Colorado State University, College of Business

Implementing “Business for a Better World” though Research with Impact

 

The College of Business at Colorado State University is encouraging its faculty and others to conduct well-grounded research addressing pressing societal problems. Initiatives include several aligned recognition/award programs, complementary academic centers, an annual ethics/sustainability conference, public policy-oriented journal editorship, and an aligned post-doc program.

 

The College of Business at Colorado State University has built its strategic vision around access, excellence, and impact. Specifically, we seek to build a college that:

  1. Provides access to an exceptional business education
  2. Pursues excellence in publishing research that contributes to our understanding of business and its role in society
  3. Leverages the power of business to make the world a better place

 

In striving to achieve this vision, we have undertaken several initiatives to ensure that the College is producing well-grounded research that is contributing to societal well-being. College actions include:

  • Strategic, Impact-focused Research Objectives – The College tracks and communicates its progress in increasing the number of faculty authored publications that address sustainability and global challenge topics.
  • Business for a Better World Scholarship Award – Annually, the College recognizes a faculty member whose recent publication has excellent potential to make the world a better place.
  • Business for a Better World Summer Support Stipend – In addition to summer support that recognizes and supports all-around research excellence, the College provides additional $5000 stipends to those whose summer research programs are judged as superior in terms of their potential for contributing to societal well-being.
  • Business for a Better World Dissertation Proposal Competition – The College is implementing a dissertation proposal competition that awards $6000 grants to three students whose proposals demonstrate excellent potential for advancing business sustainability.
  • Sustainability Ethics & Entrepreneurship (SEE) Conference – As the founding institution and an annual supporter of the SEE conference, the College is broadly supporting scholarship addressing business sustainability and ethics.
  • Post-doctoral Fellowship Program – Across disciplines, the College provides opportunities to recruit and hire post-docs to work with faculty on research programs with substantial potential to contribute to societal well-being.
  • Center for Marketing & Social Impact – The Center focuses its programming on enhancing consumer welfare, informing public policy, and improving societal well-being through marketing practices that are economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.
  • Host Aligned Editorships – Currently hosting the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, with Professor Kelly Martin serving as co-editor.

 

Disciplinary knowledge gained by faculty working on ethics, sustainability, and public policy research is leveraged within the College’s academic programs. Core business courses in sustainability and business ethics anchor an undergraduate curriculum aimed at providing students with an inspirational business education. The College’s Impact MBA program provides a complete curriculum of courses tailored toward preparing graduate students to pursue careers in corporate sustainability or as entrepreneurs building socially beneficial and sustainable enterprises. Formerly known as the Global Social Sustainable Enterprise MBA, this program received the Innovator Award from the MBA Roundtable (2019) and the silver medal in sustainability at the Wharton-QS Re-imagine Conference (2020). The College also provides CSU students with a cross-section of opportunities to develop a business for a better world mindset via Institute for Entrepreneurship programming, case competitions, and impact-focused student organizations.