Curricular innovations on sustainability and subsistence marketplaces: Philosophical, substantive, and methodological orientations

Using synergies between research, teaching, and social initiatives, the author designed and offered a number of courses in the arena of sustainability: a first-year MBA course on sustainability for all contexts, a module required for all first semester business undergraduates on sustainable businesses for subsistence marketplaces as part of a broader course on professional responsibility, and a year-long interdisciplinary graduate course on sustainable product and market development for subsistence marketplaces. The author describes the approach in terms of its philosophical orientation of envisioning a better world as well as associated challenges, its substantive focus on subsistence marketplaces, and its methodological orientation of employing bottom-up teaching approaches. A concluding discussion places the author's educational endeavors in perspective in light of the literature and existing learning frameworks as well as the principles of responsible management education.