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Prof Sarah Ashwin MAR.5.18

This course is available on the BSc in Management, International Exchange (1 Term) and International Exchange (Full Year). This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

This course is not capped, any student that requests a place will be given one.

Any social science background

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming an expected element of corporate strategy. This course critically evaluates CSR, focusing on firms’ attempts to prevent labour standards violations in their supply chains. We begin by analysing the rise of CSR, setting it in the context of global value chains, international labour standards, and emerging private forms of regulation. We then analyse topics such as: the impact of CSR on corporate financial performance; whether CSR is an effective means of raising labour standards; theories of CSR; how to embed CSR within the firm and comparative CSR. The course includes plenty of examples of how large firms are dealing with the ethical challenges posed by global supply chains. The course is interdisciplinary, and students are encouraged to bring insights from their “home” discipline so that seminars become a mutual learning experience. The course will include one lecture from a CSR professional.

Teaching hours in the LT will be commensurate with a usual half unit undergraduate course.

This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Lent Term, in line with departmental policy.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the LT.

Kaplan, S. (2019) The 360° Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation. Stanford: Stanford University Press;

Kuruvilla, S. (2021) Private Regulation of Labor Practices in Global Supply Chains: Problems, Progress and Prospects, Ithaca and London: ILR Press;

Locke, R. (2013) The Promise and Limits of Private Power: Promoting Labor Standards in a Global Economy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Vogel, D. (2005) The Market For Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility, Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

Exam (40%, duration: 1 hour and 15 minutes) in the summer exam period.
Essay (60%, 2000 words) in the ST.