets.

Respondents frequently noted the lack of student interest in issues related to poverty. Often

the lack of student interest was driven by respondent perceptions of job markets.

Respondents reported that students did not see any relation between poverty topics/issues

and possibilities of employment upon graduation. No demand equalled no need.

Respondents noted the following:

Neither faculty members nor the students see the need for the topic, which causes reluctance to

include the courses in [the] curriculum.

The number of MBA students, really interested is those issues, is rather limited. Most of them

look for straight business management ideas and methodologies.

There is no strong drive/demand for such teaching from the established market (students,

employers).

The most important barrier perhaps is that students may not immediately find a benefit by

way of improved placement opportunities.

Total absence of interest from the clients, i.e. MBA students.

I believe that the most significant obstacle to poverty discussions in our business school are

students' expectations. They pay money to study business, so significant attention to the

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issues of poverty in our classes is likely to puzzle them.

[The most important barrier] might be student interest: Students might ask themselves: what

is the relevance of this issue for my skills / knowledge / professional career?

Respondents often noted that employers were not asking for graduates with skill sets that

included understanding the role of business in alleviating poverty. With

businesses/employer markets showing no or limited interest in the topic, the incentives for

programs/schools of business to include poverty discussions were viewed as marginal at

best:

Business schools define their product on the basis of market demands. Market never

emphasizes the need for effective teaching in this area.

[First is] the need by local employers to see that it is important.

Being a regional university the employment for graduates is mostly in the region. Demand for

this kind of knowledge is very low.

[The most significant challenge] is employment opportunities.

There are not enough students at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels that express

sufficient interest to choose the topic as major. Students prefer courses that will enable them

[to] find employment easily.

To have enough demand to make it feasible for school to offer it, and enough demand for

graduates so they can find jobs in this field.

Accreditation

Respondents noted the influence of accreditation and accrediting bodies in curriculum,

course and module offerings:

[T]he payoff that would be most likely to get the Dean's attention would be interest on the part

of accrediting bodies.

Should accreditation bodies include poverty as part of their expectations it would make the

development of such modules much easier.

We need AACSB to acknowledge in its review processes that relevance to the world's needs is

as important as the number of peer reviewed journal articles we publish… Our school has

offered courses on business and poverty for seven years, and there has been no recognition of

that innovation in two cycles of AACSB review.

Policy coming from EQUIS, AMBA, AACSB.

We need to lead a change in industry and accreditation.

While I know of two or three colleagues who are also interested in these topics as both

opportunities for teaching innovations and for research… most are dismissive of these issues

and incorporate them only to the extent that AACSB might mandate.

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SOLUTIONS

This section presents solutions that emerged from survey respondent descriptions of their

“successes.”

Begin close to home

This is an umbrella term that captures respondent’s perspectives that they began to include

poverty-focused items/discussions in domains of interest that were literally close at hand.

These domains were typically the course(s) that the respondent already taught, the existing

faculty with whom the respondent typically interacted, and local community organizations.

The following are a representative sample of comments in each category.

Courses:

I have managed to squeeze in a reading on microfinance in the small business finance unit.

I try to spend at least 20 minutes on the topic (which may not seem like much, but it is still

much work wedging this into the course).

The plan is personal, but in my pre-grad and postgrad studies I integrate cases of

organizations that have overcome poverty and that work with their communities with that

goal in mind. I include thoughts and lectures of contemporary sociologists and philosophers

(Bauman, Lipovetsky, Sennett, Castells, Beck, among others), also movies like ‘Ressources

Humains’ (a film by Laurent Cantet), ‘Inside Job’ and ‘The Margin Call’. They help

[students] see organizational reality and to think of administrative decisions made based not

only on their financial effects but also the social ones.

Personally, I have included some case studies related to poverty in one of my courses taught at

a master program – this course is about development economics.

In my class on management I incorporate the ideals of Catholic social thought into the essence

of all business and that includes the preferential option for the poor and the concept of human

dignity.

In business ethics courses, I usually integrate a role play ‘Stakeholder Dialogue’ in supply

chains.

I teach International Human Resource Management and I educate my students into the effects

of globalization through in-sourcing and out-sourcing emphasising how labour 'flexibility'

often translates to labour insecurity for the workers it affects.

I have a course in Public Finance and one of the topics is distribution of income, poverty and

poverty reduction including poverty reduction program in Georgia. Usually I ask students to

make their presentations on the topic which we discuss in the class. But business students

don't feel that this is their field issue!

Faculty:

Formed an informal committee to discuss poverty issues.

I would like to introduce the topics to the various faculty of the school through an informal

discussion.

I plan on running sensitization and motivation workshop for this purpose.

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Community:

[W]e partnered with Assocham, an umbrella organisation of Chambers of Commerce, in a

pioneering study on successful initiatives of corporates, cooperatives, gov[ernmen]t agencies

and NGOs within a managerial framework, which was formally presented to the Prime

Minister and Gov[ernmen]t of India. This study was an eye-opener for us.

Project in which students work and play with migrant children at a child care place in our city

and at the same time evaluate their capabilities together with researchers of our university to

assess dimensions, extent and potential measures against poverty in the sense of capability

deprivation.

[We use] a business incubator that links students with community development projects - [for

example,] to aid in the generation of new or different type of income generation for

marginalized populations such as women farmers.

Collaboration with NGOs and CSOs, which deal with social entrepreneurship and education

of other NGOs and/or advocating social entrepreneurship and its impact on poverty

reduction.

Involvement with the neighbouring slum community and developing a closer relationship

with its representatives.

Leverage the co-curriculum

Respondents frequently noted that students were actively engaged with poverty issues

through co-curricular activities. Such activities included fundraising for charitable

organizations, formation of clubs and service organizations, and volunteer work in

community organizations. Leveraging the co-curriculum is a creative response to the “over

full” curriculum described in the previous section on Challenges.

While the curriculum itself does not offer much in the way of academic study of such matters,

the students get [a] semester-long hands-on [service learning] experience. Sometimes the

students even continue the relationships they form well after the courses are over.

Student associations organize charitable events for poor children at Christmas time. They also

organize humanitarian missions in Burkina Faso and Madagascar.

Students are organizing different funding campaigns to support different organizations

locally or abroad. We are, for instance, supporting the development of several villages in

Africa. Nevertheless, students had also the chance to see that poverty can also be around the

corner… and that people living next to us might be suffering… We raised money [for] a local

woman shelter in the area.

We support student-run initiatives (clubs, outreach events) that help create and nurture

community around social change and doing good. As students are attracted and validated by

their peers, they gain courage in pursuing this path.

Create service learning opportunities

Respondents also noted the role action/service learning projects played in engaging students

with poverty-based issues. Service learning projects ranged from short term projects, e.g.,

six-weeks, to long term ones, e.g., an entire semester. Selected examples follow:

Our students do a fairly extensive servant-leadership project that often provides them with

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exposure to non-profits addressing issues in poverty.

The Introduction to Management course uses service learning methods to have student

initiate a project where they raise funds. The students learn management and leadership skills,

while the money is used to fund a small NGO that sends senior students to supervise micro

finance initiatives in Uganda and Peru.

University (UD) is involved in employee volunteering activity through ENGAGE Dubai, an

initiative by Dubai Chamber. Faculty members and students actively take part in

volunteering opportunities.

Our accounting department operates a VITA program (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance)

where students work with locally impoverished individuals to prepare a tax return that will

yield them a better outcome.

We have service-learning courses that focus on justice, public-private, and other related issues.

Develop new courses/certificates

Central to all academic programs is the development/evolution of courses and other types of

academic offerings (such as short courses and certificates). Frequently, respondents

mentioned the inclusion of poverty discussions in newly created courses on sustainability,

sustainable development and social entrepreneurship. However, poverty discussions were

not only in those new, emerging domains, as the following examples indicate:

I created an undergraduate course on business and poverty… [and] was able to launch an

MBA course that has since become part of our MBA emphasis in sustainable business.

Inclusion of specific sessions [on poverty] as part of MSc in Social Responsibility and

Sustainability.

This academic year I have started to teach new course ‘Social Corporate Responsibility’, which

is devoted to issues of CSR history, CSR advantages for companies, CSR models, CSR in

Corporate Governance, CSR in market activity, [etc.]. Into this course I have used… eight

case studies of companies’ best practice in different fields of CSR including practice of fight

with poverty in Ukraine.

We just started a Social Entrepreneurship major and MBA concentration.

New course this fall… on social impact. Competitive application for 12 qualified and

interdisciplinary students to focus on water quality in developmental contexts and the

consumer viability and micro-venture potential for a water low-cost/low-tech purifier.

We have added concentrations in social entrepreneurship in both our undergraduate and

graduate programs. These concentrations have allowed our students to consider deeply the

intersection of business with issues of poverty often with students from other disciplines.

We are introducing interdisciplinary UG minors that draw heavily from existing humanities

courses exploring many of the BoP root issues. UG students gain greater exposure to the

subject through this minor.

We have created a Sustainability Certificate, introduce[d] new curricula, and host high-profile

speakers to energize students in this direction.

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Mandate involvement

Respondents from some schools noted a very direct way in which they engaged students

with the issue of poverty: They made either a course or a service/action learning project a

requirement for graduation. Respondents said:

My university has a compulsory course on doing a civil service independent of what the

department student is attending.

The school requires that all undergraduate students gain a first-hand experience on

community-based projects for the needy (whom you would say are poor, etc.).

Every student has to carry a project addressing corporate social responsibility (like raising

funds for the fight against AIDS, for the fight against poverty or hunger, etc.).

All students have to complete a 6-week stay at their own expense, with a rural NGO and

prepare a study report on live managerial problems affecting the NGO for 3 course credits. All

students also must mentor a 7th Standard slum child to enable goal-setting for the child and

compassion/understanding among our students. We believe that our students become better

managers with sound social values.

Students are encouraged to improve the lives of the needy in community-based projects both

locally and abroad. This is part of their graduation requirement.

Introduction of compulsory courses in graduate programs: The first compulsory course all of

our students [is a course that] emphasizes Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. By

these means, the school starts to encourage students to act with a constructive attitude

towards poverty, not just studying it but also taking a step forward to provide solutions. The

course, "Enterprise, Society and the State," is compulsory for our MBA students and elective

for the other graduate programs. This course is intended to give students the whole perspective

to deal with poverty and other common issues of our reality, [including] the joint efforts of the

enterprise, the society and the State.

Leverage PRME

Some respondents noted that participation in PRME, itself, created opportunities to discuss

poverty-related issues. For example:

We use the PRME-initiative to comprehensively integrate Sustainability and BoP issues in

our curricula and research.

We use the PRME-initiatives to convince our colleagues.

2-3 professors incorporating some aspects of PRME into their courses.

A faculty member is playing a significant role in the UN Working Group in this area. It is

beginning to permeate our discussions - especially with respect to the PRME.

Legitimize the topic

As noted in the previous section on Challenges, obstacles to the inclusion of poverty in the

curriculum, courses and modules were varied. These barriers involved resistance from key

stakeholders (students, employers, faculty both within and outside of business). Also, there

were complex issues related to disciplinary and cross-disciplinary boundaries and

curricular/course/module design. Respondents reflected the complex reality of management

education by citing a number of different strategies used to legitimize the topic of poverty in

their schools and programs. Selected examples include the following:

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Students are encouraged to think about Bottom of the Pyramid (or relevant concepts) when

they search for a master thesis.

Increasing integration of social innovation themes within core curriculum. Establishment of a

funded centre for social innovation. (Note: social innovation to broadly include creative

organizational responses to social and environmental problems and possibilities.)

A dedicated center of expertise in Social & Solidarity-based Economics percolates the way

[poverty] topics are dealt with, producing a strong basis in terms of knowledge.

We started an annual speaker series in spring 2009, called Global Problems & Solutions

Colloquium… The colloquium brings thought leaders and leading practitioners to share their

struggles with our students and faculty in figuring out solutions to some of the world's most

pressing problems… The cross-disciplinary and cross-sector interactions were wonderful

unintended consequences of this innovation.

[T]he invitation to write a Master thesis on related topics.

We host a bi-annual "Business and Global Poverty" conference that focuses on the role of

business in alleviating poverty.

Every year, our MBA students organize a Social Responsibility Forum that lasts 2 full days,

attracts international participation, and promotes these issues widely within the school.

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OPPORTUNITIES

This section of the report summarizes respondent perspectives on “what needs doing next”

to move the discussion about management educations role in - and relationship to - poverty

alleviation forward.

Build a strong business case

One respondent, as noted in the Challenges section of this report, got to the essence of things.

This respondent summarized both the challenge and the implied opportunity thusly:

How do we justify having this course in a business school? It is the job of business to address

poverty? I may think it is, but I need to have a good argument for that and I'm not sure I do at

this exact moment.

Many respondents echoed that sentiment. Selected variations on this theme follow:

Without a compelling case, it is unlikely that my faculty would be engaged with a change.

I [need] to hear from an international perspective why it is important to address this issue.

There is a lack of recognition of its value and the topic is generally reduced to an issue of

public service or civil society.

A need is not created.

Lack of understanding [of] the need for poverty topics in management education.

We don’t have enough faculty members who can make some business case for this topic.

All attempts to do so in executive education programs have failed so far due to the academic,

not practical business case, being presented.

Create a case for legitimacy.

Collectively, these statements suggest there is a need for a strong, compelling business

rationale for thinking about poverty as a business topic. In short, what’s needed is a business

case.

Find champions

Champions are individuals who advocate for ideas/ approaches that are innovative,

disruptive, overlooked and/or disparaged. Champions are change agents. Respondents

identified the need for champions as follows:

I guess lack of a champion (at any level) is probably the key missing ingredient.

[We need] faculty champions.

The issue of poverty would have to be top of mind... a faculty member or student grassroots

group would have to ‘champion’ the idea and its importance.

Change attitudes of stakeholders

Closely linked with above need for champions is the need to change stakeholder attitudes.

As noted in the Challenges section of this report, topic legitimacy is a critical barrier.

Respondents noted that without changes in stakeholder attitudes, forward motion on this

issue will be limited:

Change [the] mindset of everyone from faculty to the President.

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34

Overarching global campaign aimed at changing attitudes of the executives of the boards &

senior management of privately owned institutions.

[What’s needed is] attitudinal change of students and more participation for the prime

stakeholders who are the recruiters.

We have to do two things for our Dean and teachers: 1. Convince them that a certain part of

their courses can and should be given to poverty discussion. 2. Educate them on how to do it.

[We need] commitment from the administration and the need by local employers to see that it

is important.

Should accreditation bodies include poverty as part of their expectations it would make the

development of such modules much easier.

All resources needed to raise awareness of the importance of the topic first to policy makers,

then to the leadership of the education institutions.

Share best practices

Knowledge of best practices helps organizations learn. By making explicit “what works,”

organizations are able to learn from each other, thereby shortening their own organizational

learning cycles. Selected respondent comments on the need for knowing best practices are

these:

We have to study best practices: how do other business schools persuade their students to

accept poverty discussions in business education?

Information exchange on teaching - materials, best practices and so on - will be of great help.

Time and expert advice from schools that have successfully incorporated poverty into their

curriculum.

Easier access to best practices from other schools.

Knowledge of best practices for teaching the topic.

Find the right terms and language

Respondents also affirmed the importance of not only finding the right vocabulary so that

shared and common meaning can develop but also of using that common vocabulary

effectively within and outside the academy:

It is a challenge to find the right vocabulary/language to talk about poverty in the business

schools and discuss the ‘value’ and ‘opportunities’ associated with considering it in the

curriculum.

‘Poverty’ is not a very attractive subject – ‘sustainability’ may be more engaging.

Companies might be interested in the topic but they might not call it with the same vocabulary

that we have (a common vocabulary is yet to develop to clarify what is BoP, what is pro-poor,

what is CSR etc., how they are related and how they are different)… When I asked a MNC if

they have a project for the poor, they referred me to CSR department; but later when I asked

them what project they have for rural markets, then I found [out] about their business

projects.

Develop corporate partnerships

Respondents noted the prima facie need to have closer working relationship with

corporations:

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35

We also need help gaining access to organizations working on issues at the interface between

poverty and business.

We need more projects with companies.

[L]ook for champion companies that wish to share their experiences and spread their cases.

Some kind of industry partnership.

Conduct relevant research

Respondents noted the need for more research related to poverty issues/topics.

[Number 1 barrier is] proper research of the topic.

[We need to] develop and encourage active research funding applications.

The most important obstacle is lack of funds for research in poverty-related topics.

Adequate funding should be provided in the form of postdoctoral training, grants or research

projects.

A lack of funding in order to research and develop this aspect within the institution.

We need resources for research.

Create new teaching materials

Similarly, new topics and what is perceived to be a new content area requires new teaching

materials:

[We need] the books and the study material to back the issues.

Try to find cases and curriculum models that could be incorporated into current class

offerings.

Knowledge of appropriate case studies.

Instructional materials and good case studies.

A good "thought piece" published in a top managerial journal would be helpful to kick-off the class.

An outside contribution in this area would be most welcome. The course would start with

foreign materials and, in a few years, they would be gradually replaced by domestic materials.

I think that the most important aspect is to give more adequate material to faculty materials to

which the can refer to. At the moment, case studies, textbooks are not picking [up] on the

subject.

More electronic cases and forum access for staff and students to share ideas and views.

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[T]he main problem at my university is

that there is no interest, because there’s

the belief that successful models are the

ones worth studying. When a very poor

person has some success with a

microenterprise and makes a living for,

say, ten years, nobody notices. When

somebody starts a business and ten

years later they have a company with

US$1 million in sales and two dozen

employees, everybody wants to know

why it was so “successful”. Of course,

the first case is successful because a

whole family could subsist and

probably will subsist for many more

years close to a poverty level, even if the

owner isn’t considered successful. In

the second case, the company may go

broke at any moment, lay off the

employees and in turn they’ll go back to

poverty. Still, it’s the second case that

university students are interested in.


Puerto Rico

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PRME-RELATED IMPLICATIONS/ REFLECTIONS

This section uses the six Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) to present

survey implications and reflections.

Principle 1 – Purpose: We will develop the capabilities of students to be future

generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an

inclusive and sustainable global economy.

This survey, as well as previous surveys carried out by CEEMAN and the PRME Anti-

Poverty Working Group in 2008 and 2010, reflects a growing awareness among management

educators and business school administrators around the globe that the need for sustainable

development and responsible leadership has never been greater – and that the expectations

from business education and leadership development institutions are also higher than ever.

Business schools, as the main providers of educational services, as well as their associations

and other stakeholders, not only need to act on their own but also need to exchange views

and ideas as well as collaborate and develop new ways and means to achieve sustainable

development and develop responsible leadership for a better world. In this context, fighting

poverty is not only one of the major Millennium Development Goals, but also a big challenge

for all of management education’s stakeholders.

The results are a reminder that businesses and business schools do share a common purpose,

since markets are at the center of all economic activity, yet that the need to develop inclusive

markets is sometimes hindered by language and perspective.

Principle 2 – Values: We will incorporate into our academic activities and

curricula the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international

initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact.

The study shows that both undergraduate and graduate students have more opportunities to

study other topics in the area of responsible management than they have to study poverty-

related topics.

The main challenges in this context include: still insufficient legitimacy of the topic,

prevailing mindsets and attitudes, disciplinary barriers/boundaries and the related “silo”

mentality, a congested curriculum, student and employer markets, the lack of faculty

competence and confidence, in addition to the lack of external incentives from international

accreditation and ranking schemes.

There are also numerous solutions in this area. These include integration of poverty-related

issues into already existing courses, both those related to a broader area of responsible

management as well as those that are considered as core management courses. These

solutions also include the development of new courses, either under the umbrella of CSR

and responsible management, or as various interdisciplinary courses on Base of the Pyramid

issues, or as topics such as business and poverty, social entrepreneurship, social impact, etc.

In addition, leveraging the co-curriculum takes place in a number of different and innovative

Final Report



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ways and serves as another response to the “over full” curriculum. Encouraging students to

integrate Base of the Pyramid issues into their master theses is an additional solution.

It is encouraging that some of the above-mentioned solutions were facilitated by faculty and

institutional involvement in PRME.

Among the opportunities in these areas particularly important are those related to building

a stronger business case and increasing the legitimacy for including poverty into educational

programs and curricula. Finding the right terms and language to be used within and outside

the academia is another opportunity with a strong potential.

Another important opportunity relates to faculty champions. This is consistent with the

findings of the first WG survey which indicated that the strongest facilitating factors for

including discussions of global poverty in a school were (a) having one or two faculty

champions; (b) strong leadership from the dean; (c) congruence with the business school’s

mission; and (d) support from the entire faculty.

Principle 3 – Method: We will create educational frameworks, materials,

processes and environments that enable effective learning experiences for

responsible leadership.

Among the main challenges related to the learning frameworks, materials, processes and

environments related to the integration of poverty-related issues into management

education, were the following: dominance of “functional” subjects, the lack of faculty

competence and confidence, the inter-disciplinary character of the topic, the lack of

appropriate cases, text-books and other learning materials, and insufficient knowledge of

best practices for teaching the topic.

Solutions in these areas are also encouraging and confirm a major finding of the WG’s

second global survey: That innovation in teaching methods is occurring globally around the

issue of poverty. Poverty-related cases are increasingly included in various courses, and

students are more and more being asked to make presentations or take part in debates, role

plays and other interactive learning methods. Invited speakers, along with the organization

of thematic conferences and events, are also good examples for this. Particularly important

are service learning opportunities, project works, student-led campaigns, events and other

initiatives and volunteering activities, including those co-organized with the local

communities and bodies. Some of these activities are mandatory, so they directly request

students to engage with the issue of poverty.

The study identified numerous opportunities in this area. Among them are those related to

creating new teaching materials, sharing best practices, creating electronic platforms and

forums for sharing ideas among faculty and students, faculty development, as well as

developing corporate and community partnerships.

Collectively, survey responses under Principle 3 support the need for the Collection of Best

Practices and Inspirational Solutions, a document that has been developed as a complement to

this report.

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Principle 4 – Research: We will engage in conceptual and empirical research that

advances our understanding about the role, dynamics, and impact of corporations

in the creation of sustainable social, environmental and economic value.

The field of research has come out as one of the main challenges and at the same time also

main opportunities related to integrating poverty-related issues into management

education.

Previously mentioned issues of the legitimacy of the topic, and the related lack of

understanding and even appropriate vocabulary, have to do with the lack of respective

research. On the other hand this is closely related to the lack of funding, the lack of time, the

interdisciplinary nature of the topic, the lack of faculty competence and confidence, as well

as other self-imposed internal and external limitations, including international accreditation.

Principle 5 - Partnership: We will interact with managers of business

corporations to extend our knowledge of their challenges in meeting social and

environmental responsibilities and to explore jointly effective approaches to meeting

these challenges.

One of the main challenges identified in the survey was the questionable legitimacy of the

topic of poverty for management education, and the lack of interest in student and employer

markets.

Solutions that include various forms of partnerships with business partners, social

entrepreneurs, business incubators, cooperatives, local and international NGOs,

governmental agencies and local community seem to provide answers for many of the above

mentioned challenges. Partnership benefits also include opportunities for bringing real-life

experience and business practice into the classroom, for inviting speakers from the corporate

world to serve on panels and participate in conferences on the role of business in alleviating

poverty, as well as for sponsoring centres for social innovation at business schools.

Partnerships are also seen as a great opportunity for changing the mindsets and attitudes of

all stakeholders – equally those from the corporate world and the management education

community. Quite often business schools have a wrong perception of what the educational

market needs and wants are. Bringing faculty champions together with corporate champions

could have a high synergy-making potential.

Principle 6 – Dialogue: We will facilitate and support dialog and debate among

educators, students, business, government, consumers, media, civil society

organizations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related

to global social responsibility and sustainability.

Challenges, solutions and opportunities in the area of partnerships indicate the need for a

wider and more intensive dialogue among all stakeholders, interest groups and social

partners on the role that businesses as well as management education could and should play

in both fighting poverty and achieving the first Millennium Development Goal.

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40

Particularly important in this respect is the fact that some respondents in the survey noted

that participation in PRME itself created opportunities to discuss poverty-related issues. This

is an important opportunity with a huge potential to help:

a. Individual schools to start and/or lead poverty-related initiatives for their own

organizations

b. Groups of schools and their stakeholders to collaborate together on projects related to

integrating poverty-related issues into management education; and

c. PRME as an initiative to further enhance its value as a learning and action network

for the purpose of fighting poverty through management education.

In this context, the Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education will

continue to facilitate dialog and implementation of the report’s main findings and

recommendations.

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41

APPENDICES

Table A. Cross Tabulation of Private/Public Status by Accreditation

Accreditation

Total

AACSB EQUIS CEEMAN

IQA

AMBA

Public School 20 19 4 26 69

Private School 24 12 18 32 86

Total 44 31 22 58 155

Table B. Cross Tabulation of the Mix of International to National Students by

Accreditation

Accreditation

Total

AACSB EQUIS CEEMAN

IQA

AMBA

Completely international

student body

1 3 4 8 16

Predominantly international

student body

3 5 2 10 20

Predominantly national

student body

39 22 12 34 107

Completely national student

body

1 1 4 6 12

Total 44 31 22 58 155

Table C presents the five items that respondents affiliated with public programs perceived to

be a greater barrier/obstacle to the inclusion of poverty discussion in their school/program

than respondents affiliated with private schools/programs.

Table C. Analysis of Variance between Public and Private Programs and Perceived

Obstacles/Barriers to Inclusion of Poverty in Programs

Sum of

Sq.

df Mean

Sq.

F Sig.

Faculty

members willing

to do research in

the area

Between

Groups

(Combined) 6.209 1 6.209 3.98 .047

Within Groups 475.576 305 1.559

Total 481.785 306

Accreditation

standards

Between

Groups

(Combined) 9.117 1 9.117 5.28 .022

Within Groups 518.092 300 1.727

Total 527.209 301

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Knowing the

right place in the

curriculum for

the topic

Between

Groups

(Combined) 7.469 1 7.469 5.95 .015

Within Groups 380.682 303 1.256

Total 388.151 304

Institutional

culture (i.e.,

openness to

innovation &

change)

Between

Groups

(Combined) 8.544 1 8.544 5.16 .024

Within Groups 496.794 300 1.656

Total 505.338 301

Do you or your

school have a

plan for

addressing/over

coming this

challenge,

obstacle or

barrier?

Between

Groups

(Combined) 2.265 1 2.265 3.89

2

.049

Within Groups 177.520 305 .582

Total 179.785 306

www.ceeman.org

www.unprme.org

May 2012

http://www.ceeman.org/

http://www.unprme.org/

Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education A Compendium of Teaching Resources

2012

Sponsored by the PRME Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education

Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education

C O L L E C T I O N I N T R O D U C T I O N

The goal of this Collection is to provide short summaries of “what works” when it comes to integrating the issue of poverty into management education. The audience for this collection is the global community of teachers, scholars, institutional and program leaders at schools, colleges and educational programs, who are interested in this topic. The emphasis on successful experiences is a unique feature of this Collection.

Collection entries follow a standard format. They are one page in length. Each entry identifies an item by name, summarizes the item’s content, identifies the course and course level in which the item was or could be used, presents learning goals for the item, describes the personal experiences of the author with the item and provides a URL if the item is accessible online. Hyperlinks in the table below will take you the first entry in a category. The Collection is comprised of the following thirteen categories.

Activity type Beginning Section

Cases Click here

Journal articles Click here

Books /Book chapters Click here

Non-academic articles Click here

Video or films Click here

Pictures Click here

Active learning activities Click here

Major projects or assignments

Invited Speakers/Lecture Series Click here

Online activities Click here

Courses Click here

Programs /Modules Click here

Research

If you would like to contribute to the Collection, please send your contribution to: [email protected]


CASE

Case Name The Sweetest Business of Nestlé Venezuela: El Dulce Negocio

URL http://www.globalens.com/casedetail.aspx?cid=1429090

Course Global Marketing

Course Level MBA

Brief description This case describes how Nestlé targeted low income housewives in

Venezuela to increase sales of their sweetened and evaporated canned

milk products. Nestlé chose sweetened milk because many other milk

products had price caps set by the Venezuelan government. Nestlé’s final

strategy was to encourage low income women to become entrepreneurs:

bakers. Nestlé supported women with baking sessions, videos and trial

products (especially sweetened milk) so that these women could run a

successful cake business from their homes.

Learning points (1) Introduce students to low income consumers in a country outside India or Africa (2) Illustrate the holistic way Nestlé thought about its low income target market (3) Stress the value of consumer psychographic profiles that are discussed in the case narrative

Experiences I teach this case to stress the importance of having a detailed consumer profile for low income consumers. This takes marketing strategy out of the impersonal, abstract realm and forces students to connect with real individuals and to think about their daily lives. I also show two video clips of Nestlé’s training videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK8nNfExyWQ (Tres Leche [Three Milks]); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mlqd-f0erM&feature=related (Lemon pie). There is also an English language summary of El Dulce Negocio, which seems to be produced by Nestlé: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71jEE7Wpq-A.

Submitted by Al Rosenbloom, Professor, Dominican University, USA,

[email protected]

http://www.globalens.com/casedetail.aspx?cid=1429090

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK8nNfExyWQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mlqd-f0erM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mlqd-f0erM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71jEE7Wpq-A

mailto:[email protected]


CASE

Case Name The family of sago producers in Pak Phanang, Southern

Thailand

URL http://www.researchshed.com/2010/08/management-education-and-

poverty.html

Course Sustainability in Business, Business Ethics, International Management

Course Level 1-5

Brief description This case looks at the circumstances of a family living in Southern Thailand, who have access to sago wood. The family is very poor, and they are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through processing the natural sago surrounding their house, while trying to diversify their produce and develop their supply chains.

Learning goal(s) The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted options faced by families living in real poverty, and to enable the students to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for poor people to enhance their economic welfare.

Experiences Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore ways in which the family can enhance their income from sago production, while retaining the integrity of the natural environment.

Submitted by Mark Neal, PhD, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of

London, UK, [email protected], http://www.markneal.com

http://www.researchshed.com/2010/08/management-education-and-poverty.html



http://www.markneal.com/


CASE

Case Name A Community of Weavers in Southern Thailand


poverty.html


Course Level 1-5

Brief description This case looks at the circumstances of a traditional community of weavers living in Southern Thailand, who are reliant upon these traditional skills for income. The community is very poor, and they are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through diversifying their products, and developing their supply chains.

Learning goal(s) The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted options faced by people living in real poverty, and to enable the students to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for poor people to enhance their economic welfare.

Experiences Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore ways in which the community members can enhance their income through diversifying their products, and developing their supply chains, while retaining the integrity of the natural environment.








CASE

Case Name A Community of Rice Farmers in Southern Thailand


poverty.html


Course Level 1-5

Brief description This case looks at the circumstances of people living in a village in Southern Thailand, which relies upon rice farming for its income. The community is very poor, and its people are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through developing their farming methods, their rice milling processes and supply chains.

Learning goal(s) The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted options faced by people living in real poverty, and to enable the students to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for poor people to enhance their economic welfare.

Experiences Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore ways in which the farmers can enhance their income through developing their farming methods, their rice milling processes and their supply chains, while retaining the integrity of the natural environment.








CASE

Case Name Microfinance in a Community of Small-Holder Farmers in Rural

Cambodia


poverty.html


Course Level 1-5

Brief description This case looks at the circumstances of people living in a farming village in rural Cambodia. The community is very poor, and its people are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through developing their farming methods and supply chains. The case looks at how a microfinance scheme supports them in these endeavors.

Learning goal(s) The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted options faced by people living in real poverty; and to enable students to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for poor people to enhance their economic welfare. In this particular case, an aim is to enable students to evaluate the effectiveness of microfinance in these circumstances.

Experiences Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore ways in which the farmers can enhance their income through developing their farming methods and their supply chains, while retaining the integrity of the natural environment. They also find it interesting to examine and evaluate the impact that microfinance is having in these circumstances.








CASE

Case Name Eco-tourism home-stays on the Mekong, Cambodia


poverty.html


Course Level 1-5

Brief description This case looks at the circumstances faced by people living in a riverside village in rural Cambodia, which has traditionally been reliant for its welfare on fishing and agriculture. The community is very poor, and its people are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through developing eco-tourism home stays on the banks of the river Mekong. The case looks at how a microfinance scheme supports them in these endeavors, and it examines the effects that the eco-tourism initiative is having on the life of the village.

Learning goal(s) The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted options faced by people living in real poverty; and to enable the students to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for poor people to enhance their economic welfare. In this particular case, an aim is to enable students to evaluate the effectiveness of microfinance in these circumstances.

Experiences Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore ways in which the villagers can enhance their income through engaging in eco-tourism, while retaining the integrity of the natural environment. Students also find it interesting to examine and evaluate the impact that microfinance is having in these circumstances.








CASE

Case Name The Muslim fishing village in Pak Phanang, Thailand


poverty.html

Course Sustainability in Business, Business Ethics, International Management.

Course Level 1-5

Brief description This case looks at the circumstances faced by people living in a village in Southern Thailand, who are reliant upon fishing as a livelihood. The village is very poor, and its people are currently trying to enhance their livelihood through developing their fishing methods, and diversifying their produce.

Learning goal(s) The overall goal of the case is to sensitize students to the restricted

options faced by people living in real poverty; and to enable the students

to discuss the tensions between the natural environment, and the need for

poor people to enhance their economic welfare.

Experiences Classes respond well to this case. They find it interesting trying to explore

ways in which the village can enhance its economic welfare from fishing,

while retaining the integrity of the natural environment.








CASE

Case Name McKague, K. and Branzei, O. (2007). E+Co: The Path to Scale. London, ON: Ivey Business School Publishing

URL

Course

Course Level Upper Level Undergraduate and MBA

Brief description A case on an organization, E+Co, which financed renewable energy entrepreneurs in the developing world. The case orients students to the challenges and issues of providing clean energy to the 1.6 billion people in the world without it and outlines the challenges E+Co faces to go from 1 million people served with clean energy to 100 million.

Learning goal(s) A major challenge for all social enterprises is reaching scale, both in their social and environmental impact as well as in financial self-sustainability. This case stimulates students to think about very practical strategies for how E+Co can reach scale.

Experiences

Submitted by Kevin McKague, President, Foundation for Sustainable Enterprise and Development, Canada, [email protected]



CASE

Case Name McKague, K. and Branzei, O. (2007). City Water Tanzania. London, ON: Ivey Business School Publishing

URL

Course

Course Level Upper level undergraduate or MBA

Brief description This multi-part case illustrates the types of ongoing tensions and divergent decision angles which influence the formation and performance of public-private partnerships. It also provides a rich and graphic account of the special threats and opportunities in the water sector – a wealth of complementary teaching resources can also stimulate larger debates, by juxtaposing the case decision with a broader crisis of confidence in for-profit solution to water and sewage provision in Africa (Nigerian and South African strikes precipitated the break-up of City Water) and Latin America (Cochabamba, Bolivia; Kibera, Nigeria). The case can also be used to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of conditional aid in an international business class. The case requires a grasp of fundamental principles of strategy, policy, and international business.

Learning goal(s) 1) To illustrate and debate the role of private sector initiatives in reaching the tenth Millennium Development Goal target - “to cut in half, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation”.

2) To discuss specific goals and challenges of public-private sector partnerships in providing clean water and sanitation in developing countries.

3) To provide an example of failure. 4) To help students work through, and develop a fine-grained

understanding and appreciation of how companies could respond to demands for improved water supply and sanitation.




CASE

Case Name Value Chain Development: CARE Kenya’s Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor. London, ON: Ivey Business School Publishing

URL

Course


Brief description Case A examines how CARE, a non-profit international development organization, begins to pursue a market-based approach to meeting its poverty-reduction mission. Specifically, George Odo, a CARE project manager and the case’s chief protagonist, explores how previous work with low-income livestock herders in drought-prone eastern Kenya might offer an opportunity to work with value chain actors to improve access to markets and increase farmer incomes. With the Kenyan livestock project as the pilot for this new approach, Case A’s main decision point concerns a strategic choice regarding the role CARE should play in the value chain to support low-income pastoralists. Options include: 1) becoming directly involved in value chain transactions, buying and selling livestock and providing inputs to farmers, or 2) acting as a value chain facilitator to provide the information and incentives to existing actors to make the value chain more efficient and inclusive for low-income producers. This strategic decision is part of a larger proposal students are tasked to create for CARE’s market-based livestock project. Case B describes the decisions CARE actually made in structuring the project and its choice to become directly involved in the value chain, buying cattle from farmers, negotiating a deal with a large farm to fatten the cattle and transporting the cattle to market. Case B is set three years into the project and describes some of the serious challenges CARE’s strategy faces. Case B’s decision point concerns developing options for how the project can be turned around, including CARE possibly playing an indirect role as value chain facilitator and catalyst.

Learning goal(s) 1: Value Chain Conceptualization 2: Value Chain Mapping 3: Value Chain Roles 4: Understanding the Movement in the International Development Community Toward More Market-based Approaches 5: To Provide an Example of Learning from Failure And Changing Course Based on Difficult Experience




CASE

Case Name Habib, A., Gulamani, S., Lau, B., Lesau, O. and McKague, K. (2010). IRC in Sierra Leone: The Path to Scale for an Alternative Microfranchising Model. Ann Arbor, MI: William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan

URL

Course

Course Level Upper Level Undergraduate or MBA

Brief description This case examines how the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a non-profit international development organization, develops a unique microfranchising model and explores the challenges and opportunities for refining it and taking it to scale. The case decision maker is Barri Shorey, the IRC manager responsible for piloting the model over its first year of operation. Students are given the background, successes and challenges of the pilot to date and are asked to consider their strategy for establishing the effectiveness and sustainability of the initiative in the future.

Learning goal(s) 1. Understanding microfranchising. The origins of the concept and its relation to social enterprise and microfinancing. 2. The path to scale begins with refining the microfranchising model. One of the important lessons to be brought out is the importance of further refining, testing, and systematizing IRC’s microfranchising model before scaling it up. 3. Goal Clarification. At this early stage, the project could be taken in a number of directions, and it will be important to ensure the goals of the initiative are clear, so that these can be aligned with strategy and decisions around youth recruitment, staffing, monitoring and evaluation, levels of support, and partner selection. 4. Moving beyond subsistence. Starting from low levels of business knowledge and experience, the IRC project needs to consider how to move youth beyond subsistence petty trading activities. This includes both growth and financing options for the microfranchises. 5. Training and capacity building. For youth that want to grow their businesses, training and capacity building in business skills are essential. This can also be achieved through developing mentoring and business networks. 6. Franchisor support. Often with limited financial and business capacity themselves, franchisor businesses would benefit (as would their youth franchisees) from business development support.




ARTICLE

Author + Title John Ireland, Lessons for successful BOP marketing from Caracas’ slums

Publication Title Journal of Consumer Marketing, 25/7 (2008), pp. 430–438

Course International Marketing

Course Level Undergraduate

Brief description This article describes the challenges of marketing to urban slum dwellers.

It uses the Caracas’ slums to illustrate how some firms have successfully

marketed their products/services to urban slum residents. A marketing

mix (4 P) framework is used to structure the ideas presented.

Learning points 1) Low income individuals living in urban environments are different

from low income individuals living in rural/dispersed environments

2) Because of point 1, successful firms cannot simply transplant

successful BOP strategies from rural environments (such as India) into

urban environments

3) Firms targeting urban slum dwellers can take advantage of structural

aspects of urban life: saturated media, transportation systems, high

density living and proximity to establish product outlets

Experiences I have students read this article after foundational articles by Prahalad

and Hart. I use the article to contrast the “first wave” of BOP thinking,

which focused on India and rural markets, with “second wave” thinking

about low income, urban markets. I have students work in class in teams

to contrast “Rural BOP Markets” with “Urban BOP Markets.” This task

uncovers most points in the article. One conclusion from this reading is

that urban slum dwellers take advantage of structural aspects of living in

a large city and use these things (proximity to shopping malls, public

transit, brand building through TV/radio) to shop for products. Students

come to understand that urban slum dweller consumer behavior

converges, in some ways, to a more standard “marketing mix” approach.

I also like the article because it reminds students that BOP consumers are

everywhere – not just in rural India and Africa.

The Casas Bahia case can be used in conjunction with this article. This

case, about a successful Brazilian retailer of electronic equipment, can be

found in CK Prahalad’s book, Finding Fortune at the Bottom of the

Pyramid, as well as on line at

http://www.globalens.com/casedetail.aspx?cid=1429148.


[email protected]

http://www.globalens.com/casedetail.aspx?cid=1429148



ARTICLE

Author + Title Juan Alejandro Cortes-Ramirez, “The miracle fruit”: how a cooperative of fruit producers has vanquished poverty and brought peace and development to a small village in Colombia

Publication Title International Journal of Case Method Research & Application, XXIII(1), 22 – 30.

Course Organizational Theory and Design

Course Level Graduate

Brief description This article presents an innovative intervention by a fruit producers’ cooperative called Asofrutas located in the region of Antioquia, Colombia. The article examines how this cooperative overcame the challenges of poverty and achieved a greatly improved standard of living in a village once plagued by violence. Cooperative members developed these capabilities through the intervention and assistance of Corporation Prodepaz, an organization that supports community projects for self-sustainability.

Learning goals 1. Reality can be more interesting than fiction. This fruit producers’ association achieves the ideal of a human centered management.

2. It is a goal to reflect upon local society and management theory and answer how is that this small organization can achieve so much with so many resources?, why others organization with big budgets and plenty of resources do not achieve the same in comparative terms?

3. Another goal is to think about what are the challenges and barriers that prevent managers to act within the boundaries of social justice.

Experiences The first time students read this article and I present additional facts and pictures about Asofrutas. They entered into some kind of magical realism narrative, like an altered reality. But the truth is that this is only two hours away driving from their homes. Most of my graduate students work for private companies and (although social problems are evident once one transit the streets of Medellín), they do not care so much for this problems, sometimes phrases like “those are state problems”, “social security institutions must take care of that”, arises on the debate, but when they are confronted to this small organization and learned how they have displaced violence, brought life-quality and vanquished poverty on its community just by running this association, then is when the reflection emerges. The debate is enriched by the complementary works and perspectives of authors like Amartya Sen the social justice perspective), Manuel Castells (the power perspective), Zygmunt Bauman, Gilles Lipovetsky (the ethical and postmodern point of view), Omar Aktouf (a critical perspective on management). The main conclusions are oriented in the way that simple actions can really contribute to restorative justice, and that companies, no matter they size, are responsible to bring those actions of well-being specially in this new democracy times.

Submitted by Juan Alejandro Cortes-Ramirez, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Colombia, [email protected]



ARTICLE

Article Citation McKague, K. (2011). Dynamic Capabilities of Institutional Entrepreneurship. Journal of Enterprising Communities, Vol. 5, No. 1: 11-28

Course


Brief description To explore the dynamic capabilities which may be important for changing the practices and assumptions about the role of business in development, the article investigates a high-profile project at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) known as the Growing Inclusive Markets (GIM) initiative. The GIM initiative is described by the UNDP as “a new multi-stakeholder initiative that strives to study, understand and share with the broader development and business communities ways in which the pursuits of profit and human progress can work to mutual advantage.” This concept that ‘profit and human progress can work to mutual advantage’ is a significant departure from historical assumptions of the UNDP and many other organizations in the business community and the development community. Before the 1990s, business was typically seen as a major contributor to the problems of human development rather than a source of solutions and the UN’s work on “Transnational Corporations” sought to limit the unchecked power of large companies operating across international boundaries. Many organizations within the business community continue to hold the view that engaging in socially or environmentally related activities with the poor is something best understood through the lens of charity or corporate social responsibility. At the same time, many organizations within the development and civil society communities continue to strongly hold the view that business is a major problem of underdevelopment and not part of a solution. Contrary to these “common understandings” and entrenched “ideologies”, the UNDP’s GIM initiative sought to fundamentally change these views towards an understanding that the private sector can be an important part of the solution to underdevelopment and that engaging with the poor as suppliers or customers can be fundamentally good for business.

Learning goals This paper both traces the UN’s history in working with companies (from seeing them as part of the problem of poverty to part of the solution). It also identifies specific capabilities that the UNDP had to develop and practice in order to facilitate including business as one of its main stakeholder groups.




ARTICLE

Article Citation McKague, K. (2012). Bangladesh’s Rural Sales Program: Towards a Scalable Rural Sales Agent Model for the Distribution of Socially Beneficial Goods to the Poor. Social Enterprise Journal. Vol. 8, (1).


Brief description Purpose of the article In Bangladesh, 30% of the population lives beyond the 'last mile' of traditional distribution networks and serving this rural low-income population with socially useful goods is a huge challenge. One of the most innovative and successful cases of its kind in the world, a social enterprise rural distribution model originally developed by CARE Bangladesh and the Bata Shoe Company illustrates the possibility of combining market-based solutions to poverty with socially responsible business growth. Design/methodology/approach This in-depth case study was developed over the course of three field visits to Bangladesh between November 2009 and September 2010 based on 25 face-to-face interviews with rural sales women, Bata employees and CARE staff as well as participant observation and review of project documents and media reports. Findings The case provides insights into the origins, lessons learned and key success factors of viable rural sales agent distribution networks serving the poor. A key tension to be managed is keeping the costs of the network down while ensuring that every member is adequately incentivized. Social implications The 3,000 women sales agents in rural Bangladesh engaged with the Rural Sales Program have benefited from earning viable incomes in contexts where opportunities for employment and empowerment of women are limited. Rural populations have gained affordable access to socially beneficial goods such as fortified foods, seeds, daily necessities and shoes. Companies have benefited from learning how to adapt their product offerings to meet the needs of low-income customers. Originality Where rural sales initiatives elsewhere have faced challenges, this case is the first published account of the origins of how CARE, Bata, and other companies established a viable and scalable rural sales agent distribution network for the commercial benefit of companies and the economic and social benefit of poor women and their customers.

Learning goals Many interesting product innovations have been developed for BoP consumers. But often the major challenge remains for distributing socially beneficial goods to the poor who need them. This case describes how the Rural Sales Program in Bangladesh overcame multiple challenges to establish a viable rural distribution channel by partnering with multiple companies and taking a market-based approach.




ARTICLE

Article Citation Kevin McKague, David Wheeler, Corrine Cash, Jane Comeault and Elise Ray (Eds.) Introduction to the Special Issue on Growing Inclusive Markets. Journal of Enterprising Communities People and Places in the Global Economy, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2011


Brief description One of the great challenges of the twenty-first century is to re-invent both the language and the practice of “international development”. In recent years, a crisis in confidence has emerged within the international development community among a number of activists, bilateral agencies and multilateral institutions that has led to a questioning of the traditional roles and effectiveness of the donor state, the recipient state, and the myriad international and local actors standing between development assistance and the poor. This current period of reflection has allowed bilateral agencies, non-governmental organizations, and multilateral agencies like the United Nations Development Program to revisit their own approaches and to explore the potential for private sector activity to make a positive contribution to poverty reduction. Economic growth is not necessarily translated into poverty alleviation, and the factors that have allowed some countries to grow their economies and include the poor in their local, national, and international marketplaces – as producers, consumers, employees, or traders – may be political, cultural, social, economic, regulatory, technological, or ecological. In most cases, these factors – depending on their force and direction – are intertwined in a complex web of drivers and inhibitors often only barely understood in terms of their overall impact on private sector development in the developing world. Into this uncertain and complex set of systems has been added a new impetus to discover how and under what conditions inclusive enterprises become established, grow, and replicate. Regardless of terminology and the diversity of approaches, there remains a pressing need to discover “what works and why” when enterprise activity that generates positive outcomes for low-income individuals emerges and is successful. There is also a need to learn from these observations in a way that transcends the anecdotal and starts to move the development community towards empirical and generalizable findings and lessons learned.

Learning goals This article (an introduction to a special issue on growing inclusive markets) provides a broad overview of the history and major trends that have contributed to current interest in poverty alleviation by the private sector and social entrepreneurs.




ARTICLE

Article + Author Wheeler, D., McKague, K., Thomson, J., Davies, R., Medalye, J. and Prada, M. (2005). Creating Sustainable Local Enterprise Networks. MIT/Sloan Management Review, Vol. 47, No. 1: 33–40


Brief description The authors analyzed 50 cases of successful sustainable enterprise in developing countries and developed a conceptual framework called the Sustainable Local Enterprise Network (SLEN) model. Successful sustainable enterprises in developing countries often involve informal networks that include businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and local communities. These networks can lead to virtuous cycles of reinvestment in an area's financial, social, human, and ecological capital. Successful SLENs require at least one business enterprise to ensure the network's financial sustainability and serve as its anchor; however, a cooperative or a profitable social enterprise launched by a nongovernmental organization may play that anchor role. Although multinational corporations were sometimes part of the SLENs studied, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and sustainable local businesses were more common. Concludes with recommendations for fostering the development of SLENs, such as setting up training programs in sustainable entrepreneurship in developing countries.

Learning goals This article helps show that when dealing with complex business models related to the challenge of poverty alleviation, many organizations adopt a ‘network’ approach, partnering with a variety of other organizations to undertake business ventures and achieve social and environmental outcomes. Students learn to shift their thinking from thinking about single bounded organizations (companies or NGOs) to thinking of enterprise in terms of ‘enterprise networks’ that combine multiple complementary resources and capabilities that provide mutual benefits for all participants.




BOOK

Book Title Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage

URL http://www.embeddedsustainability.com

Course A wide range of courses on strategy, business-in-society and sustainability

Course Level Undergraduate & graduate

Brief description “Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage” (Stanford University Press & Greenleaf Publishing, 2011), co-authored by Chris Laszlo and Nadya Zhexembayeva, invites current managers and future managers to explore the best possible strategies for the growing social and environmental pressures. With the rapidly declining resources, increasing societal expectations, and radical transparency that define business reality today, how is business to compete?

The vast majority of business chooses to see sustainability as cost. A small minority of companies prefers to view it as a small niche, charging premium for it, or compromising on product quality and performance.

But a small group of companies following the path of embedded sustainability, which, as the best practice suggests, is such deep integration of social and environmental performance into the company DNA, that it literally transforms its business model with no compromise to price or quality.

Learning goal(s) Both, business and academic communities have used the many tools offered by the book as applied guidance for creating and capturing sustainable value in practice. As a classroom resource, the book offers insights into the history of relationship between business and society (Chapter 2: The Brief History of Value), highlights many strategic approaches to managing social and environmental pressures (Chapter 3: What Would A Strategist Do?), and offers practical framework for embedding sustainability into existing traditional organizations (Chapters 5, 6, 7& 8). The book concludes with a forward-looking discussions on the big debates within sustainability field, including such heated questions as the role of government, the future of consumption, and the limits of business as a force for good (Chapters 9 & 10).

Experiences At many schools, “Embedded Sustainability” serves as a guide for a practicum, where students are required to develop a real-life sustainable value project with a clear business case and comprehensive implementation strategy. Filled with examples and illustrations from best global practices, “Embedded Sustainability” serves as inspiration for what many managers believe to be impossible: to create value for society while discovering value for business.

Submitted by Nadya Zhexembayeva, PhD, Coca-Cola Chair of Sustainable Development IEDC-Bled School of Management, [email protected]



NON-ACADEMIC ARTICLE

Article Title Integrating Community Partnership Perspective in University Functions: A Strategic Approach to Strengthen University Community Linkage

URL www.col.org/pcf6/fp/zTZ2118.doc

Course Higher Education Management Certificate Program

Course Level Higher Education Management Training (Graduate/ Post-Graduate )

Brief description The primary functions of the universities include teaching, research and extension. The fundamental purpose of the knowledge creation and dissemination is deep routed in the need for socio-economic development of the society, where the university exists. This relationship holds valid conceptually for all the universities irrespective of region and society, yet the different universities display different models in terms of type and level of community involvement. The experience shows that most of the academic institutions address the community development aspect just as a part of the ‘University Social Responsibility’ and thus, leaving a big question in terms of usefulness and relevance of such approach. Focusing on the issue, the present article broadly aims to explore the changing role of the universities in the society and community development under the changing global academic institutional environment. The paper analyses the strategic issues which need to be addressed by the universities in order to design and adjust their roles and responsibilities as the catalyst of social-economic development through active community based partnership. The paper conceptualizes a model for effective community-university partnership across all the major functions of teaching, research and extension. The paper is likely to provide a new and effective framework for integrated context-specific community-focused university function design, but without making any compromise with its universal character.

Learning goal(s) To develop the appreciation for higher-education and community partnerships for poverty eradication and socio-economic development;

To make the higher-education managers aware of the challenges in effective integration of social-economic development issues in higher education; and

To suggest a strategic management model for context-specific and need-based design of courses/ programs to address sustainability issues.

Experiences During the discussion, participants actively involved and raised the

related issues; Helped in brainstorming on the possible higher education innovations

and interventions to focus on socio-economic development issues; Brings the focus on planning and implementation of the sustainability

programs by main-streaming it in the higher education.

Submitted by Shiv K. Tripathi, Professor, Mzumbe University, Faculty of Commerce,

Tanzania, [email protected]

http://www.col.org/pcf6/fp/zTZ2118.doc



FILM/VIDEO

Film/Video Title Be Birmingham - Social Inclusion Process

URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmewfJmb9Sg

Course Business, Ethics, Responsibility & Human Rights

Course Level Postgraduate MSc

Brief description This short film explains the social inclusion process in Birmingham City. This initiative was set up after ‘riots’ that affected the city in August 2011. Issues of unemployment and poverty were seen as possible influences. see link to report that explores the background http://www.blackradley.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/TheyMovedLikeFishReport.pdf

Learning goal(s) To understand the meaning of social inclusion and how this can impact poverty. To explore a ‘live case study’ on the City of Birmingham and understand how different actors working together (Business, Government and Community Groups) can make a difference.

Experiences One of the key lines of enquiry for the social inclusion process is Inclusive Economic Growth. This aims to see how business can work with government and community groups to enable all people in the city to benefit from economic inclusion.

Submitted by Carole Parkes, Director Social Responsibility & Sustainability, Aston Business School, UK, [email protected]

https://mail.aston.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=nCakY2zX0Ei3AXUy1uf6Blw7PRZu_84IaXmL9B9bYKIVWV_-jx7n0iok9gQJfMCN-1zsc-5Ww6c.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.youtube.com%2fwatch%3fv%3dNmewfJmb9Sg

http://www.blackradley.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/TheyMovedLikeFishReport.pdf

http://www.blackradley.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/TheyMovedLikeFishReport.pdf



FILM/VIDEO

Film/Video Title

VEV Senegal: Wind Water for Life

URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdfAmfmCRO0

Course Level Undergraduate or Graduate

Brief description

Local Senegalese company "Vent l'Eau pour la Vie" is repairing and manufacturing wind water pumps - providing an invaluable service that promotes renewable energy, provides clean water, helps reforestation efforts and improves livelihoods for villagers. This company is a client of clean energy finance company E+Co (www.eandco.net). French with English subtitles. See also the UNDP Case Study http://www.growinginclusivemarkets.org/media/cases/Senegal_VEV_2010.pdf and interview with the author Mamadou Gaye http://www.growinginclusivemarkets.org/2010/11/16/qa-with-mamadou-gaye-author...

Learning goal(s)

This short video illustrates how local entrepreneurs in Senegal took over an NGO and turned it into a financially viable renewable energy enterprise (windmill-based water pumping).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdfAmfmCRO0

http://www.growinginclusivemarkets.org/media/cases/Senegal_VEV_2010.pdf

http://www.growinginclusivemarkets.org/2010/11/16/qa-with-mamadou-gaye-author-of-case-study-wind-water-for-life-vev/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=case-study-wind-water-for-life-vev

http://www.growinginclusivemarkets.org/2010/11/16/qa-with-mamadou-gaye-author-of-case-study-wind-water-for-life-vev/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=case-study-wind-water-for-life-vev



FILM/VIDEO

Film/Video Title Bapu-Bazar1: Community-Partnership Oriented

Entrepreneurial Training Innovation in an Indian University

URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bljPyVMTvIE

Course National Service Scheme Program (Non-Credit)

Course Level Graduate Level Students

Brief description The initiative was launched by VBS Purvanchal University, Jaunpur (India). It focuses on managing the supply-chain of used cloths, toys and other items of daily use to help the poor in the region. Students collect cloths and other items from their respective surroundings and prepare it for the next-use. They organize the special camps to sell it to the needy poor at a token price. The token price is charged to generate feelings of honor and pride of ownership.

Learning goal(s) Enhancing social-responsibility orientation among the students by involving them to help the poor;

Developing socially-responsible entrepreneurial skills through action-learning; and

Inculcating moral-leadership values among the students by designing and implementing community-partnership based social development project.

Experiences Within 1 year from the introduction of this innovative project, more than 1000 students voluntarily joined the project.

During last 1 year, 6 camps have been organized by the students to sell the used cloths, toys, house-hold items at a nominal token price. The number of beneficiaries (poor and below poverty line rural people from northern India) crossed 5000.

Based on the students learning experiences and social impact, the model is being planned for other courses of the universities.



1 Bapu is an Indian word to call father lovingly. People use this title to remember father of the nation

Mahatma Gandhi. Bazar is Indian equivalent for physical market-place where people buy and sell the things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bljPyVMTvIE



PHOTOS

Title Photos of Dharavi, Mumbai, India Course International Marketing, Global Marketing (MBA)

Course Level Undergraduate, Graduate

Photo(s)


Learning points I use these photos that I took to:

1) Help students visualize the slum that is talked about in Chapter 1 of CK

Prahalad’s book, Finding Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, and in

Prahalad and Hammond’s Harvard Business Review article (September,

2002), Serving the Poor Profitably

2) Dispell some “myths” about life in a slum

3) Encourage students to think about individuals living in Dharavi as an

active, vital market

4) Prompt thinking about the poverty penalty that Prahalad and Hart talk

about

Experiences Students might recognize this slum as the slum that was in Slum Dog

Millionaires. This immediately builds interest in the pictures. I generally

print the photos and ask students to circle things that they notice. I

encourage students to look closely at the photos. I also encourage student

s to move past the summary statement: “Things are poor/dirty in a slum.”

Points I try to make are:

1) Slums are ecosystems in themselves; they are communities in which

individuals buy and sell goods to each other. The two pictures of the ATM

and the fruit stand with two cellphone carrier brands (Orange and Airtel)

help make this point.

2) Space inside Dharavi is limited. There is constant interaction between

residents. Companies can use this to their advantage: there is rapid

diffusion of ideas through good word of mouth in an environment like this.

3) Individuals living in Dharavi still desire the basic things all individuals

want: products that work, products that meet their needs, etc. All

individuals want to be treated with respect and dignity.


[email protected]



PHOTOS

Title RAMBO: Responsible Research and Community Partnership

Course Non-Credit Community Outreach Activity

Course Level Graduate / Post-Graduate (MBA)

Photo(s)

Learning goal(s) To develop orientation among MBA student towards the social

issues through research; To learn the application of management theory in improving the

livelihood of the poor in surrounding areas; and To develop skills for integrated research and outreach action for

poverty eradication.

Experiences Students actively participated in the initiative. During the piloting it was observed that the activity was helpful in

developing the social development perspective among the students.

The initial piloting result confirmed that with a little fine-tuning such activities would help in poverty eradication.





PHOTOS

Title Bapu-Bazar2: Community-Partnership Oriented Entrepreneurial Training Innovation in an Indian University

Course National Service Scheme Program (Non-Credit)

Course Level Graduate Level Students

Photo(s) http://www.vbspu.ac.in/images/stories/bapu%208.4.jpg

http://www.vbspu.ac.in/images/stories/bapu%20bazar%2030%20-1.bmp

Learning goal(s) Enhancing social-responsibility orientation among the students by

involving them to help the poor;

Developing socially-responsible entrepreneurial skills through action-learning; and

Inculcating moral-leadership values among the students by designing and implementing community-partnership based social development project.

Experiences Within 1 year from the introduction of this innovative project, more than 1,000 students voluntarily joined the project.

2 Bapu is an Indian word to call father lovingly. People use this title to remember father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi. Bazar is Indian equivalent for physical market-place where people buy and sell the things.

http://www.vbspu.ac.in/images/stories/bapu%208.4.jpg




During last 1 year, 6 camps have been organized by the students to sell the used cloths, toys, house-hold items at a nominal token price. The number of beneficiaries (poor and below poverty line rural people from northern India) crossed 5,000.

Based on the students learning experiences and social impact, the model is being planned for the other courses of the university.

Submitted by Shiv K. Tripathi, Professor, Mzumbe University, Faculty of Commerce, Tanzania, [email protected]



ACTIVE LEARNING ACTIVITY

Activity Name Lesson of Friendship

Course Psychology and Art

Course Level 1

Brief description This project is a lesson for children from orphanages (implemented by a team of students from Baikal International Business School, Irkutsk State University, Russia) and its aim is to discuss friendship as one of the greatest values in life. We start with an acquaintance; then, we briefly discuss what friendship is and why it is so important. Then, we watch a Russian cartoon about several friends, kindness, and mutual help. After all, we create some photo frames or cards for children’s friends using the technique of scrapbooking.

Learning goals The goal is to give children a chance to understand that friendship is extremely important and friends are like a big family for us.

One more goal is to create a present for a close person and give it to this person later. This is one of the ways to teach children how to make pleasant things and make friends glad.

Experiences Our project has already discussed friendship in two orphanages, and we have talked to 30 children. All of them were really enthusiastic to share their points of view on friendship, and our discussions were very lively. Children also enjoyed the cartoons “Along the road of clouds” and “A gift for the Elephant”. Our team has taught children how to create good-looking photo frames and wonderful cards for their friends. In a week after the lesson we come back and bring children their photos which can be put into created photo frames or cards.

Submitted by Maria Potapkina, Deputy Dean, Russian-American Program Coordinator, Baikal School of International Business, Irkutsk State University, Russia, [email protected] Valentina Alekseyeva, student, Siberian-American School of Management, Baikal International Business School, Irkutsk State University



ACTIVE LEARNING ACTIVITY

Activity Name RAMBO: Responsible Research and Community Partnership

Course Non-Credit Community Outreach Activity

Course Level Graduate / Post-Graduate (MBA)

Brief description RAMBO, the acronym for ‘Rickshawpullers Association for Mobile Business Opportunity’ is a pilot project started independently by the Faculty and students of Institute of Business Management, VBS Purvanchal University, Jaunpur to improve the daily earning of these rickshaw pullers through a marketing intervention on March 2008. The initiative undertaken is on the rickshaw pullers in Jaunpur, a semi-urban district of Eastern Uttar Pradesh (INDIA). Jaunpur, has nearly 10,000 rickshaw pullers operating throughout the district. In Jaunpur city alone there were 3969 registered rickshaws (till March 2008) as per the figures of the local Municipal Office. The students doing their Master’s in Business administration (MBA), administered survey on various aspects of rickshaw puller’s livelihood in the city of Jaunpur. Followed by the survey, students, under supervision of faculty members, were involved in developing an alternative distribution channel by involving rickshaw pullers. The pilot project reflects an innovative way for engaging B-school students in poverty reduction through responsible research and outreach focus. (For details please refer to: Banerjee, S.,Project ‘RAMBO’: an initiative to improve rickshaw pullers’ earnings, Development in Practice, Volume 20, Number 1, February 2010)

Learning goals To develop orientation among MBA student towards the social issues through research;

To learn the application of management theory in improving the livelihood of the poor in surrounding areas; and

To develop skills for integrated research and outreach action for poverty eradication.

Experiences Students actively participated in the initiative.

During the piloting it was observed that the activity was helpful in developing the social development perspective among the students.

The initial piloting result confirmed that with a little fine-tuning such activities would help in poverty eradication.





INVITED SPEAKERS/LECTURE SERIES

Speaker/Lecture Series Name

Development Director of CIGB (Churches & Industry Group Birmingham)

URL http://www.cigb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Here-to-stay5.pdf



Brief description Example of speaker invited to co facilitate session on ‘Poverty as a challenge for Business’ Speaker has experience of working with different community groups and businesses in UK and in Nigeria. Link above is to report by the speaker on the experiences of migrants in the West Midlands in the UK. Speaker also discussed lobbying BP Oil CEO in Nigeria to improve conditions for local communities living in poverty.

Learning goal(s) Session set up to address the following questions: How is poverty relevant to business organizations? What might their role be? What are the key considerations for businesses in relation to

poverty?

Experiences Speaker provided practical ‘hands on’ approach to the issue of poverty and business. Students able to question the speaker on real life examples and experiences.


http://www.cigb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Here-to-stay5.pdf

http://www.cigb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Here-to-stay5.pdf





CSR Summit – Business Critical

URL http://www1.aston.ac.uk/aston-business-school/research/events/business-critical/

Course Level MBA & MSc students

Brief description The event brought together Chief Executives and Corporate Social Responsibility Directors from the region’s leading businesses, with key representatives from Government and the Voluntary Sector, to examine critical issues affecting the future of business to community relations and agree key actions to take this forward in the 21st century.

Learning goal(s) To understand from business, government and community leaders, the key issues for CSR activity. To focus on the ways in which the key actors could address issues relating to poverty including social inclusion.

Experiences Students were able to hear first-hand from major companies and business leaders in the region how they plan to work with community groups to address some of these issues. Contacts were also made for current and future academic projects.


http://www1.aston.ac.uk/aston-business-school/research/events/business-critical/

http://www1.aston.ac.uk/aston-business-school/research/events/business-critical/





Faculty and researchers meeting

Course Seminar series of Bocconi SDA research division

Course Level MPM, Master of Cooperative and Social Enterprise, and PhD students

Brief description The two-hour seminar “Fighting Poverty through Management Education” was introduced with an objective to present the preliminary results of the global survey on Fighting Poverty through Management Education, conducted by PRME Anti-Poverty Working Group. It was attended by about 50 SDA faculty members, MPM students, Master of Cooperative and Social Enterprises students, PhD students. The focus was on challenges, opportunities and solutions in fighting poverty through management education, and what business schools could do to contribute to achieving one of the main Millennium Development Goals. Milenko Gudić, IMTA Director, CEEMAN, the PRME Anti-Poverty Working Group Coordinator, presented: (1) current megatrends that are reshaping the world, emerging development paradoxes and dilemmas, (2) implications on the issue of poverty, (3) initiatives taken by businesses, international organizations, and business schools, PRME initiative, and (4) the preliminary findings of the survey.

Learning goals Better understanding of the overall context for the PRME WG initiative to integrate poverty into management education

What business schools could learn from business initiatives related to sustainable development, inclusive markets and poverty alleviation

The need for a new generation of responsible business (and public) leaders

The role that management education can and should play

Experiences A vivid dialogue on the poverty-related issues went also beyond. Fresh ideas were launched on the need for multidisciplinary research, faculty development, organization of internal dialogues among faculty, researchers and departments on the issues of course design, curricula development, processes and methods that would lead towards more holistic approach to management education and towards responsible management education in general. The students underlined that the seminar was really helpful to broaden their perspective on the relations between economy and society. They received the input to rethink the nature and the logic of international cooperation for socioeconomic development that is sustainable only if the population of not yet developed countries or regions is given autonomy, freedom of choice and responsibility on their own future. The faculty caught the relevance to include the topic in their research and their teaching. The seminar was an innovative challenge for the faculty and the students.

Submitted by Elio Borgonovi, Full Professor, Department of Public Management and Policy Analysis, Bocconi University, [email protected]





Elective Co-curriculum Lectures

Course Public Administration Economics and Management

Course Level Undergraduate students, 2nd year

Brief description The lecture “Fighting Poverty through Management Education” was as one of the four elective lectures, from which students could chose and write a mandatory essay based on one of the elective lectures. It was offered to explore students’ interest into the topic, and to initiate a discussion on how business and public management education could contribute to achieving one of the Millennium Development Goals. The lecture by Milenko Gudić, IMTA managing Director at CEEMAN, and the PRME Anti-Poverty Working Group Coordinator, included: (1) Current megatrends that are reshaping the world of today and the related development paradoxes and dilemmas, (2) their implications on the issue of poverty, (3) initiatives taken by businesses, international organizations, and business schools, (4) the preliminary findings of the PRME WG survey on fighting poverty through management education.

Learning goals - Better understanding of the complex issues related to the economic development, social transformation, sustainable development and poverty eradication - Business interests in sustainable development and inclusive markets - The need for a new generation of responsible business (and public) leaders - The role that management education can and should play

Experiences The selection of the topic proved to be well thought. The lecture attracted even higher interest that originally expected. About 150 students took the lecture as the basis for their essay writing. Young generations bring new values and attitudes, which schools need to correctly perceive and adequately respond to. The lecture inspired for an interesting discussion and dialogue among students and faculty, which resulted in fresh ideas for the ongoing process of changing our educational programs, processes, actors and institutional/organizational arrangements. The need to respond to the specific social responsibility of the school and its role in promoting sustainable development (including poverty alleviation), and the development of responsible leadership for a better world was particularly emphasized. The overall experience also confirmed the value of integrating business education inputs into public management programs and vice versa.

Submitted by Elio Borgonovi, Full Professor, Department of Public Management and Policy Analysis, Bocconi University, [email protected]




Speaker/Lecture

Series Name

Discussion club "Business Credo"

Course Extracurricular activity

Course Level Executive

Brief description In 2011-2012 Lviv Business School (LvBS) and the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) created a unique platform and started an active dialogue on collaboration between business and society through a sequence of meetings within the Discussion club "Business Credo".

Participation in meetings of the Discussion club "Business Credo" is an opportunity for owners and senior managers to communicate in the format of "business talk" with leading thinkers and opinion leaders in the Ukrainian and international environment.

As guests of the Discussion club "Business Credo" participated: the rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University father doctor Borys Gudziak, Ukrainian and international human rights activist Myroslav Marynovych, Internationally famous Polish movie producer Krzysztof Zanussi, Cardinal of the Catholic Church, His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar), historian, professor Yaroslav Hrytsak, writer Ivan Malkovych.

Learning goal(s) To create a platform that will launch an active dialog between business and society, to analyze modern mutual challenges and influences, and in longer perspective to strengthen the role of business in developing core social processes in the country.

To reflect openly on issues that underlie the surface questions looking for answers: How much does dignity cost? How much is it linked to human ability to go

against the stream, especially in low democratic societies? People on the margin of society, what can we do in Ukraine? Responsibility

of rich people in the society? Where countries can find the moral elite?

Experiences The discussion concerned less the regular aspects of business – efficiency, processes, and profits – than spiritual question in the minds of entrepreneurs. The more difficult the administrative decisions, the deeper the spiritual quest and desire to answer some the hardest questions: Am I doing what is right and what is the ultimate goal?

The events are open and each gathers up to 150 participants. Several companies and media support financially this project as it fits their values and positioning as responsible on the market.

In 2012 we started to broadcast events online due to the fact that not everyone interested could fit into conference rooms and to make it possible to be part of event for business people interested in cities other than Kyiv. “Business Credo” became a project with a famous brand.

Submitted by Sophia Opatska, CEO, Lviv Business School of the Ukrainian Catholic University,

Ukraine, [email protected]



ONLINE ACTIVITY

Name Business Fights Poverty Website

URL http://www.businessfightspoverty.org/



Brief description Business Fights Poverty is an online community for business and development, connecting over 10,000 professionals. Business Fights Poverty is a vibrant community of individuals from business, the international donor community, non-government organizations and academia – all of whom share a passion for fighting poverty through business. Business Fights Poverty provides its members with targeted peer-to-peer engagement and hot-off-the-press, mission-critical knowledge.

Learning goal(s) To understand the relevance of poverty to business organizations. To access information relating to specific industries, organizations and issues in relation to poverty.

Experiences An excellent site for business and poverty related resources and information. Used as a key resource for a range of learning activities including case study material.


http://www.businessfightspoverty.org/



ONLINE ACTIVITY

Name Poverty.com Hunger and Poverty

URL http://www.poverty.com/ http://www.poverty.com/more.html

Course International Perspectives

Course Level Undergraduate

Brief description A practical approach to understanding issues of poverty, hunger and disease. About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds, as you can see on the animated map on this site. The site also provides links to major information sources including:

One Campaign United Nations World Food Program (WFP) UNICEF Millennium Campaign Global Issues

There are also lists and links to many major international organizations that have related information about poverty, hunger, and preventable diseases.

Learning goal(s) To understand the extent and effect of poverty as a global issue. To consider the role of aid in responding to global poverty

Experiences Students respond well to using the site in addressing seminar questions relating to poverty and global organizations.


http://www.poverty.com/

http://www.poverty.com/more.html

http://www.one.org/

http://www.wfp.org/

http://www.unicef.org/

http://www.endpoverty2015.org/

http://www.globalissues.org/



COURSE

Course Name Elites and Society

Course Level Executive MBA

Brief description The course is focused on developing the understanding of the role of different elites in formatting the society. It covers the following topics:

Different types of elites and their main characteristics – economic, political, cultural, spiritual (clerical)

Conflict of elites: intersections of spheres of influence Elites and the masses: conquest and disrespect or custody and

serving Elites in different conceptual environments Elite, power and philosophy of the gift Historical aspects of the elite formation: interaction of the Church,

the State and the Society Responsibility and irresponsibility of elites: or why the capitalism

works in some countries and does not in others.

Program/Module goal(s)

The main goal of the program is to demonstrate the power of influence of elites on formatting the society and inversely, to understand high importance of responsibility of elites for the leading role they play in developing this society and how different types of elites can consolidate their efforts in building better life in their country and the world.

Experiences In this program participants work with experts in different areas – Doctor of Philosophy, Head of Philosophy Department of the Ukrainian Catholic University, Director of the Institute of Church History, Internationally recognized Ukrainian historian, Director of the Institute of Historical Research. During interactive discussions participants are not just get acquainted with major concepts but also develop their own understanding of the role of elite and their personal role in the future of the country, which is exposed in their final essay they submit in order to complete the course.

Submitted by Oksana Koulakovska, MBA Director, Lviv Business School of the Ukrainian Catholic University, Ukraine, [email protected]



PROGRAM/MODULE

Program/Module

Name

One Planet MBA

URL http://business-school.exeter.ac.uk/mba/why/

Course Level MBA

Brief description There is an urgent need to reshape the way we do business. Environmental, financial and social changes are challenging traditional business models and there is a need for a new generation of managers and leaders who are capable of developing more sustainable business approaches. The University of Exeter Business School has joined forces with WWF – one of the world’s largest and most respected conservation organizations – to provide a unique MBA to meet this need. The One Planet MBA is designed to deliver the knowledge, understanding and skills required to run a successful and sustainable business in a rapidly changing natural, financial, social and global market environment. It will develop individuals who have a deep understanding of the challenges we face. It is global in both outlook and student composition. It will develop its participants abilities to innovate, to think and act strategically and to lead others and organizations through change. We place an emphasis on tools, techniques and practical application. Many MBA programs offer modules in corporate responsibility and ethical management. Where the One Planet MBA differs is that the core values of responsible management and sustainable business run through the very heart of the program, from the topics covered to the learning and teaching style.

Program/Module

goal(s) (1) Integrating environmental expertise. Working with the world’s largest and most respected environmental organization, the program benefits from WWF’s experience of engaging at the highest level with major companies around the world on sustainability issues. We have already integrated learning from their One Planet Leaders executive education courses and worked with WWF contacts in setting up company based projects for students. WWF International (and their corporate partners) also contributes to the teaching of the program.

(2) Engagement with thought-leaders. The One Planet MBA includes a series of distinguished guest speakers who infuse new thinking into The One Planet MBA. Consultants and academics from around the UK and overseas have also contributed to exploring the implications of sustainability for business education. In 2010/11 these included Alan Knight OBE, independent sustainability advisor to the Virgin Group; Jake Bakus, Coca Cola; Gordon Sinclair, Sustainable Development Strategist, Sasfin; and Nigel Topping from Carbon Disclosure, amongst many others.

(3) The social perspective. The program also engages with the public sector and social enterprise. In 2010/2011 it began working with the Environment Agency and a range of not-for- profit organizations such as Tree Aid, Action Aid and the Exeter Drugs Project (EDP) to further integrate their perspectives into our teaching.

(4) Community impact. Our program and our students are having a direct impact on the local community, business and society. Our students

http://business-school.exeter.ac.uk/mba/why/


are working on sustainability consultancy projects with local and regional companies in the SW of England and also major corporates. In the summer of 2011 our students worked with Coca Cola, Sony, the Met Office, KLM, The Cooperative Group, Thomson Reuters and many small companies to help develop a shared understanding of the implications of sustainability for business success.

Experiences To our knowledge, this is the first MBA program that has been co-created with a student innovation cohort. We invited MBA applicants to participate in a year of innovation, as we worked towards introducing sustainability perspectives into existing modules and trialed new specialist electives and guest speakers. A series of formal co-creation meetings captured the views and critical reflections of students, faculty, WWF, companies and external observers.

The initiative has involved staff from across the Business School – both academic and professional services colleagues. The program also draws on academic staff from across the University in a truly cross-disciplinary way, including personnel from the creative arts and history and from our shared campus in Tremough, Cornwall where much of our environmental science expertise resides.

The One Planet MBA program will immerse, excite and challenge the students. They will be joining a global network of new leaders – leaders who view the planet differently and have the skills and motivation to make a difference.

Submitted by Jonathan Gosling, Director, Center for Leadership Studies, University of

Exeter Business School, UK, [email protected]


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