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Inside the Initiative
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 Organizations need to be sensitive to how
technological and business process innovations transform local
economies, impact local environments, affect political processes, and
change the ways in which we communicate around the world.
— G. “Anand” Anandalingam,
Dean
Get more of Dean
Anand’s vision
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The Context— Closing the Gap
In the fall of 2008, the Robert H. Smith School of Business released a report
concerning the disparity between businesses and business schools in the area of
social and environmental responsibility. Professors Rhonda Reger and J. Robert
Baum analyzed the content of nearly 100 corporate and business school web sites.
What they discovered was that business schools are lagging behind many companies
whose stance toward social responsibility and corporate accountability is more
ambitious and forward thinking. One reason for this is that commercial
businesses are motivated by the close ties and obligations they have to their
stakeholders, i.e. their shareholders, employees, customers, etc. Dean Anand and the faculty at Smith believe
that business schools around the country should be LEADING the discourse on
social responsibility, not following it. This, along with the growing demands of
students, corporate constituents, and alumni to make social and environmental impact a priority,
became the impetus behind the Smith Center for Social Value Creation.
What Does Social Value Creation Mean?
Social value creation is how businesses and business leaders work toward
economic prosperity and transformative social change. Social value creation is
not simply philanthropy. It strives to balance profit with public
good, weighing typical ROI against the impact, both social and environmental, on
local and global communities. In the past, social entrepreneurship has been
associated with non-profits and the work of charitable institutions, but this is
no longer the case. Many corporations have begun to think beyond profit
maximization to more far-reaching societal concerns. In the process, the lines
between “nonprofit” and “for-profit” are blurring. Many of today’s social
entrepreneurs are “intrapreneurs”—unconventional innovators who work within
their own corporations to solve societal problems through sound market-based
approaches, social-minded pragmatism, and unswerving commitment.
Learn more.
The Vision
We do not consider social value creation an “adjunct” to students’ education.
In fact, it is our intention to incorporate the values and vision implicit to
social value creation into ALL business courses offered at The Smith School of
Business. Our goal is to inspire our students so
that they may see new possibilities to their financial, social and environmental
contributions as business leaders of the 21st century.
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