Teaching Case. The Case of Assabi: Expanding the Learning on Sustainability Through an Experiential Qualitative Multi-Criteria Decision Making Activity

ABSTRACT

This teaching case study provides a learning context to explore the integration of sustainability concepts into business decision-making processes from multiple stakeholder perspectives. The case study consists of the simulation of a multi-criteria decision process in a fictitious story about stakeholders interested in the export of frozen fruit pulp from the Amazon forest in Brazil to a large supermarket chain in the UK. Within this case, we present: the key stakeholders and their interests; the alternatives for negotiation and; indicators related to financial performance and the economic, social and environmental impacts predicted by the implementation of each alternative. The learning activities are structured using an integration of Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) and learning in teams with a qualitative engagement with a Multi-Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA). Student groups experience the role of stakeholders by representing their values, knowledge, and preferences in an interactive process where they are progressively exposed to different levels of information about the decision and its consequences. The activity has the potential to offer a practical and complementary contribution in different learning environments to accounting and business decision-making for sustainability.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Brazil, for funding this research under Grant 15/09059-3. We would like to acknowledge the support of CSEAR in relation to creating the Teaching Case Study competition and the members of the judging panel in awarding this case the 2017 prize.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Solange Garcia http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9865-2856

Notes

1 The story of Assabi is based on real information referenced below. However, the references are not cited throughout of the text because there is no intention to reproduce accurately the data in every context of the story.

2 Sources for the character ‘Supermarket Chain’: Sainsbury, 20x20 Sustainability Plan. http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk; Sainsbury, Fair Development Fund. http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/; Fairtrade Foundation. http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/; Sambazon. http://www.theguardian.com/; Sublime Food Importing Company. http://www.sublimefood.co.uk/

3 Sources for the character ‘Community’: Comunidade Quilombola do Espírito Santo. https://www.ecodebate.com.br/; Doença de Chagas. http://g1.globo.com/ and Weinstein and Moegenburg (2004); Brondízio, Safar, and Siqueira (2002); Freitas et al. (2015); Keefe (2008); Lewis (2008); Muñiz-Miret et al. (1996).

4 Sources for the character ‘Financial Committee’: Sebrae. http://www.sebrae.com.br; Banco do Brasil. http://www.bb.com.br/; Semas PA. http://www.semas.pa.gov.br/; Banco da Amazônia. http://www.bancoamazonia.com.br/; and Bezerra (2007).

5 The exchange rates used along the text are from Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) in 29/01/2016: 1 real (R$) = 0,25 American dollar ($) and 1 pound (£) = 1,43 American dollar ($). http://www4.bcb.gov.br/pec/conversao/conversao.asp

6 Note depending on time available these different sessions can be merged into one class meeting. We have successfully run the case using different numbers of class meetings.

Additional information

Funding

We would like to thank the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Brazil, for funding this research [grant number15/09059-3].