Case Study on Greening of Boutique Hotel Chain
Wins International Award for SFSU Profs

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<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /?>September 19, 2006

 

San Francisco State University College of Business professors Murray Silverman and Tom Thomas won third prize this summer in the Oikos Foundation’s 2006 Sustainability Case Writing Competition with their co-authored case study, “Kimpton Hotels – Balancing Strategy and Environmental Sustainability.”

 

The Oikos Foundation at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) promotes the competition annually to encourage the publication of sustainability cases that can be used for teaching at business schools worldwide. In 2006 the competition attracted case entries from four continents.

 

The Kimpton Hotels case illustrates the challenges of balancing ecological and economic sustainability in the hospitality industry. In the words of the Oikos competition organizers, it is “…an extraordinarily well written case on the service industry, that succeeds in integrating sustainability issues from different perspectives, including strategy, organizational behavior, marketing and operations.“

 

In addition to the Oikos prize, the case has won a place in two leading textbooks published in two different management fields. It appears in the new 12th edition of Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases (2006), by Arthur A., Jr. Thompson and A. J. Strickland, and will appear in the next (12th) edition of Business and Society:  Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy (2007), by Anne T. Lawrence, James Weber, and James E. Post.

 

These textbook adoptions affirm the authors’ efforts to craft a case that would cross the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines. According to case co-author Murray Silverman, “Operating a sustainable business requires executives to adopt a more holistic view of their roles and responsibilities. We all have to start thinking outside our specialized silos.” 

 

The Kimpton Hotels case study is part of an ongoing initiative by several faculty in the SFSU College of Business to move sustainability issues to the forefront of business education and real-world practices. Beginning in 2007, for example, the College will offer MBA students an Emphasis in Sustainable Business.

 

Further inquiries can be directed to:

 

Murray Silverman, Ph.D.

Department of Management

College of Business

San Francisco State University

msilver@sfsu.edu
(415) 338-7489

 

Tom Thomas, Ph.D.

Department of Management

College of Business

San Francisco State University

tethomas@sfsu.edu
(415) 338-6086

 

 

Other Resources

Oikos Foundation:  www.oikos-foundation.unisg.ch/homepage/case.htm

Kimpton Hotels:  www.kimptonhotels.com