The purpose of the final paper is to undertake a more in-depth research project,. The paper should be
based on a topic on the syllabus (or closely related), but should not be identical to the
class topics that you or anyone in your group has written about in your shorter 5-6 page
papers. You can cover a related topic i.e. if you wrote a 5-page paper on SR and
Walmart, you could do a final that looks at CSR/ESG and another sector or issue, such as
offshore clothing and sweatshops, or standards and labeling in global value chains. On
climate change, you could look at climate adaptation, insurance, and how cities are
responding.
The topics need to relate to the course, e.g. diversity, environmental issues, trends in
work and technology (e.g. the gig economy) etc. Your paper should draw from at least
two of the conceptual frameworks – market failures, SR/ESG, corporate power, trade
and national competitiveness (including business clusters), and corporate strategies in
facing social pressures.
You need to conduct further research (5-6 sources, including longer reports and academic
articles),
The guideline questions help you to be analytical, so that in addressing them, you have to
provide analysis, arguments and data and information from sources. E.g. What is
happening? Why? What are the implications? What are the opposing views? What can
we (the company, the public/consumers, activists, or the government) do about it? An
analytical paper draws from a conceptual framework to make logical arguments to
address a question. Try to make causal linkages clcar e.g. how tragedy of the commons*
leads to excessive greenhouse gas emissions.
Try to avoid wishful thinking e.g. there is no point in saying companies should treat their
workers better’ or *consumers should cut their emissions?
It we need to analyze why
various actors behave the way they do, and consider what policies, incentives, or new
business models might change things.
The final paper should be double-spaced, 12 point font, and use appropriate formatting
and citations. The paper needs to be well
integrated.
This should be a well-structured paper with good English. You need to research the topic
in more depth and explore the issue from at least two conceptual standpoints, e.g. market
failures, SR and stakeholders, the role of corporate power, or role of technology and
globalization. You will find that at least two of these conceptual frames can be applied to
the various topics.
It is important is that you do not just write up everything that you find on the issue – a
*data dump”; instead, you need to organize the information conceptually using analytical
tools and concepts, and illustrate briefly with relevant data and examples. Explore the
different sides of the issue, make clear and coherent analytical arguments, try to be
balanced, but you tan come down on one side or another if you want. Try to avoid vague
generalities, but also avoid lots of descriptive details without making your point clear. Be
concise and clear.
Citation format:
Citation format is APA style, which uses short (author, year) references in the body of the
text, with a full citation at the end of the paper. For example, as Levy (1997: 12) put it,
the relationship between business and society is essentially political” (Indicate page
numbers when you include a direct quote). Or mention an idea or a statistic, and then put
the author and year in brackets (Levy, 1997). Do not cite the textbook for general ideas,
only for specific facts. Avoid the use of footnotes: