Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility Awareness Into a Retail Management Course

Abstract

Both students and industry are demanding that marketing instructors incorporate discussions of environmental and social responsibility into their courses. Marketing educators play a critical role in developing the knowledge and skills students need to effectively integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) into their future business endeavors. Yet many educators struggle with developing meaningful and effective strategies to incorporate CSR authentically into their curricula. The project discussed in this article outlines a learning tool that encourages students to consider CSR in the context of their own purchase decisions while also considering CSR from a broader macro environmental perspective. The main goal is to build a CSR awareness that extends beyond a student's initial purchase exchange. Using retail as the context, students are required to consider CSR challenges including labor laws, environmental regulations, sourcing issues, and so on from the retailer and supplier relationships as well as the retailer and consumer relationships. Based on preliminary results, students' awareness of CSR challenges throughout the supply chain increased and the project proved to be an effective way to engage students in real learning about CSR.

Using Macromarketing to Teach Business Sustainability

“…A different way of thinking about the increasing complexity of market activity is needed that would focus on underlying structures, rather than just the symptoms observed in such complex contexts. Systems thinking is such a different way of thinking about complexities and interdependencies (Beitelspacher & Rodgers, 2018). It can be employed to better understand the role of marketing systems in markets of the 21st century, such as business ecosystems that would frequently include agentic consumers and networked stakeholders.…”

A Resource-Efficient Modular Course Design for Co-Teaching Integrated Sustainability in Higher Education: Developing the Next Generation of Entrepreneurial Leaders

“…This revision effort has featured innovative advanced elective undergraduate courses that allow students to apply ideas related to integrated sustainability towards business problems and entrepreneurial opportunity. While Babson has made prior efforts related to this idea (Beitelspacher & Rodgers, 2018; D. N. Greenberg et al., 2017; Lester & Rodgers, 2012 ), the college administration has recently supported several new course offerings that allow for co-teaching across traditional academic disciplines. Even still, multidisciplinary course design is incredibly challenging, especially in higher education (Holley, 2009), as professors are highly specialized and typically housed in single academic departments.…”

Integrating and Assessing Student Perceived Sustainability Literacy in an Integrated Marketing Communications Course

“…It was found that students who were exposed to learning activities with a sustainability focus had a greater understanding of the topic, and an increased belief that "business as usual" practices had to change. Similarly, Beitelspacher and Rodgers (2018) conducted a content analysis of student comments based on CSR initiatives in a retailing setting. They measured pre and post means of student responses to supply chain issues in a Retail Management course, where they incorporated a CSR assignment and found that there were positive changes in student attitudes and awareness toward CSR issues.…”

“…Marketing educators have provided strong justification for incorporating ethics, sustainability education, and mindful marketing into the marketing curricula (Beitelspacher & Rodgers, 2018;Hagenbuch & Mgrdichian, 2020;Pentina & Guilloux, 2010;von der Heidt, 2018;Wilhelm, 2008). Although some general business and introductory marketing courses include sustainability-related content, sustainability-oriented topics have an excellent fit within marketing promotion courses.…”