Applied Business Ethics

The seminar Applied Business Ethics focuses primarily on the relationship between theory and practice in business ethics. Students will thus critically discuss and present current topics and issues on international business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability management. The participants will train their ethical reflection capabilities and get to know the challenges linked to multinational companies’ efforts to implement ethical business practices.
 
The seminar will be held in English, meaning that coursework, presentations and papers can be submitted in English only.

Topics to be covered in this seminar are:

• Digital Business Models of the Platform Economy: A Critical Analysis from a Business Ethics Perspective
• Sharing Economy: Concept, Cases and Critical Analysis from a Business Ethics Perspective
• Critical Perspectives on Political CSR: Limits, Potential and Cases
• Sweatshops and their Role in Global Value Chains: A Critical Analysis
• Business for a better World? Potential, Limits and Cases of Social Entrepreneurship

The following learning objectives shall be met:

• Competence development in the area of international business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability,
• Competence development in the area of creating sustainable value for companies and societies,
• Competence development in the area of handling ethical dilemmas and using instruments of sustainable management,
• Raising awareness of moral responsibilities of future business executives.

For the summer term 2022 we will align our planning to the current situation of the pandemic and the instructions of the presidential office of the University of Hamburg. Unfortunately, this means that we will be planning the seminar completely digital for now. In case the situation improves, it is well possible that we will switch to in-person classes in the course of the semester. We will keep the students updated via the course description (see material downloads) and announcements during the seminar appointments.

The course description contains all the relevant information on the seminar. Please read it carefully! There you will find all the seminar appointments, the seminar content and the Zoom-link, which we will use throughout the whole semester.

Students are required to write a paper and give a presentation to earn credit points. The seminar is thus organized as follows: On April 5th, 2022, 12:15 pm, the seminar will start with a kick off meeting, where students will be briefed on the overall subject of the seminar. Upon this occasion, students will also be introduced to the different topics of the seminar, which will be allocated to students according to their preferences. The final allocation will take place in the second meeting on April 12th, 2022, 12:15 pm. During this meeting, we will also give advice on general expectations on giving a presentation, writing a paper as well as on the formal requirements for drafting an academic paper.

After the kick-off meetings, students start writing their papers and work together to prepare a group presentation of their topic. During this phase students are supported by a tutor and can receive feedback in order to prepare the group presentations.

The group presentations will take place on May 31st, June 7th, June 14th, June 21st, and June 28th, 2022.

Introductory literature will be provided following the topic allocation.

The grade is comprised as follows:

50% paper (10-12 pages), 50% group presentation and discussion of findings.