Corporate sustainability, and especially inclusive stakeholder engagement, is becoming increasingly important for business success and value-creation. Historically, businesses have prioritised the interests of two stakeholder groups: shareholders and creditors. This often led to a narrow focus on financial results and short-term economic value. To ensure sustainable development in the future, businesses also need to incorporate social and environmental matters in their decision-making processes.
This workshop will report on an online short course on corporate sustainability and stakeholder engagement which we developed and piloted. The short course targeted students, as future business leaders, from two South African and two Swedish universities. The first short course was facilitated in September/October 2023, and an iteration is planned for April 2024. The short course incorporates asynchronous aspects (pre-reading and podcasts) as well as virtual synchronous engagements, which facilitates a thorough understanding of the intricacies surrounding corporate sustainability in both the African and European contexts. Short course participants also had to do group work (with intercultural interaction) and present their work to their cohort, thereby developing soft skills.
In the workshop, we intend not only to inspire participants to develop and implement short courses on corporate sustainability at their universities but also to evaluate options for future collaborations relating to our short course. While our short course primarily targeted students within business administration and accounting, it might be relevant for students of other disciplines such as industrial management, political science, risk- and environmental studies, global media studies, tourism, and culture studies.
The workshop will be structured as follows:
- Introduction to corporate sustainability and stakeholder engagement [15 min]
- Group discussion regarding the importance of corporate sustainability in participants' contexts [20 min]
- A presentation relating to our short course piloted in 2023/2024 [45 min]
- Group discussion about future integration of and collaboration relating to our short course [30 min]
- Conclusion [10 min]
Keywords: Corporate sustainability; stakeholder engagement
