This course will prepare students with the knowledge to deal with ethical and sustainable issues in business transactions and decision-making. Pressures from market completion, global warming, and consumer activism as well as major business scandals have forced companies to manage companies their social capital. It is a capital that arises from the human capacity to consider others and to think and act generously and cooperatively. It involves supportive social structures that encourage pro-social actions and discourage exploitative behavior. Companies with strong social capital will show strong integrity and moral values as well as long term views in their decision-making paying attention to the welfare of their main stakeholders: customers, employees, and the environment.
Students will learn how to define, measure, monetize, report, and manage a company’s social capital through textbooks, reports, journals, and case studies with a focus on food- and farming-related businesses. Due to their massive influence as providers of basic human needs, they need to be careful not to damage or destroy social capital.