Newswise — In an effort to create socially responsible business models, students in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University are developing innovative business solutions for prevalent social issues in an increasingly competitive environment. Programs that address societal concerns allow students to focus on business models that not only create business value, but also great social value, developing a new kind of social entrepreneurship. Two examples from the Whitman School include:
• Craig Watters, an entrepreneurship professor at Whitman, is expanding the definition of “minority business.” The classroom learning in his Women & Minority Entrepreneurship course looks at AIDS as both an entrepreneurial attribute and an exploited opportunity around which new businesses are created. Students enrolled in the course study and experience the social and economic impacts of AIDS on entrepreneurial decision making, opportunities discovered, business concepts developed, resources identified and gathered, and target markets created. Working in Syracuse with the CNY Health Systems Agency and AIDS Community Resources, the students have developed business concepts around AIDS that will become five new businesses. These businesses fit into the agencies’ initiatives for AIDS prevention, awareness, and healthy living with concepts, meeting the needs of the new profile of HIV/AIDS environments and those people infected /affected by the disease. Among these businesses being created is a social networking portal for HIV/AIDS clients; a new fashion business creating T-shirts printed with messages on prevention, advertisements for supporting events, etc.; Living Now, a magazine that promotes healthy living among youth; and a host of sustainable businesses concepts for LGBT youth in today’s world.
• The Converting Organic Waste (COW) project brings social responsibility into the curriculum, with Amanda Nicholson, assistant professor of retail management practice, overseeing the ambitious program. Students in Whitman’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team are teaming up with students at SUNY-ESF to create a plan for reducing pre/post consumer waste on campus and moving towards carbon neutrality. The pilot study began last summer utilizing food waste from the Sheraton Hotel, which was then decomposed successfully utilizing an anaerobic digester built in one of the ESF greenhouses on their campus. The products of the digester are a sludge type fertilizer and biogas. SIFE students have also been monitoring the quantity of the food waste produced in all the dining facilities on campus with the long-term goal of enabling campus dining halls to create their own compost/energy and reduce waste.
A survey conducted by Net Impact and the Aspen Institute revealed that almost 80 percent of MBA students are craving more sustainability and corporate responsibility content in their curriculums. Programs like the ones Whitman offers provide these unique opportunities to gain more practical knowledge of corporate governance as students apply business principles to social missions.
“With so many issues facing our communities today—from globalization to the current recession—it’s increasingly important to instill sound business ethics in our students,” says Melvin T. Stith, dean of the Whitman School. “Corporate social responsibility isn’t just an option anymore; it’s a necessary part of every business plan. That’s what we teach Whitman students, and it’s apparent in programs like COW and the AIDS awareness project. ”
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