Online degree candidates may learn corporate social responsibility

Online degree candidates may learn corporate social responsibility

Prospective business professionals may benefit from campus-based or online courses that teach corporate social responsibility, such as those offered by the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.

The Massachusetts-based school recently challenged its MBA candidates to develop business proposals for telecommunications corporation Verizon.

More than 100 first-year students in a foundational course on management processes were asked to work in teams and devise a strategy that would address a social issue while improving the company's business prospects.

A panel of judges from the school's Center for Corporate Citizenship awarded first place to an initiative called Green with Envy, which featured plans to create environmentally friendly products and services, such as a recyclable mobile phone.

Chris Pinney, director of research and policy at the center, said the teams' proposals revealed "the unharnessed potential of young business leaders to…drive innovation and grow their business by creating products that generate business opportunities that address social problems."

Working adults may participate in similar contests that can help them gain marketable management skills by enrolling in business-related programs at campus-based or online universities.