Corporate Social Responsibility and Value Creation (Audencia Nantes)

This course explores the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and value creation. Some see CSR as a threat, while others believe it is a source of value creation. This course addresses how CSR can be transformed into a positive driver for change and opportunity to create value. Participants will learn about how CSR can drive value at different levels in the organisation — Strategy, Human resources, Supply chain, Marketing and Finances. The course brings together experts on CSR both academics and practitioners.

Five weeks of free classes drawing on experts from five high-level universities on five continents – that is the recipe for a new series of MOOCs on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and value creation launched on November 16 by Audencia Nantes School of Management in France.

Wholly in English, the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is aimed at a global public keen to include economic, social and environmental stakes in business

models. The course seeks to prove that rather than being a constraint, CSR can create real value and profits for firms. Inspired by a first CSR MOOC tested last year, this new series of classes sees Audencia add to their own faculty high-level academics from Bentley University (USA), Western Business School (China), Copenhagen Business School.

Aside from the online videos, the participants will have weekly webinars with the teaching experts and a number of firms involved in CSR. In this way, they will hear on-the-ground feedback from WWF, Sodexo, BNP Paribas, Renault…

Online tests will allow those following the MOOC to validate their knowledge. Those wishing a formal certificate can also pass a final exam. To combat the drop in numbers that often afflicts MOOCs, Audencia will first give participants the chance to fill out a CSR skills questionnaire that highlights which of these skills they need to improve.

The program, which ends on December 20, covers all CSR drivers:

Week 1: November 16 – Strategy drivers

Week 2: November 23 – People drivers

Week 3: November 30 - Supply chain drivers

Week 4: December 07 – Customer drivers

Week 5: December 14 – Financial drivers

After successfully completing this course, participants will be able to :

- Understand the business and societal value of CSR

- Demonstrate a clear understanding value creation potential of CSR in the different areas covered by the course: strategy, human resources, supply chain, marketing and finance

- Identify and analyze strategic opportunities for value creation for a business and its stakeholders

- Apply CSR to the different business functions