From Shareholder to Stakeholder: Reshaping how we teach banking and finance

Dr Amale Scally, 2026

Purpose

This Master of Banking and Finance capstone unit, led by Dr Amale Scally, is designed to consolidate students' knowledge of banking and finance while preparing them to become responsible business leaders. Consistent with the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), the unit develops students' awareness of the ethical, environmental and social issues that increasingly shape contemporary banking and finance practice. The unit's overarching aim is to encourage students to critically examine the relationship between purpose and profit, while challenging them to understand the broader consequences of financial decision-making for people, communities and the planet.

Practice

The unit has evolved to purposefully integrate sustainability, ethics, stakeholder and Indigenous perspectives. Through both individual and collaborative learning activities, students analyse and discuss real-world banking and finance challenges that require ethical judgement and consideration of long-term stakeholder impacts. A central theme of the unit is the shift from shareholder primacy towards stakeholder-oriented approaches to business and finance, encouraging students to consider how financial institutions can create sustainable value for a broad range of stakeholders. Core finance concepts are reinforced through the application of a sustainability lens: capital budgeting and cost-of-capital analyses incorporate sustainability-related risks and opportunities, students explore how financing instruments such as green bonds and sustainability-linked loans are evolving to address climate and social challenges, and they practise integrating environmental, social and governance considerations into portfolio construction while examining how impact investing increasingly addresses environmental and social challenges while generating financial returns. Indigenous perspectives are embedded through case discussions such as Rio Tinto's destruction of the Juukan Gorge sacred sites, enabling students to evaluate financial decisions through both legal and moral lenses.

A distinctive contribution

A significant contribution to both the unit and the broader discipline has been the development of an Australian First Nations case study. Recognising a gap in case studies addressing Indigenous financial exclusion in the Australian context, the chief examiner connected with First Australians Capital, an Indigenous-owned and led financial institution that provides the “right capital, right support” to First Nations businesses. This collaboration resulted in the co-authorship of a case study, which has recently been published in international case-study repositories and incorporated into the unit curriculum – providing students globally with a contemporary example of how culturally informed and community-led financial solutions can address barriers facing Indigenous entrepreneurs and businesses while advancing economic self-determination and inclusion.

Outcome

The unit contributes to the development of future banking and finance professionals who are equipped to create sustainable value for both business and society. Upon completion, students demonstrate an enhanced understanding of responsible finance, stakeholder stewardship, ESG integration, and the role of finance in addressing complex societal challenges.

Impact

Beyond the classroom, the industry partnership, resulting publication, and ongoing integration of the case into teaching support broader conversations around inclusive finance, responsible investment, and the role of financial institutions in advancing social, economic and community outcomes. First Australians Capital has since described the case as a first-of-its-kind investment model now being taught at universities worldwide. Collectively, these activities demonstrate the unit's commitment to the PRME principles by preparing graduates to make ethical, inclusive and sustainable financial decisions and to contribute positively to society throughout their professional careers.