Successful Joint Seminar on CSR between the University of Cooperative Education Ravensburg and Intel Corp.

Between January and March 2009, 22 students studying „International Business“ in their fifth semester at the University of Cooperative Education in Ravensburg demonstrate their enthusiasm for practical projects in a joint project with Intel Corp. The activity is lead by Prof. Dr. Karin Reinhard from the University of Cooperative Education and Thomas Osburg, Director Corporate Affairs Europe at Intel Corp.

After a successful market research on how multinational companies communicate their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, the students now have the opportunity to implement their theoretical knowledge in International Management.

The definition of the task was completed by including findings from students of Johnson & Wales University, USA, a partner university of the university in Ravensburg. The established co-operation with Prof. Dr. Lisa Sisco from the Johnson & Wales University and Prof. Dr. Karin Reinhard, combined with theoretical content on CSR provided in lectures of Thomas Osburg enabled the students to learn about the different American and German attitudes and concepts toward CSR communication models.

The students analyzed and summarized the data and revealed several interesting findings. For example, students discovered that CSR terminology is used differently in German and United States based companies. The German and U.S. students also had a different appreciation of the strategic goals of CSR. While German students consider CSR sometimes close to being a marketing tool, their American counterparts think more towards value creation for society through CSR. In addition, students discovered how CSR communication operates along a symmetrical/asymmetrical continuum.

This year’s project provided many exciting challenges for the German students:

The cooperation with the U.S. deepened intercultural skills for the students and prepared them for working in international teams.

Communicating with Intel and presenting the outcomes in English was another challenge for the students of the University of Cooperative Education Ravensburg.

This study on Corporate Social Responsibility proved to be a very interesting and informative task for their curriculum. The students themselves saw the cooperative learning project with Intel as a real enrichment of their theoretical understanding and look forward to a continuation in the future.

Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com.

Contact Information:
Intel GmbH
Thomas Osburg
Director Europe - Corporate Affairs
Dornacher Str. 1
D-85622 Feldkirchen
Tel. +49 / 89 / 99143-0
www.intel.com

This release was published on openPR.