Business and Society (BSPA-UB)

Social Entrepreneurship is an emerging and rapidly changing business field that examines the practice of identifying, starting and growing successful mission-driven for-profit and nonprofit ventures—that is, organizations that strive to advance social change through innovative solutions. This course, rooted in stakeholder theory, is designed to provide a socially relevant academic experience in order to help students gain in-depth insights into economic and social value creation across a number of areas including poverty alleviation, energy, health and sustainability. Students will have the opportunity to find and test new ideas and solutions to social problems, create sustainable business models, identify funding options and alternatives, learn about evolving legal and governance structures, learn how to measure social impact and scale a social enterprise to name a few. This course will provide students with a toolkit and frameworks that can be used to start a social venture, applied within a social venture or within other types of organizations to influence social change.

This course invites students to consider the causes and consequences of economic inequality from a variety of analytic perspectives, to judge the current situation based on their own ethical values, and to take concrete actions to bring about positive change in the world. The format includes a discussion seminar and two major research projects. In the seminar, students become familiar with relevant terms and concepts drawn from disciplines including economics, political science, sociology, organization studies and philosophy. Informed by these diverse perspectives, students undertake two major research projects. The first project focuses on the causes and consequences of inequality in the various contexts of individual students’ own hometowns. The second project focuses on possible points of leverage with the market, government and community sectors, and encourages students to work in groups and use these points of leverage to bring about a more just society. The overall learning objectives are for students to become more familiar with the complexity of economic inequality as an empirical phenomenon, and more empowered to contribute pragmatically to a just society.

This class assumes that in some manner you desire to be an active contributor to a just, equitable, and regenerative world. That is my definition of a “social entrepreneur.” The course is designed and committed to equipping you to be more effective in that pursuit. This course will provide you with some of the fundamental capabilities required to become a social entrepreneur such as systems thinking, an understanding of the various frameworks that will allow you to more deeply understand and reconcile sustainability, capitalism, and the new economy, and build your knowledge to become conversant with how to leverage business for transformative societal and environmental change. The course will help you to develop skills for researching, strategizing, influencing, and implementing systemic change.This class assumes that in some manner you desire to be an active contributor to a just, equitable, and regenerative world. That is my definition of a "social entrepreneur." The course is committed to equipping you to be more effective in that pursuit.

Open to Stern students only. Some of the most forward-thinking businesses interested in taking care of the environment and society can be found in the beautiful country of Costa Rica. For the Fall 2023 semester, Stern students will have the opportunity to work with small businesses in Costa Rica to help further develop their innovative sustainability programs. This course includes a trip to Costa Rica in January 2024 during which students will test their hypothesis on the ground with local partners and become immersed in Costa Rican culture. View the website for more details about this program: www.stern.nyu.edu/costarica. Attending or viewing an Info Session is required before enrolling in this course. Must be enrolled at Stern in New York City during the semester you take the course. Important Note: Seniors who plan to graduate in January - the final grade for this course will not be available until after the January trip

One of the only classes of its kind at the undergraduate level, this is an advanced-level class for juniors and seniors that will focus on human rights law and practice, and how the human rights framework applies to business. Students will learn about the theoretical foundations of human rights, the evolving role of business in modern society, and analyze case studies of how companies have been challenged by human rights issues in fashion, investing, social media, and food and beverage, among other sectors. Classes will consist of interactive lectures, stakeholder role play exercises, topical debates, and presentations.

1st century investors face a broadening and deepening array of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) risks and opportunities. Climate change, water scarcity, community conflict, resource depletion, supply chain breakdowns, worker well-being and economic inequality pose material challenges that make sustainability an imperative for successful investors and the companies they choose to invest in. This course will couple theory with the practice of Sustainable Investing (SI). We will examine current ESG investment and corporate strategies, trends, future scenarios, players, and frameworks and integrate that theory with practical investment performance analysis, metrics, and studies of data, screens, asset classes, and diversification. The course maximizes student interaction with industry leaders and is taught through a mix of case studies, analyst reports, and lectures. Students gain perspectives from assessing fund manager strategies and perform quantitative and qualitative analysis in conjunction with the development of stock pitches for possible direct investment as concentrated positions within a portfolio.

Today, the food industry is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for up to 30% of emissions. A poor diet is now the leading cause of mortality in the U.S. As part of these huge global problems, animal production is arguably the biggest culprit. In recognition of this, consumers are dramatically altering diet patterns, and food entrepreneurs are rushing to solve the problem with desirable solutions. Vegetarianism and veganism are exploding and new alternative meat and dairy offerings are being launched at a frenetic pace. This undergraduate course—the first of its kind—is designed to put the idea of teaching entrepreneurship to its ultimate test—with the objective of incubating a series of ventures through the course of the semester that have the potential to be viable businesses and reverse negative externalities that arise from animal production. The course will start by exploring the chemistry of protein, the nutritional role of protein, the history of animal production and its environmental consequences. It will then take students through a series of frameworks to identify and implement solutions using entrepreneurship as the vehicle. These frameworks will include: (1) design thinking to identify opportunities, (2) sector / industry analysis models to identify need-gaps and validate the opportunity, (3) design thinking to prototype solutions and (4) business modeling in order to commercialize solutions. At the beginning of the semester, “start-up” teams of five to six students each will be formed and tasked with building a “blue-print” for a startup in the sustainable protein sector.

The American corporate landscape is under assault. The average lifespan for a company in the S&P 500 is shorter than ever, approval ratings for corporations are lower than ever, and consumers are increasingly skeptical of advertising and corporate social responsibility messages that attempt to divert attention from unethical business practices. The ideas of stakeholder theory and shared value are gaining ground and increasingly being seen as necessary constructs for corporations. As part of this, the field of marketing is also undergoing significant change. This course will attempt to explore this “new normal,” study the evolution of the consumer, and explore what brands, both old and new, are doing and might do to succeed in the years to come. The course will rely on a series of cutting edge case studies and real-world projects brought to life by two entrepreneurs—one who is the co-founder of a leading health food brand and the other who is the co-founder of a leading creative agency

People are like plants: if you get the conditions right, they will usually flourish. So what are those conditions, and why are so many members of Gen Z (born 1997 to 2012) failing to flourish? We will look at research in social and positive psychology on happiness, virtue, self-change, and personal growth. We will also look at ancient wisdom––insights into mind and heart passed down to us from many cultures because they work. The goal of this course is to help students understand the conditions that lead to flourishing, and then to develop specific habits that will help them to thrive at NYU, at work, and in their personal relationships. Each student will choose a specific “happiness habit” and will design a plan to cultivate the habit over the 14 weeks of the course. The final paper will include a self-evaluation of progress in becoming stronger, smarter, more sociable, and happier.

The main objective of the course is to equip the student with the knowledge required for the understanding as to how to measure, evaluate and disclose social and environmental corporate performance. For this reason, the course will emphasize the interplay between sustainability strategy, organizational architecture and performance, providing the practical knowledge and insights for embedding sustainability into the corporate DNA as daily practice.

In this course, students will develop an effective leadership perspective through pursuit of the following learning objectives: 1) to become familiar with the key environmental and social issues affecting business today, 2) to understand the evolution of corporate response—from compliance to engagement to innovation, 3) to develop some of the skills required for leading in this new social and political environment (e.g. multi-stakeholder management), 4) to explore the efficiencies and innovations being developed by corporate leaders in pursuit of sustainability, 5) to explore innovations in sustainable finance, 6) to become familiar with the latest consumer insight research on sustainability, 7) be able to design an effective embedded sustainability strategy that will deliver competitive advantage. In short, this course is multi-disciplinary, and seeks to integrate across the functions of the firm to arrive at an effective firm-wide leadership sensibility.

This course is designed to help students gain actionable insights into the nexus between economic and social value creation. Specifically, the purpose is to provide students with hands-on exposure to the entrepreneurial pursuit of social impact and innovation. As a result of this course, students will gain: Increased ability to recognize and critically assess various forms of social enterprise strategies as tools of economic development and social transformation; Greater understanding of the challenges of growing and sustaining a social enterprise, as well as special insights into enterprise development and growth; Improved consulting skills, including project planning, issue analysis, formulation of strategic and tactical recommendations, and client relationship management. By participating in the course, students will be better able to adapt and apply business skills and academic disciplines in the social sector, and will have increased skills for effective and thoughtful leadership in business and society throughout their careers.

Independent study provides an opportunity for a select group of upperclassmen each year to work one-on-one with a faculty member on a topic selected by the student and approved by the supervising faculty member. Each student is expected to spend as much time on the independent study as would be spent on a regular course, and the topic selected may not replicate an existing course. An information sheet with important guidelines about Independent Study is available at stern.nyu.edu/portal-partners/current-students/undergraduate/resources-policies/forms.

This course is an experiential learning seminar involving project-based collaboration among students, faculty and nonprofit organizations in New York City. Its two objectives are to provide students with an occasion to put the lessons learned in the Social Impact Core Curriculum into practice as consultants; and to produce project outcomes that have meaning and value for participating stakeholders.

This course lies at the intersection of two academic streams - Technology & Innovation, and the Energy Industry. Specifically it examines the rapid technological changes that are taking place in the energy industry from an economic, geopolitical, and sociocultural perspective. It will cover traditional petroleum-based industries as well as other industries such as solar, nuclear, sand oil, wind, biofuels, and renewable energy. It will also examine technological changes in the electricity market such as smart grids etc. As part of the Experiential Learning Seminar, the course will require students to work on projects with New York city-based organizations.

SIV Ghana is a one-of-a-kind course that combines in-class learning with a hands-on social entrepreneurship and cultural experience. Over the past seven years, SIV Ghana has been working with its partner village, Woatze Tsatoe, in the Eastern Volta region of Ghana, to help start community-owned social enterprises. When we began work, the village had no concrete structures, paved roads or any businesses. Since then, our class has assisted in establishing several community owned businesses, including the Amenuveve Batik Center, the Tsatoe Vegetable farm, a clean water business and an emerging business focused on women’s health. Through philanthropic initiatives, the class has also helped support a variety of projects including the construction of a new school, public latrine, computer lab and library. Each year, the class is broken up into teams, and each team is responsible for one social entrepreneurship and one volunteer project. The overall goals of the class include learning how to use business as a tool for economic development, developing empathy through community service and cultural immersion, and generating leadership skills in an increasingly complex and global world. During Spring Break, the entire class travels to Ghana to study and implement projects to empower and sustain the Waodze Tsatoe community. There is also an active cohort of SIV Alumni who initiated and now implement a virtual reading program with scholarships students in this community.