Center for Sustainable Business Practices

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Overview

Sustainability at the University of Oregon is not a new concept. It's why we have a Center for Sustainable Business Practices that suppports our top-ranked Green MBA program.

Here, we take sustainability seriously. It's why we teach our students to identify innovative ideas and better materials and to think about sustainability from a business perspective—and a human one. We’ve been teaching and practicing sustainable business for almost three decades, creating leaders who know how to balance social, environmental and financial responsibilities.

For us, the market demand for transparency, sustainability, and business responsiveness just makes sense. And Oregon—with its natural beauty, array of outdoor opportunities, and appreciation for the environment—continues to be a nexus of sustainable business management practices and innovations.

More about the Center MBA Specialization

Center News

Academics

Oregon has an international reputation for environmental quality, social stewardship, and innovative sustainability policy. The UO Lundquist College of Business leverages this distinctive quality of Oregon through the Center for Sustainable Business Practices.

At the undergraduate level, the themes of sustainability are interwoven into most of the core courses you will take at the Lundquist College, and we are currently investigating options for adding an undergraduate concentration.

At the MBA level, the center supports the sustainable business practices specialization, giving students hands-on learning experiences that cannot be matched by other programs. The Oregon MBA's sustainable business curriculum provides students with tools and knowledge actively used—and sought out—by today’s leading companies in the area of sustainability. Coursework includes: sustainable business development, supply chain operations and information, principles of industrial ecology, project and operations management models, life cycle analysis, and more.

More about the Sustainable MBA Curriculum

Strategic Planning Project Program

Faculty and Staff

Research

As the dimensions of sustainability change so too do the areas of study, but there are four major areas that occupy the center’s faculty members' research:

Sustainable supply chain and operations management: Assess and design scalable and value-creating global supply chain processes that meet emerging standard for sustainable operations and leverage the entire value chain from sourcing, logistics and manufacturing to marketing, distribution and customer relations.
Organizational change for social and environmental stewardship: Articulate strategic aspirations, engage internal and external stakeholders, manage interactions of organizational systems and interfirm relationships, and develop effective change programs to help guide organizations, executives and teams on implementation of strategies.
Performance measurement and governance: Develop corporate social responsibility performance metrics and feedback processes to lead performance, ensure transparency, link operations with overall strategic goals, and support management as it adjusts to and plans for risk and maintains its competitiveness.
Measurement and analysis for the life cycle: Assess, design and adjust the life cycle of goods and services to maximize environmental stewardship, minimize cradle to grave impacts, and support ongoing improvements and standards compliance.

Nagesh Murthy
Hanson, S., L. Jiang, J. Ye, and N. N. Murthy. "Society or the Environment? Understanding How Consumers Evaluate Brand Messages About Corporate Social Responsibility Activities." Journal of Brand Management 26, no. 1: 21-34. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-018-0110-8.
January 2019
Nagesh Murthy
Hu, Xing, Zhixi Wan, and Nagesh N. Murthy. "Dynamic Pricing of Limited Inventory with Product Returns." Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2017.0702.
August 2018
Andrew Nelson
Waisberg, Isaac, and Andrew Nelson. “When the General Meets the Particular: The Practices and Challenges of Interorganizational Knowledge Reuse.” Organization Science 29, no. 3: 432-448. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1196.
August 2018
Andrew Nelson
Hayter, Chris, Andrew Nelson, Stephanie Zayed, and Alan O’Connor. “Conceptualizing Academic Entrepreneurship Ecosystems: A Review, Analysis and Extension of the Literature.” The Journal of Technology Transfer 43, no. 4: 1039-1082. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-018-9657-5.
July 2018
Zhibin (Ben) Yang
Yang, Zhibin, Xinxin Hu, Haresh Gurnani, and Huiqi Guan. "Multichannel Distribution Strategy: Selling to a Competing Buyer with Limited Supplier Capacity." Management Science 64, no. 5: 2199-2218. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2702.
May 2018