Join us for a dynamic course at WU Vienna in collaboration with Prof. Bonnie Simpson from Western University, Ontario (CA), who will be visiting Vienna for the duration of the course with a selected group of students from Western University.

This course is designed to foster international cooperation and offer diverse perspectives through academic exchange. In this course, students will have the opportunity to engage with peers from different cultural and educational backgrounds. Students will engage in collaborative projects working alongside students from Western University. The program emphasizes cross-cultural understanding and teamwork, preparing students for a globalized academic and professional world.

This course represents a unique opportunity for cultural and intellectual enrichment, enhancing global networks and academic partnerships between WU Vienna and the University of Western Ontario.

Content: The course introduces principles of sustainability in the global marketplace and applies them to real-life marketing settings and experiences. It considers the role of marketing in creating,facilitating, and communicating sustainable marketing activities, including barriers for sustainable consumption practices and tools to overcome them. The focus will be on understanding both firm and consumer roles in sustainability marketing: Building knowledge about firm practices, impacts,and responsibilities, and consumer decision-making.

Sustainability is an increasingly critical concept to understand as both consumers and organizations increasingly strive to engage in positive actions motivated by shifting values, consumer decisions, and the financial bottom line.

Taking this course, students will gain the following experiences and skill sets:

1. Learn how marketers can respond to opportunities and threats that arise from social, economic, and environmental change.
2. Understand and critically reflect on the factors that make sustainability a competitive differentiator.
3. Develop a sustainable marketing plan, including activities that equally contribute to people, planet, and profit.
4. Learn strategies to overcome psychological and situational barriers towards sustainable consumption and encourage sustainable consumption practices.
5. Practice communication and international peer learning.

Students are required to attend a minimum of 80% of the course sessions.

While participation in social events with students and faculty from Western Ontario, which are not directly related to the course content, is optional, we highly encourage involvement in these activities for a fuller cultural and academic experience.

This course takes place both online and in class at WU Vienna and will be co-taught by instructors from both Western and WU.

In the first two weeks once per week synchronous online lectures and readings are the basis of knowledge acquisition. A two-week intensive in-person experience at WU will consist of lectures, class discussions, activities both in and out of the classroom, field experiences, and guest speakers that will provide the opportunity to experience the concepts and theories of sustainability in the global marketplace

In-class Quizzes  = 40%
Project Work= 45%
Participation = 15%

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