M.B.A. Courses for Students With Social Concerns
The down-low: On the heels of Muhammad Yunus's 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his microfinancing projects in Bangladesh, Northwestern's business school saw a flurry of demand for courses on the topic. Christensen, whose day job involves running a microfinance investment company, ShoreCap International, teaches case studies from Uganda, Kenya, and Cambodia. He has his class analyze the business sense in investing in the industry while also evaluating whether lending money to individuals in very poor areas has a significant developmental impact on their communities. Whether the course will be offered again next year is still in question, says Christensen, but its popularity bodes well for its survival.
Environmental Entrepreneurship
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Prof. Erica Plambeck
Straight up: "This course examines how market forces can be harnessed to encourage private solutions to environmental concerns. It uses case studies to show how innovative contracting must be combined with entrepreneurial visions if environmental entrepreneurship is to be successful. The course draws on economic theories of principal-agent problems and contracting and on case studies of "enviro-capitalists." Students learn how for-profit and not-for-profit organizations are using market forces by developing innovative contracts that specify the environmental products that are desired, the mechanisms for payment, and the contributions from input suppliers. ... The course also considers cases dealing with land, water, and wildlife resources and cases dealing with the tougher problems of air and water quality."
The down-low: One of the case studies Plambeck's class examines is Wal-Mart's sustainability strategy–how the company has formed a network among itself, nonprofits, academics, and its critics. The class is both for students who are idealistic about saving the environment and for those who recognize the role of environmental and social responsibility in the traditional metric of financial success. Next year, the business school is planning a new team-taught class that will be heavily grounded in studying ecology, Earth systems, and climate change. "Students will have a deeper understanding of the environmental science," she says, not just the ins and outs of business.
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