Course Description

This course provides students with an in-depth exploration of corporate social responsibility and performance. Students will engage in the shareholder-stakeholder debate, the role of corporate governance in global business, the ethical foundations of corporate social responsibility, the strategic implementation of corporate social responsibility and the associated challenges. The course explores social entrepreneurship and social business worldwide.

Learning Outcomes

• Apply critical and analytical thinking skills to problems and dilemmas in global corporate responsibility.
• Develop applied research skills to address a practical problem in global corporate responsibility, specifically through problem framing, literature research, data collection, analysis and interpretation, and the formulation of managerial recommendations.
• Engage in and contribute to online discussions to foster understanding and application of team skills and collaborative practices within the context of global corporate responsibility.
• Synthesise knowledge and skills from international business, accounting, finance, marketing, and management to inform decisions and strategies in corporate responsibility.
• Develop argumentation skills within contemporary debates in global corporate responsibility, such as the shareholder-stakeholder debate, strategic CSR, environmental and social dumping, social business, and social entrepreneurship.
• Understand the conceptual foundations in the field of corporate responsibility and comprehend the complexity of corporate responsibility for global business.

Learning Experience

This course is designed to help students understand, critique, and apply corporate responsibility in the realities of global business. It brings together the ethical, strategic, and governance dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social performance (CSP), with a consistent focus on the practical dilemmas organisations face when operating across borders, cultures, and regulatory environments.

The learning experience is deliberately sequenced to move from global context, to ethical foundations, to organisational decisions and consequences. Students begin by examining the changing nature of international business, including globalisation and shifting patterns of trade and investment. From there, the course explores nationalism, trade tensions, and regionalisation (semi-globalisation), positioning these forces as key constraints and drivers that shape corporate behaviour and responsibility expectations. This early framing establishes that corporate responsibility is not a “bolt-on” topic, it is embedded in how global markets operate and how firms make trade-offs under pressure.

As the course progresses, students build a conceptual toolkit for decision-making in ethically complex environments. Modules on ethics, corruption, and ethical theories provide structured ways to analyse competing obligations and values. Sustainability is then developed as both a moral and operational concern through engagement with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the relationship between sustainability and multinational enterprise operations. These concepts are reinforced through applied examples and reflective questions that ask students to interpret corporate choices, not simply describe them.

Mid-course modules shift attention to corporate governance and stakeholder theory, grounding the shareholder-stakeholder debate in real governance structures, ownership models, and accountability mechanisms. Students then examine the role of supranational organisations in global business, including the influence of the World Trade Organization and related arrangements, before confronting “race to the bottom” dynamics such as offshoring, outsourcing, and modern slavery. This sequencing is intentional, it ensures students can recognise how ethical risk often emerges from system-level incentives and institutional settings, not only individual misconduct.

Later modules broaden the lens to emerging issues that affect responsible strategy in global business, including innovation across borders, global talent and knowledge management, and the ways technology reshapes both opportunity and responsibility. Throughout, students are repeatedly prompted to connect responsibility decisions to wider business functions, integrating international business, accounting, finance, marketing, and management to support more realistic and defensible recommendations.

A distinctive feature of the course is the emphasis on applied inquiry and professional practice. Students may complete a discovery learning project (individual or group) that mirrors real organisational work: framing a CSR problem, conducting literature research, collecting and interpreting data, and translating findings into managerial recommendations. The intended outcome is not only analysis, but the development of a credible CSR strategy, social entrepreneurship concept, or social business implementation plan, supported by effective team and self-management practices.

Online discussion is also treated as a learning method rather than an add-on. Structured participation supports collaborative reasoning, argumentation in contemporary debates (for example strategic CSR, environmental and social dumping, and shareholder versus stakeholder priorities), and the development of clear, evidence-informed positions in areas where there are rarely simple answers.

By the end of the course, students are equipped to work with the complexity of corporate responsibility in global business, they can analyse dilemmas critically, conduct applied research, collaborate effectively, and propose strategies that are ethically informed, operationally realistic, and grounded in the realities of international competition and governance.