Responsible Business Workshop – Collaborative Live Virtual Course

During the Spring semester of this academic year, 9 Global BBA students took part in a collaborative live virtual course (commonly known as COIL), entitled Responsible Business Workshop, jointly offered by CUHK Business School (our partner school) and National Chiayi University, as part of CUHK Business School’s Business Education for Social Good (BESGO) program.

This collaboration was made possible thanks to Prof. Fred Ku (Visiting Professor at NUCB Business School, our Graduate School of Management, and Assistant Dean and Director of the Integrated BBA program of the CUHK Business School) and Prof. Takehiko Ito (Associate Dean at NUCB Business School). Through e-collaboration with virtual teaching and learning environment, this case-based course brought together 5 instructors from 5 institutions, spanning from Japan to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Poland and the United Kingdom while the student body included participants from NUCB Undergraduate School, CUHK Business School, and National Chiayi University.

Taught over 4 months since February, this course brought the students a deeper understanding of social issues in both local and international context through 5 different cases respectively introduced by each instructor and how businesses can create economic and social values by helping resolve these issues. Meanwhile, the course design promoted the concept of Internationalization at Home through e-collaboration with students, academics, and industry experts across borders and timezones.

The topics dwelled into an overall view of responsible businesses with a case on electric scooter sharing in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Japanese business culture & purpose in business, sustainability risk in Indonesia coffee supply chain, and social entrepreneurship in a local community in Poland.

This course culminated in a group project where students had to investigate the sustainability view and approach of a company of their choice, and the best teams were invited to a virtual symposium during which they could presented their work to industry experts who shared practical insights.