Integrating Corporate Sustainability and Organizational Strategy Within the Undergraduate Business Curriculum

Abstract

Corporate sustainability (CS) requires organizations to shift focus from short-term financial goals to further consider the long-term social, environmental, and economic implications of their operations. Despite a lack of regulations in the United States requiring companies to disclose social and environmental measures, more than 80% of U.S. corporations voluntarily release corporate responsibility reports. The increased focus of CS in practice has impacted many business curricula to adapt CS-related courses (such as business ethics); however, we present results that indicate that such means may have limited influence on students’ views concerning the legitimacy of social and environmental issues in regard to corporate decision making. More consideration is needed to determine how CS-related topics can be effectively integrated within business curriculums. We propose incorporating CS within the Organizational Strategy capstone course and assess its effectiveness via survey analysis. Suggestions for course design are provided.