Business School offers important windows into the functions of business and into ways of conceptualizing challenges and opportunities. It also offers valuable cross-cutting tools for analysis, decisions, and leadership. But there’s more…: Very successful and admired business leaders think even more fundamentally and broadly about the economic, political, and social context of business decision making. They understand that the ‘corporation’ is a legal and social construct, not just an economic construct. Support for business corporations has not been and is not absolute and requires business leaders to examine the role of their business and business generally in the broader society — business and society. In contemporary language, what is the ‘purpose’ of business? For whom should the corporation be run? Answers to these questions and others shape business, business careers, and attitudes toward business. Addressing such cross-cutting questions requires that we examine the business corporation and its role in society through multiple perspectives. In particular, we will study business and society through the lenses of the evolving business organization, finance and investors, employees, corporate governance, privacy and big data, social movements, social justice, and climate change. To accomplish these views, we will draw on leading CBS faculty and their ideas. In each case, we will complement these ideas with the experience of leading business practitioners as teaching partners. The introductory and closing sessions will feature longer conversations with a business leader on the role of business in society. Conducting the course in this way brings both ‘business and society’ and Columbia Business School’s ‘ideas, talent, and network’ to center stage. You will also be co-creating this course with the teaching team. Your presence, preparation, and participation are vital to a successful class experience. The syllabus presents questions and readings to get you ready for our class discussion and analysis. All of us on the teaching team look forward to working with you!
Division: Economics

Spring 2024


B8784 - 001

Spring 2023


B8784 - 001