Business for a Better World Center News

Mason researchers and Honey Bee Initiative tackle environmental health, economic progress, and food insecurity issues

Marianne Klinker — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 18:54:58 +0000

Mason researchers and Honey Bee Initiative tackle environmental health, economic progress, and food insecurity issues Marianne Klinker Thu, 01/19/2023 - 13:54

Learn more about the Honey Bee Initiative

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Faculty and students at ��AV are conducting impactful environmental research with the help of the Business for a Better World Center's Honey Bee Initiative.

In collaboration with ��AV’s Honeybee Initiative and faculty members of the university, Dr. H.C. Lim, an assistant professor at George Mason’s biology department with a background in evolutionary genomics, heads a project that uses DNA sequencing and barcoding to investigate pollen resources of honeybees.

The Honeybee Initiative, a program supported by ��AV's School of Business and operated by the Business for a Better World Center, is designed to empower communities through sustainable beekeeping and aims to tackle issues including environmental health, economic progress, and food insecurity. As Lim’s research focuses on diversification and speciation of birds as driven by geographic and other factors, this may seem an odd pairing, but students in Lim’s lab work on a variety of research topics, including conservation genetics of captive animals, phylogeography of Southeast Asian mammals, viruses and parasites of bees, snake fungal disease and drivers of avian metapopulation structure.

Undergraduate students Quentin Jamison and Michelle Makula carrying out DNA sequencing lab work at the Lim lab.

With funding from Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth and the Office of Student Scholarship, Creativity, and Research (OSCAR), an undergraduate student, Quentin Jamison, was recruited to conduct research under the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP). While conducting URSP research, he was co-supervised by Dr. Daniel Hanley. Jamison used pollen pellets that were collected by a collaborator, Dr. William Hahn, who affixed pollen traps to artificial bee hives located in various parts of the DMV region.

With these samples collected, Jamison was able to extract DNA using a method called bead milling. After DNA was extracted and purified, he amplified segments of DNA using polymerase chain reactions. These amplified gene segments were then sequenced at Mason’s Microbiome Analysis Center. The resultant sequences were matched against those from a database to identify the plant species that each pollen pellet originated from. The entire process is termed DNA barcoding, and studies such as this are important as it allows researchers to determine the diversity of plants that honeybees use. Since honeybees gather pollen for proteins and lipids, shedding light on their preferred pollen in different localities across the seasons help inform which plant species are needed to properly support a healthy hive. This information will potentially support changes in landscaping that are more diverse and bee-friendly. All of this in turn will hopefully help to increase honeybee populations.

Biology Research Semester student Toqa Elashry presenting her poster "Can Plants be Identified by the Color of Their Pollen?" during the Annual Celebration of Biology Undergrad Research

This project was followed by another that aimed to determine if pollen color can be used to predict the actual plant species it came from. While much information can be gained from the pollen itself, identifying its species can be time-consuming and expensive. Often, pollen must be identified through a microscope or using DNA sequencing. A biology department research student, Toqa Elashry, used digital photography and an imaging analysis software to break down the color of each pellet into red, green and blue channel values. Using a statistical approach called k-means clustering, she was able to cluster pollen pellets by color and determine if each color cluster contained pellets that originated from the same plant species. Although Elashry only had one semester to conduct her research, she was able to process and analyze color data of 2600+ pellets.

To date, the findings indicate heavy use of maples during early spring, followed by the use of pears and stone fruits (such as peaches and plums) in the middle of March. During late spring, a larger variety of plants were used, which included honeysuckles, camellias and redbuds. However, plant use patterns varied by sites. Moreover, honeybees in some sites used pollen from fewer plant species probably as a result of the lower plant diversity. The team hopes to gather data across multiple years and from more sites to better characterize spatial and temporal variations. Preliminary findings from the pollen color project determined that color may be an unreliable indicator of plant species. Not only can pollen color of different plant species appear similar, there was also pollen color variation within each plant species, probably due to differences in environmental conditions.

��AV’s Business for a Better World Center (B4BW), housed within the School of Business, believes that business can, and should, be a force for good in the world. Guided by the United Nations’ Sustainable development goals, B4BW educates the next generation of business leaders to prepare them to take on the world’s complex challenges; generates knowledge at the intersection of business and sustainability to transform business “as usual”; convenes leaders who have changed their companies and industries for the better so students can apply those lessons to their future careers; effects change by actively engaging in action-oriented partnerships with organizations and communities; and leads an international movement to reshape business education by advancing the ideal of business for a better world. The Honey Bee Initiative, a program designed to empower communities through sustainable beekeeping, is operated by the Business for a Better World Center.

Charish Bishop is a graduate student in the folklore department and graduate research assistant for the Business for a Better World Center.

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Hive Minds: Multidisciplinary collaboration creates virtual reality STEM experience for elementary students

Colleen Rich — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 19:34:03 +0000

Hive Minds: Multidisciplinary collaboration creates virtual reality STEM experience for elementary students Colleen Rich Mon, 12/12/2022 - 14:34

In This Story

Craig Yu

Learn more about the Honey Bee Initiative

Eighth-graders at Robinson Secondary School try out the honey bee virtual field trip. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

Faculty, staff, and students from three units across ��AV have worked together to create a new virtual reality (VR) experience for elementary students. Through an immersive nine-minute video, students can take a “field trip” to the Mason apiary, learning from an expert beekeeper, taking a deep dive into a hive, and even flying like foraging honey bees.

Daniel Price, founder of the Sweet Virginia Foundation, talks to a student at the special screening of the honey bee video. Photo by DeRon Rockingham/Creative Services

Funded by the Sweet Virginia Foundation, a Northern Virginia-based environmental education nonprofit, this new learning tool is a collaborative venture with the School of Business, which houses the Honey Bee Initiative (HBI), the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), and the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC). The “field trip” is designed to enhance existing pollinator curricula taught in Virginia fourth-grade classrooms, and foster interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and STEM careers in today’s youth.

The idea for the virtual field trip began nearly a decade ago with Daniel Price, founder of the Sweet Virginia Foundation, and Mason professor Lisa Gring-Pemble, HBI co-founder. Enter Mason researcher Carley Fisher-Maltese, an assistant professor in the CEHD, who helped make that dream a reality.

The 360-degree video features Sarah Red-Laird, founder and director of The Bee Girl Organization, which is widely known for teaching kids, beekeepers, and farmers how to “love their bees,” and students from Willow Springs Elementary School in Fairfax, Virginia. The video was created by CreatorUp!, a California-based video production company.

Computer science major Quang Vo helps people with their VR goggles at the screening. Photo by DeRon Rockingham/Creative Services

“This virtual field trip engages elementary school children in learning about the plight of honey bees, and their relationship to food security,” said Gring-Pemble, who is also the co-executive director of the Business for a Better World Center. “We have a moral imperative to educate our students about sustainability issues like honey bees, which are dying at an alarming rate. Bees pollinate much of the food we eat so our very survival is dependent on bees.”

Fisher-Maltese, who is leading the research initiative, said the idea behind the VR experience was to create a field trip for students who don't have access to resources like apiaries and beekeepers. “We were excited about the virtual reality technology because we felt like the experience could be really immersive and make the students feel like they were there.”

A special screening of the video was held on the Fairfax Campus in late October before it debuted in five public and private local elementary and secondary schools.

Fisher-Maltese and Gring-Pemble were funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for bee research. Many came together to build the script for the virtual reality (VR) experience. CEC’s Craig Yu, and his students, computer science major Quang Vo and computer game design major Jake Wojtecki, also assisted in the project.

The Mason team that created that immersive VR field trip for students. Photo by DeRon Rockingham/Creative Services

Fisher-Maltese calls this video experience the scaled-down version of what they hope to create: an interactive, multi-user experience where the student could virtually “be a bee.” Right now, the team is piloting the video with fourth- and fifth-graders in Alexandria City and Fairfax County public schools, and using instruments like a VR sickness questionnaire to get feedback on whether students experienced motion sickness from the VR and a content measure to see if they learned anything from the video. They also conducted focus group interviews with the students and one-on-one interviews with the teachers.

The team also had the opportunity to share the video with high school students in Technology Teacher Amy Krellwitz’s advanced engineering class at Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax who were looking at the experience through an engineering lens.

“They had really good feedback,” Fisher-Maltese said of the high school students. “It was a lot of things we were already thinking of—make it more interactive, make it more like a video game, but it was good to have that confirmation.”

Fisher-Maltese added, “I think the research will show that this type of immersive experience demonstrates the convergence of emotion, wonder, and meaningful learning.”

“It truly was a wonderful experience to see young people, from elementary students through high school students, getting excited about honey bees and the vital role they play in human security,” said Gring-Pemble. “The passion these young people have for caring for the natural world is what will ultimately change human behaviors in favor of protecting our planet.”

At the special screening, the team thanked Price, who has supported HBI since its inception in 2013. “Dan had a dream of bringing the awe and wonder of bees to elementary school students,” said Gring-Pemble. “Our partnership has resulted in [this] coming to fruition.”

“We are incredibly grateful and proud of our collaboration with Mason,” said Price. “Our goal is a happier, healthier planet. We think we can ‘push the needle’ in that direction by sparking a sense of wonder in children.”

In addition to Price and School of Business Dean Ajay Vinzé, Gring-Pemble also thanked many members of the team who made the project possible, including CEHD Dean Ingrid Guerra-López and CEHD early childhood education graduate students Regan Wilson and Xiaolu Zhang, CEC Dean Ken Ball, Vice President of Facilities Frank Strike and his team, and the team that shot aerial footage of Mason (Mason Forensic Science professor Steve Burmeister, Deputy Chief Michael Lighthiser of Mason Police and Public Safety, and Captain John Jeneic Jr. of City of Fairfax Fire Department).

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Envisioning a sustainability-oriented future for corporate governance

Jennifer Anzaldi — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 14:19:59 +0000

Envisioning a sustainability-oriented future for corporate governance Jennifer Anzaldi Thu, 12/01/2022 - 09:19

The “G” in “ESG”, which stands for governance, comes last, but not least. In fact, corporate governance may become the most important member of the trio, as mounting ESG awareness continues to enlarge the current conception of risk management. Soon, directors of publicly traded companies may be held increasingly responsible for heading off business risks related to the “E” and the “S”, such as the societal ramifications of carbon emissions and human capital flight due to less-than-living wages.

Cases in point: Boards of directors of Facebook and other high-profile companies have been sued by shareholders for breach of DEI pledges. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has broadened its regulatory agenda to include climate change, cyber risk governance, board diversity and human capital.

Given this context of change, it was an appropriate moment for the Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) to convene an in-person Stakeholder Roundtable on the subject of Corporate Governance. The half-day event took place at Point of View International Retreat & Research Center at Mason Neck in Lorton, VA on October 21.

Previous Stakeholder Roundtable events were held virtually with the stated mission of “engag[ing] tri-sector leadership, our faculty and students to ensure forward progress is made on business meeting the values and expectations of society as well as its various stakeholders and to drive stakeholder capitalism further into the mainstream.”

After encouraging opening remarks from Dean Ajay Vinzé, a keynote speech was given by Michael Sion, a partner at Bain & Company who also sits on B4BW’s Advisory Board. In his talk, Sion laid out four main stumbling blocks preventing corporate boards from pivoting from the doctrine of shareholder primacy to a more stakeholder-oriented view. Lack of information means that directors are often ill-equipped to understand trade-offs between stakeholder and business outcomes. Lack of representation results in board composition that is misaligned with the demographics – and thus the concerns – of the broader society. Lack of incentives lessens the motivation for directors to rethink how they make decisions, unless they are pressured to do so for core business reasons. Lack of transparency hinders corporate accountability for decisions incurring environmental and/or social risks.

B4BW Executive-in-Residence Rashed Hasan then described a solution that would address the aforementioned challenges. Currently in development, the Stakeholder Value Index uses a wealth of corporate data to quantify the value firms bring to their employees, communities, customer and suppliers as well as the planet, shareholders and the company itself.

Narrowing the focus to one key stakeholder – employees – Tannia Talento, regional director from the office of U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), spoke of the Senator’s efforts to advance legislation that would incentivize corporations to invest in worker training by offering a business-related tax credit. Warner also co-authored a letter to the SEC urging the agency to require labour-related corporate disclosures, including the percentage of workers classified as “independent contractors” and thus exempted from many protections.

The following speaker was Cambria Allen-Ratzlaff, managing director and head of investor strategies for JUST Capital, an independent non-profit whose rankings and indices are designed to “drive capital toward good corporate citizens.” Allen-Ratzlaff explained that JUST Capital derives its priorities by polling the American public on their priorities. Consistently, paying a fair and living wage and job creation in the U.S. come in first and second in the polls. In addition, she presented a data-driven case that fair and equitable human capital management was completely in line with business objectives. Better corporate citizens, she argued, are also better managers and can deliver higher shareholder returns on average.

Usman Ahmed, head of global public affairs and strategic research for PayPal, described how the digital-payments giant launched the Worker Financial Wellness Initiative. The purpose of the initiative was to increase workers’ Net Disposable Income (i.e. the amount left over after taxes and necessary expenses) from as low as four percent in some regions to 20 percent across the board. To achieve this, PayPal extended equity eligibility to all employees, reduced healthcare costs, reviewed and raised wages, and provided financial consulting services. Consequently, the minimum global NDI for PayPal employees reached an estimated 16 percent in 2021.

However, corporations must balance the feel-good factor and social mission of stakeholder capitalism against potential legal limitations, especially in our age of rising shareholder activism. Donald Kochan, a professor at ��AV’s Scalia School of Law and deputy executive director of the Law & Economics Center, cautioned the group that shareholder value maximization has been enshrined in the U.S. legal framework for corporate oversight. He zeroed in on the distinction between a “corporation”, which is owned by shareholders and holds a unique legal status, and a “business”, an entity with no prescribed ownership structure that has wider decision-making latitude. For corporations, shareholder value is the sole legally acknowledged criterion for measuring managerial performance. Adding other decision-making criteria – beneficial as they may be for society – would give shareholders actionable cause for complaint. Therefore, Kochan argued, boards of directors need to develop ways of driving business growth (and, by extension, shareholder returns) that also, as a secondary effect, benefit other stakeholders.

Other than the above-named speakers, attendees at the Roundtable included B4BW staff, Mason School of Business faculty, MBA students and law students. Rounding out the proceedings, participants engaged in breakout sessions on corporate information transparency and how boards can advocate on behalf of employees.

Rashed Hasan, who leads the Stakeholder Roundtable Series, observed at the end of the day, “This is very exciting to see everyone is opening up to meet in person and now we are able to convene a small group of tri-sector leaders, our faculty and our students to engage in open and frank discussion on some of the challenging issues facing business and society.” The next Roundtable is being planned for the later part of spring 2023.

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Students learn about the importance of honey bees thanks to George Mason partnership

Marianne Klinker — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 18:13:59 +0000

Students learn about the importance of honey bees thanks to George Mason partnership Marianne Klinker Wed, 11/02/2022 - 14:13

In This Story

Lisa M. Gring-Pemble

“Not everybody has the luxury or the ability to take school groups to see the hives and to learn about them,” says Business for a Better World co-director Lisa Gring-Pemble. This was the driving force behind the Hive Alive project, which uses virtual reality to teach local students about bees in an immersive manner. Learn more about the partnership that made Hive Alive possible via InsideNova.com.

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Prachi Vakharia is awarded WIBI Woman of the Year

Jennifer Anzaldi — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 13:23:55 +0000

Prachi Vakharia is awarded WIBI Woman of the Year Jennifer Anzaldi Wed, 10/26/2022 - 09:23

In This Story

Prachi Vakharia

Prachi Vakharia

In her quest to gain a better understanding of people, the mechanisms of the world around her, and advances in science and technology, Prachi Vakharia has taken on many roles simultaneously. Presently, she is a transportation and innovation specialist at Amazon, associate partner at European boutique investment bank ImprovedCF, and co-founder of Womanium. She does all this while also serving on several advisory boards, including as chairperson of the Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) Advisory Board at ��AV’s School of Business.

With a lengthy list of responsibilities filling her days, it is easy to see how Vakharia could get overwhelmed. However, each project leads to a focused central mission of hers, and so she finds the work itself to be invigorating. “Since a young age, I’ve been curious about the world around me, growing up in many different places and experiencing different cultures between Asia, Europe, and North America,” she says. Vakharia lets her curiosities for science, entrepreneurship, and innovation drive her.

In 2017, Prachi Vakharia co-founded Womanium, which has awarded more than a thousand scholarships to date and trains women in a variety of cutting-edge scientific fields, including quantum computing, atomic clocks, computation neuroscience, satellites, and energy.

Vakharia’s inspiring level of engagement and achievement earned her recognition as the 2022 Women in Business Initiative (WIBI) Woman of the Year. The School of Business WIBI board is composed of professionals supporting businesswomen and female business students at Mason. “It’s great to be validated that at Womanium we’re doing the right things–advancing and placing women in scientific leadership roles and the award is the signal that we should keep doing more of it and build the leaders of tomorrow,” she says. And with the constant changes of the world and technology, there’s little rest for Vakharia, as she continues striving to make the world a better place for everyone.

Encouraged to see more organizations educating in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), she looks to the future. “Not many institutions train one to look at the horizon, to think about the pivotal technologies that will be emerging in the next five, ten, twenty years,” she says. “A leader needs to have foresight and be ready for future disruptions–and Womanium’s role is to create and prepare this next generation of female leaders.”

One of the newer centers at the School of Business, B4BW operates both inside and outside the classroom with the belief that business should be a force for good in the world. Vakharia became involved when Rashed Hasan, B4BW’s executive in residence, reached out and showed her how the center’s goals aligned with her own. Two of the center’s initiatives closest to her heart are the Honey Bee Initiative (HBI), which empowers communities through sustainable beekeeping and helps the conservation of bees, and the stakeholder value index, a newly constructed framework for measuring business impact. “We want to enable a corporation’s footprint to be measured by its impact on people, planet, and profits–the triple bottom line,” she says.

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Students get immersive experience with honey bees

Marianne Klinker — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 12:24:45 +0000

Students get immersive experience with honey bees Marianne Klinker Mon, 10/24/2022 - 08:24

In This Story

Lisa M. Gring-Pemble

An article in the Fairfax County Times explains the Honey Bee Initiative’s Hive Alive project. By using virtual reality, the Honey Bee Initiative is able to reach even more kids and help educate them on the importance of bees. “The idea is simply to democratize technology and to democratize the experience. Not every kid is going to be able to come out and see the honey bees and be able to understand and appreciate the importance of pollinators,” says Lisa Gring-Pemble, co-executive director of the Business for a Better World Center and co-founder of The Honey Bee Initiative.

Read the full article.

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For Anne Magro, being named the Ray M. Sommerfeld Outstanding Tax Educator is only part of her story

Jennifer Anzaldi — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 13:36:24 +0000

For Anne Magro, being named the Ray M. Sommerfeld Outstanding Tax Educator is only part of her story Jennifer Anzaldi Wed, 09/07/2022 - 09:36

In This Story

Anne Magro

For some, working on their taxes can be an anxiety-riddled experience, but for Anne Magro, co-executive director of the Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) and associate professor of accounting, tax is where she thrives. She’s so exceptional, in fact, that Anne was honored as the top tax educator in the nation, receiving the prestigious Ray M. Sommerfeld Outstanding Tax Educator Award from the American Taxation Association (ATA) at the organization’s mid-year meeting earlier this year.

“Receiving the Sommerfeld award is one of the most exciting moments in my career because it represents recognition by my peers that education is so much more than just what goes on in a classroom,” she said. “It includes research and generating new knowledge. It’s also about educating ourselves and others to serve our community.”

If doing taxes ranks among American’s least favorite activities, what was it that piqued Anne’s interest? This self-confessed “terrible student”, who was incredibly curious growing up and always asking “why?”, was neurodivergent with undiagnosed ADHD which impacted her ability to regulate her focus and resulted in failing grades. With multiple changes to her major and numerous failed attempts to obtain her bachelor’s degree, Anne felt lost and struggled to find direction. One day she randomly filled an empty space in her schedule with an accounting class and suddenly her world changed.

“Things suddenly clicked for me because as it turned out, accounting is a good match between the way I think and the way numbers speak,” Anne said. “Accounting measures, reports, and predicts what occurs within organizations. It is the original business analytics. Accounting describes to different stakeholders what’s happening in an organization in a way that’s useful to them. It’s about story-telling, and I could get my head around that.”

But tax isn’t the only area where Anne excels. This fall she will teach a course in the Honors College on judgment and decision making that she recently taught at Carleton College, a small liberal arts college in Minnesota, as the Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor of Cognitive Science. Anne also has been active in curriculum development including designing innovative classroom activities and courses, redesigning programs for new modalities, leading the redesign of the School of Business’ undergraduate curriculum and the development of its new degree structure, and developing new minors and concentrations. Anne also founded and leads Mason’s Behavioral Tax Symposium that has attracted doctoral student researchers from around the world for the last 14 years. In recognition of her leadership in the university and profession, Anne was recently elected inaugural President of the American Accounting Association’s new Leadership in Accounting Education section, serving accounting program leaders and developing leaders for the future.

Anne regularly reflects on a business history course she took as an undergraduate that included the labor movement of the early 20th Century—a course that fed her interest in responsible business practices and the positive impact business can have in the world. Anne wants students to not only understand the traditional topics of business, but to consider business’ responsibility to society as well. Serving as founding co-executive director (with Lisa Gring-Pemble) of the Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) in Mason’s School of Business is a natural extension of her passion for this work.

“Just think about how much of the world’s resources (human, financial, and physical), are controlled by businesses. If business leaders don’t step up, we won’t make much progress on the world’s complex challenges. But if businesses lead and partner with NGOs and governments, we can get things done,” Anne said. “Companies need to take the long-term view—look beyond short-term gains for shareholders and create value for employees, customers, suppliers, communities, and the planet that will lead to long-term gains for all stakeholders.”

Anne fully embraces B4BW’s belief that business can, and should, be a force for good in the world and believes that students are central to achieving the Center’s vision. Under Anne and Lisa’s leadership, B4BW is committed to making this transformation a reality by working inside the classroom and out to prepare students to act with people, planet, and prosperity in mind. B4BW initiatives developed by Anne and Lisa like Impact Fellows, Wicked Problems Bootcamp Summer Team Impact Project, Liberal Arts in Business summer internships, and a place-based initiative to reduce health inequities in Culmore Bailey’s Crossroads with Rebecca Sutter of CHHS serve B4BW’s mission. Anne does all this in the hope that today’s students will become tomorrow’s business leaders who change the world for the better.

“When I teach, I want to help students see what is possible and how their actions can change the world.” she said. “If we transform the way we teach business, we can transform the way business operates in the world.”

Between teaching, mentoring, curriculum development, and the many leadership roles she holds, Anne recognizes that she’s in an “interesting place” in her career—and she’s never been happier. Knowing that she’s helping Mason revolutionize the way it teaches business so graduates can transform the way businesses operate for the world reinforces that asking “why” from a young age can lead to great things.

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A scorecard for stakeholder capitalism

Jennifer Anzaldi — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 12:14:23 +0000

A scorecard for stakeholder capitalism Jennifer Anzaldi Mon, 07/11/2022 - 08:14

Rashed Hasan

The Business Roundtable’s 2019 “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation” marked a bold departure from decades of economic orthodoxy. The CEOs of America’s largest companies jointly declared that the era of shareholder primacy was over. “Each of our stakeholders is essential,” they wrote, essentially demoting shareholders from sole arbiter of value to one among five—the others being customers, employees, suppliers, and communities.

In one stroke, stakeholder capitalism became the dominant value system of Big Business in America. Or did it? At the time, the statement was met with its share of skepticism. Some questioned the practicality of ‘stakeholderism;’ others doubted the sincerity of the CEOs’ commitment to change. In the years since, Harvard Law School researchers concluded that the Business Roundtable (BRT) signatories’ big talk wasn’t matched by meaningful reforms within the companies they controlled. “The BRT Statement was mostly for show,” the researchers wrote.

But is there a less cynical interpretation? A commitment of this magnitude does not easily translate into action—especially within the relatively brief timeframe of a few years. As is often said in business, what isn’t measured cannot be managed. With all the vagueness and confusion around what is meant by stakeholder capitalism, companies don’t know where to start trying to move the needle. In other words, leaders need more clarity, not more sincerity.

Companies need simple, transparent metrics and benchmarks that accurately represent stakeholder value. That way, they could assess their performance in relation to competitors as well as internal goals. Moreover, investors, activists, and the general public could reward leaders and put pressure on laggards. The ensuing virtuous cycle would produce a climate of continuous improvement.

Rashed Hasan, executive-in-residence at ��AV’s Business for a Better World Center (B4BW), is working to make this a reality. Alongside a group of researchers and business advisors, he’s developing the Stakeholder Value Index (SVI), which he hopes will be a reliable framework for measuring business impact across the five stakeholders mentioned in the BRT Statement, as well as two additional stakeholders: the company itself and the planet.

The SVI draws upon several decades of stakeholder theory research, as well as Hasan’s 30 years of experience as a corporate manager, management consultant, and serial entrepreneur.

Here’s how it works. For each of the seven stakeholders, the research team has identified three main criteria—21 in all—with some thematic overlap between them.

In the case of Employees, for example, Hasan has isolated three impact factors—diversity/culture/mobility, financial security, and employee productivity. The SVI team will aggregate various data points to arrive at a score for each of the three individually, and the sum of all scores serve as the stakeholder value score for Employees. The same method applies to the other six stakeholders, but using different criteria. The seven stakeholder scores, added together, generate one overall stakeholder value rating.

Some data points straddle several stakeholders. For instance, waste management statistics factor into the ethics and compliance area within Communities, as well as in Planet. All in all, 104 data points are required for a holistic assessment.

“Our work forms part of a growing portfolio of indices covering various facets of ESG, social responsibility, and sustainability. We regard these not as competitors but as allies in the urgent mission of business reform,” says Hasan. Yet he asserts the SVI is unique in both its comprehensive approach and intended use as a strategic decision-making tool for corporate leaders, rather than a framework for risk mitigation.

Hasan and the SVI team are currently applying the framework to the Fortune 100 and generating a stakeholder value score for each company to create the inaugural SVI report, which they plan to release in late 2022. Their ultimate goal is for the SVI to have its own digital home where companies can go to submit their data and benchmark themselves against industry rivals.

However, the spotty availability of corporate data has created challenges for the SVI team, as it presumably would for any external party attempting to quantify stakeholder capitalism. Holistic indices such as the SVI rely on detailed information, particularly in mission-critical domains. Yet, of the 104 data points necessary to calculate a company’s stakeholder value score, only 70 percent are easily found. Wage information, for example, is a key area where lack of transparency is a major issue. We can assume that companies are all adhering to the federally mandated minimum wage—although wage theft is still a pressing concern—but that says little to nothing about whether workers are being paid a living wage by the standards of their locality.

Hasan believes that if we are serious about transitioning to stakeholder capitalism, we need a scorecard. And that means companies must become more comfortable sharing data they have traditionally withheld. Would-be change agents both within and outside large corporations should start with the data.

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Mason’s Impact Fellows Program allows students to combine business and sustainability interests

Colleen Rich — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 17:08:23 +0000

Mason’s Impact Fellows Program allows students to combine business and sustainability interests Colleen Rich Wed, 06/15/2022 - 13:08

Mason Impact Fellows work at the Mountain Area Nutritional Needs Alliance (MANNA) Foodbank in Asheville, N.C., where the group processed and packed 840 pounds of black beans. Photo by Karen King/School of Business

��AV rising junior Ashanti Martin, 20, is passionate about sustainability and, specifically, addressing food insecurity.

Martin recently finished a two-year stint in the Impact Fellows Program, which focuses on helping students learn about how to help businesses achieve sustainable goals. The program is run through the School of Business’s Business for a Better World Center.

The program began in 2020, with Martin’s cohort of 15 students. It provides incoming freshmen an opportunity to join up with like-minded students interested in social and environmental issues.

“Being part of the Impact Fellows Program broke me out of my shell,” said Martin, who is studying management information systems. “It was such a comfortable environment where we were encouraged to be ourselves. Through the program, I got more confidence.”

Mason student Hagan Van Deest helps package black beans at North Carolina foodbank. Photo by Karen King/School of Business

The next cohort will start in the fall. Participation in the program is funded by the School of Business and generous donor support, said Leila G. Austin, assistant professor of business foundations and Impact Fellows co-faculty director

“One of the goals of the program is to attract students from less represented groups, so that it is an inclusive cohort,” Austin said.

Fellows are provided with opportunities through research, internships and collaborations to work with local businesses on tackling global issues, such as sustainability. Faculty and business professionals mentor the students throughout the two years, said Shora Moteabbed, an assistant professor in the Business School and Impact Fellows co-faculty director.

“The entire journey as an Impact Fellow has been very rewarding,” said Naila Ahsan, a rising junior studying management. “I got the most supportive teachers and mentors through the program, who constantly encouraged me to be a better version of myself.”

Asli Baskaya, a rising junior studying marketing, said the program introduced her to people in the business world she might not otherwise have met. Having them not only mentor her but befriend her was a bonus, she added.

Mason students Faith Kim, Ashanti Martin, Selassie Fugar, Oishee Mukhopadhyaya, Riley Benecke and Leila Austin help out at the North Carolina Foodbank. Photo by Karen King/School of Business

The program culminated in a trip to North Carolina, during which the students did volunteer work and met with area nonprofits.

Karen King, assistant professor of business, said that the program is part of a global movement to mold a business curriculum that “creates purposeful young people ready to step into their career.”

“I have always had the goal to become an entrepreneur,” said Kevin Jiang, a rising junior studying business analytics. “Being in the program gave me ideas of how I can do good things in the world while running a business.”

Martin said that through the program she grew more interested in helping in the goal of zero hunger, collaborating with the Patriot Pantry and working with the newly formed Be the Change student organization, which is focused on gender equality and upcycling clothing.

Faith Kim, Ashanti Martin, Selassie Fugar, Oishee Mukhopadhyaya, Riley Benecke, Leila Austin“Being an Impact Fellow has made me realize how much I can do in the community to help,” Martin said.

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Meet B4BW Impact Fellow: Ji Eun Kim

Jennifer Anzaldi — Wed, 04 May 2022 18:33:27 +0000

Meet B4BW Impact Fellow: Ji Eun Kim Jennifer Anzaldi Wed, 05/04/2022 - 14:33

Ji Eun Kim

Because a better world is everyone’s business. Mason’s Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) is dedicated to this vision. Committed to helping the planet, B4BW is preparing students and faculty to be changemakers within society. Impact Fellows, a flagship B4BW initiative is focused on this central mission. The students selected participate in collaborative cohorts, partake in experiential learning, and receive mentorship and networking opportunities—all with the goal of helping them become problem solvers, addressing the key issues facing our planet. Ji Eun Kim, who was recently hired as the student communications assistant for Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE), is one such Impact Fellow. Aimed at connecting Mason with individuals, businesses, communities, and institutions fighting to address pressing topics with sustainable solutions, ISE shares the B4BW mindset of making an impact in support of a more just, prosperous, and sustainable world.

Drawn to Mason and its commitment to creating amazing opportunities for all, first-year business marketing student, Kim will be using her expertise to help promote ISE’s many activities and programs. Serving as communications assistant, she will be responsible for managing the institute’s website, graphic design, and social media accounts. She will also be handling correspondence between ISE and its many stakeholders-professors, partners, and affiliates—affording her the chance to increase engagement and impact for the Institute. As Kim explains it, ISE “attempts to put research and scholarship more hand-in-hand to support a prosperous and sustainable world, and so we are trying to connect different parts of the Mason community with policymakers, businesses, and organizations which will allow us to address these pressing issues and challenges that are coming up in our community.”

In particular, ISE is focused on efforts that support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals such as affordable housing, clean water, hunger, quality education, and good health. And ideally, partnerships come together that create programs allowing for students to be directly involved and have opportunities to develop professionally and grow as community members. One example is a new Summer Fellowship Program being developed by ISE for graduate students. These funded positions will allow those selected to work directly with leading individuals and organizations such as the Sierra Club, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions.

When asked what she was most looking forward to learning during her time with ISE, Kim shared, “I think to broaden my perspective and my view because that was my whole purpose of coming to Mason, being able to expand beyond myself and push beyond my comfort level and what I’m comfortable working with. So, I think being able to meet different people and experience different experiences helps so that we can not only better the world but have a good time along the way.”

Learn more about Impact Fellow Ji Eun Kim

Where: Born in Korea, raised in Chicago
Degree: 1st year student studying business marketing
B4BW: 1st year Impact Fellow

What drew you to George Mason?
“I really wanted a change of environment and my aunt suggested Mason, as she also attended here, so I’ve always had family around Virginia. I heard about Mason’s great business program and that Mason provides opportunities for its students.”

Why pursue a business marketing degree?
“I think the great thing about business is that it is so multifaceted and versatile. You obviously get to meet a lot of different people from a lot of different industries, and so you get to work on your social networking skills just being able to put yourself out there, which is something that’s different compared to other fields where you focus on the same group of people or the same demographic. Business really gives you an opportunity to go beyond yourself and your community. For me personally, as a Korean American, I think business has a lot of opportunities abroad, such as Korea, where you can build those connections there.”

Can you tell us more about that?
“With my new communications assistant role in the Institute for a Sustainable Earth , I’ve gotten to meet a lot of individuals who are in academia or they are professors or faculty members. Recently I met with an individual who was asking if I could do some work in Korea where I can meet individuals regarding how we can make the NOVA area more sustainable. So, I think building those bridges where I’m from, here in Virginia, across the globe in Korea is a great opportunity for not only me, but [for] everyone in the community to grow.”

How would you go about doing that? In what areas would you like to see change?
“Just the way we operate right now. It’s obviously alright, right now, but the way we can just derive different ideas from different cultures, different countries, different areas of the United States is a way that we can simply grow in different areas of our infrastructure. For example, making Dulles Airport more sustainable and more environmentally friendly. Or by deriving different mental health resources that other countries have been working with and have been successful with.”

What techniques does Korea use that we don’t have and please explain types of change that you would like to see implemented here?
“I think a lot of these changes are implemented on the government level and I know it’s a little more complicated because we have the state government and then the federal government, but for example, Korea is good about recycling. They have these systems in place where it is super convenient for you to recycle and it is mandatory by law where you separate food from things that are recyclable versus things you simply throw out. It’s not that the entire United States is lacking on this… there are areas like Boston that are really good about this… but it would be really interesting and awesome if NOVA could follow and join on the bandwagon.”

What do you think is preventing this from happening so far?
“I believe that obviously there’s a lot of people that live in the United States, so it is definitely hard to implement these widespread systems when a lot of people are against change, and understandably so, because we’ve been doing the same thing for so many years, but I think that’s really up to the responsibility of the state government, local governments that are trying to implement this into their communities. And as more communities are joining along then it will be easier to create that change versus the top down where the state government is just kind of barking orders, you know, ‘hey do this’ versus people in your community being like ‘Hey, why don’t we do this together right’.”

Being born in Korea and raised in the United States you’ve been raised in two cultures. What ideas would you have to help spread awareness and to hopefully encourage people to help make such changes?
“I think creating awareness is always a great help. Awareness not only through different organizations, but even the school itself. I think Mason does do a great job at that, but if we can all take a step further, for example, our dining halls right now, we create a lot of food waste, yet as far as I know we don’t really do anything about that. So, if we can create steps to educate others within our classrooms, within our homes, then we can start to grow that awareness and have that willingness to create these systematic changes… I looked at food waste on college campuses in my communications class first semester and I feel like it’s very achievable for an institution like Mason to implement. Especially with Mason’s climate action plan and pledge program right now aiming to decrease their carbon footprint. Other ideas students have been talking about were more clean energy, sustainable energy, not only on campus but other parts in town. Just growing towards a system where we can survive past just 100 years more than that because now, at this rate, our planet, it’s dying. And if we don’t do anything about it, then there won’t be a future for our children and for future generations to come.”

Charish Bishop is a Graduate Student in the Folklore Department and Graduate Research Assistant for the Business for a Better World Center.

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