6 ECTS credits
161 h study time

Offer 2 with catalog number 4014219FER for all students in the 2nd semester at a (F) Master - specialised level.

Semester
2nd semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Possible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Enrollment Requirements
Students who want to enroll for this course, must have passed ‘Management'.
Taught in
English
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
Department
Business
Educational team
Claudia Alba Ortuno
Bart Pierre H Leyen
Nikolay Dentchev (course titular)
Activities and contact hours
27 contact hours Lecture
12 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
122 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

The objective of this course is to explain how corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be integrated in business models. Such integration is quite challenging, and hence we elaborate on the variety of challenges. At the same time, CSR can have a positive impact on the business, which we do also discuss. Overall, CSR integration in business models requires various areas of understanding.

Hence, this course will concentrate on :

  • Which actions aimed to increase corporate social responsibility?
  • How to integrate corporate social responsibility with corporate strategy, managerial decision-making and risk assessment?
  • The importance of alignment of corporate culture with corporate social responsibility strategies.
  • The political context of operations, and successfully interact and communicate with governments and key stakeholders.
  • The various management systems for both avoiding potentially damaging events and mitigating the effects of a crisis after it has occurred.
  • Possible responses to the most critical emerging issues in the field of corporate social responsibility in the next decade.
  • Entrepreneurial solutions to the most challenging social issues, cf. social entrepreneurship.
Course material
Digital course material (Required) : Articles will be posted, Canvas
Additional info

Teaching Methods

- Lecture: collective contact-dependent moments during which the lecturer engages with learning materials
- Seminar, Exercises or Practicals (Practical): collective or individual contact-dependent moments during which the students are guided to actively engage with learning materials
- Independent or External Form of Study (Self): independent study

This description of the teaching methods is indicative, in order to assess the expected study load.

Lecture: 27 hours (9 x 3 hours)

Practical: 12 hours

  • preparation group assignment: 6 hours
  • presentation group assignments: 6 hours

Self: 122 hours

  • keeping up with the course material during the semester, amounting to 1 hour per hour lecture: 27 hours
  • research / attend event: 3 hours
  • preparation group assignment: 40 hours (5 days of 8 hours)
  • preparation presentation: 4 hours (0,5 day)
  • preparation exam: 48 hours (6 days of 8 hours)
Learning Outcomes

General competencies

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) addresses the challenge of matching social values and corporate values in business firms. More specifically, students learn how to integrate social responsibility concerns into strategic management of the respective firms of employment.

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  1. analyse the main CSR issues in a specific company,
  2. evaluate who are the most salient stakeholders groups of that company,
  3. develop a strategy of CSR implementation in various types of organizations.
  4. illustrate how CSR is relates to (social entrepreneurship) business models.  

Overall, students will leave the course with an in-depth understanding of how firms respond to societal attempts to satisfy social demands (e.g., related to environmental quality), without impeding the ability to pursue conventional economic objectives.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 70% of the final mark.
Practical Exam determines 30% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Written Exam with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 70% of the final mark.

Within the Practical Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Assignment with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 30% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Written exam, closed book, determines 70% of the final mark.

The written exam will be composed of four open questions and two questions related to practical cases. The final score of the written exam is the sum of scores to all questions.

Practical Exam (Assignment) during the semester will count for 30 % of the final mark. This assignment is completed in self-composed groups, and focuses on specific case study.  Important stages in the evaluation of the practical exam are peer evaluation, in addition to the quality of the assignment. Peer evaluation is used to identify and mitigate problems of the functioning of groups. The quality of the assignment is assessed (total 100 p):

  • Quality of the discussion with respect to the specific case study (40 p.)
  • Quality of methodological explanation (20 p.)
  • Quality of references (20 p.)
  • Quality of writing and lay-out (10 p.)
  • Respecting deadlines (10 p.)

The final mark is the sum of the written exam and the practical exam.

Marks on the assignment can be transferred from the first exam period to the second exam period.

In the second exam period, students can work individually or in smaller group on the improvement of their assignment.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of Business Engineering: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Business Economics: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master of International Business: Standaard traject
Master of Business Engineering: Business and Technology: Standaard traject
Master of Teaching in Economics: standaard traject (90 ECTS, Etterbeek) (only offered in Dutch)