Navarra, University of IESE Business School

The recent emphasis on sustainable development and corporate social responsibility is nothing new for IESE. Since its founding in 1958, IESE has always treated ethics and social responsibility as essential to the training of future business leaders.

This year IESE is launching �Partners for Change,� as a contribution to EABIS, to develop future business school faculty. IESE believes we must find new ways of shaping the learning experience, which enables future managers to make decisions with awareness of their impact on society and the environment.

IESE has introduced a course on Social Entrepreneurship in its MBA program, which has proved popular. Courses underscoring the importance of these issues include: Competitive Strategy, Global Economics, Emerging Economies, Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development and the BOP, Corporate Strategy, Management in the Health Sector and Family Business.

IESE�s commitment to these issues is reflected by its research centers and publishing activities. IESE has partnered with the Schwab Foundation to create a case-study series examining the challenges facing social entrepreneurs. We are also working with Ashoka, another organization supporting social entrepreneurs. In addition, this year the school is hosting the first International Social Entrepreneurship Conference, in collaboration with NYU and INSEAD. The event has led to further IESE research, with a book on social entrepreneurship to be published by Palgrave.

Since 1990, IESE has organized the annual International Symposium on Business, Ethics and Society. Last year�s theme was �Accounting and Accountability: A Challenge for Corporate Culture.�

Being internationally focused, IESE actively promotes social entrepreneurship across continents. This summer, IESE faculty will be teaching a course on Social Entrepreneurship at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai. CEIBS, the Asian Institute of Management, Copenhagen Business School and IESE are also partnering together in an EU-sponsored program. Through conferences, consulting projects, workshops, internships, social enterprise business-plan competitions and Ph.D. funding for research, the Asian/European knowledge-exchange represents another move toward increasing international awareness in the field of social entrepreneurship and sustainable development.