Business Sustainability Management

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

Social context in which business operates in XXI century is very complex and uncertain. Businesses are expected and asked to be responsible more and more nowadays for a welfare of a society, engage in the pursuit of public value, make positive impact not only on economic performance but also on social development of a country. Thus roles and responsibilities of a business in a global economy and society are changing. Furthermore, the relationship between business and society is becoming even more complex in an economy that is increasingly integrated and interdependent. The globalisation of business, the emergence and strengthening of civil society organisations around the world, development of information technologies, increasing governmental regulations and international agreements add additional challenges to managers and their strategic decision-making.

The course aims at raising awareness and enabling future entrepreneurs and leaders from private and public sectors to see the unique obstacles and challenges of business as opportunities. Business competences of dealing with its stakeholders, sensitivity to its ecosystem and abilities to address creatively existing challenges might inspire sustainable business practices and enable it to identify sources of competitiveness. In discussing changing roles of and opportunities for business, framework of creating shared value (CSV) is applied: policies and practices that enhance the competitive advantage and profitability of a company while simultaneously addressing societal needs and challenges. Shared value is not corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success. When businesses act as businesses – not as charitable donors – they can improve profitability while also improving environmental performance, public health and nutrition, affordable housing and financial security, and other key measures of societal wellbeing. Only business can create economic prosperity by meeting needs and making a profit, creating infinitely scalable and self-sustaining solutions.

The course is about framework of thinking: theories and academic readings are analysed with help of case studies and real life situations. The cases of the course illustrate various challenges and opportunities for businesses from different industries and different countries.

Learning outcomes:

• To analyse and evaluate changing roles of business in a global economy and society
• To analyze and evaluate the role of stakeholders in sustainable business development and apply stakeholder theories in practice
•  To identify and evaluate sources of competitiveness and opportunities to make an impact in society in creating economic and social value
• To understand and develop sustainable profitable business with social dimension in its strategy
• To understand and challenge discussion on relationship between business, state, civil society and others who impact and inspire sustainable business practices
• To develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• To apply the knowledge in a team project

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

Due to limited natural resources, disruptive technologies and global institutional changes we are at a crossroad of our economic development. The current phenomena of climate change, loss of biodiversity, social injustice is challenging changing the way we are living and working together. Our business mindset is still related to the times of industrialization and caught in a zero-sum games and trade-off thinking between business and society. Nevertheless, latest management literature provides new insights about an innovative role of business in the global sustainability agenda. The ethical and economic context of business is changing dramatically, thereby providing new market opportunities and business solutions. Important for future-fit business leaders is to understand state-of-the art concepts of sustainability and the new foundation of business success in the 21^st century. International frameworks and tri-sectoral partnerships between business, politics and civil society will play an important role in creating a common future together. Only business which are leading the digital and sustainable market transformation will succeed and become global market players. Sustainable innovation which is embedded in the business models and strategies will be the biggest competitive advantage and will provide new market opportunities. By becoming net positive, which means giving more to society than taking, companies not only become a main driver for positive societal change but also gain trust and support from all their stakeholders. Social innovation and market transformation are becoming two sides of one coin seen from a management perspective. Realizing this will make future-fit leaders which develop a new mindset which integrates the 4 dimensions social, environmental, economic and knowledge evolution.

The course beside to the issues mentioned above will be analyzing agendas set by the international organisations for sustainable development: UN Sustainable Development goals and the EU Green Deal. Following the recommendations by the international organisations, many businesses started to collect quantitative data in order to evaluate their impact at least in three areas: environment, social environment and governance (ESG). Managing and tracking ESG objectives are an increasing focus across industries and supply chains as businesses weigh growing demand to disclose results and improve on the impact of those initiatives. Different approaches in composition of ESG indicators, their relevance to ESG accountability by different businesses will be analysed in detail in the course.

This new understanding will lead to an innovative team approach creating new business opportunities together. This course is the beginning of a journey and master future-fit business thinking and to develop management skills for the 21^st century.

Learning outcomes:

• To understand the reasons, drivers and initiatives for the global sustainable transformation
• To analyze and critically evaluate the changing role of business in the field of sustainable development
• To understand the business challenges and opportunities of the sustainable transformation
• Assess ESG company performance using publicly available information
•  To apply the knowledge in a team project

Aim of the course:

Businesses are facing a perfect storm at the intersection of climate change, energy crisis, resource scarcity, and economic restructuring.  With increasing demands for societal contribution, business-as-usual is no longer an option.

As is often the case, new risks create new opportunities. Managers that approach the risks through innovative and non-incremental thinking will come up with the solutions that help meet the needs of society while delivering returns to shareholders. For that, it is critical to reassess traditional strategies and learn to question some of the linear business model fundamentals.

Students will analyze the drivers, triggers, and economic thinking in each of the abovementioned strategy domains, and (importantly!), managerial mind shifts needed to move towards higher levels of sustainability.

While conceptually rigorous, this course aims to be solutions driven, providing both academically sound and practically applicable insights. Using cases, industry speakers, short quizzes, and a group project, students will sharpen their ability to critically debate complex and systemic sustainable strategy formation issues from an informed position.

Learning outcomes:

• To understand how companies can address sustainability challenges while simultaneously building a successful business.
• To challenge incrementalism in company’s sustainability actions and to develop mental models for the different levels of impactful sustainability innovation.
• To develop ability to see relationships among multiple, often conflicting, issues in supporting the necessary transition towards a sustainable economy.
• To appreciate key managerial mindset differences for traditional and sustainable business strategies.
• To demonstrate critical analysis and communication abilities, especially in the context of complex and systemic issues, and apply systems thinking to real-world business problems.
• To demonstrate understanding of the complex decisions faced by managers in business, government, and non-profit organizations.
• To be able to develop business case for sustainability.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

The course Sustainable Human Capital and Leadership focuses on human resource functions in companies in a globalized world from a sustainability perspective. The approach focuses on two roles of Sustainable Human Capital. First, the role of human resource management in making work systems sustainable with the objective on ensuring human sustainability at the workplace and in global supply chains. Second, the role of human capital and leadership in contributing to corporate sustainability and to an overall societal sustainable development. A sustainable human capital and leadership framework is proposed and HRM strategies and practices of the key areas of HRM are discussed. This course is based on research and insights from diverse fields, including Strategic HRM, Sustainable HRM, Green HRM, organization theory, organizational behavior, Corporate Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Global Responsible Leadership.

The course is designed to develop competent and responsible practitioners. It provides students who do not necessarily intend to work in an HR function, with a deep understanding about the importance of people management as a task for all managers and about the complexity of sustainable people management and leadership.

Learning outcomes:

• Understand sustainable and unstainable HRM strategies and practices and their impacts and tensions on employees and other resource holders and stakeholders within a paradox framework.
• Understand how Sustainable HRM adds value and extends strategic HRM and adopt a critical point of view on the literature, on the one hand, and on managerial decisions, on the other.
•  Gain a deep understanding of the nature of Sustainable HRM, the theoretical concepts and frameworks used and acquire the knowledge and skills to understand and implement Sustainable HRM strategies and practices.
•  Develop competence to measure, analyse and discuss how to increase the sustainable and decrease the unsustainable aspects of HRM practices and how to address potential tensions and paradoxes.
•  Lead the team and be accountable for its performance
• Demonstrate qualities of a reflective leader
• Demonstrate creative problem solving, creative collaboration  skills.
• Demonstrate critical thinking while assesing complex information and in problem solving.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

There’s no alternative to sustainable development and innovation is a core capability of any business today driving it. This module uses a multidisciplinary lens and brings together  key concepts and evidence-based frameworks in sustainable business and organisational innovation. Can businesses meet the needs and create economic, social, and environmental value for their various stakeholders? The module focuses on building sustainable human capital and innovative capability of the firm as a key driver for socialy and environmentaly responsible business. Throughout the module students will learn and apply innovation methods such as design thinking, frugal innovation, and co-creation to develop social and sustainable business solutions. Students will leave equiped with theoretical knowledge, innovator‘s mindset and tools to drive businesses for a better world.

Learning outcomes:

• Understand and critically asses key theoretical frameworks and debates in social and sustainable business innovation.
•  Think critically, analyse problems, understand, apply and develop concepts, synthesise different types of information, evaluate and make rationally argued judgements.
• Apply principles of design thinking as a problem solving method to solve sustainability challenges.
• Research a topic or problem, apply qualitative and quantitative methods to make evidence-based decisions.
• Communicate effectively: written and oral, as well as effective use of data, and new collaboration tools.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

In today’s competitive and constantly changing environment relevant and timely financial information and its efficient employment for decision making is crucial for sustainable business development. The course focuses on defining and analyzing important causal relationship between factors that contribute to creating long term values of the firm. It is designed to provide students with key knowledge and skills on how to plan, measure, assess and control business processes and activities as well as products’ profitability, to plan and assess business performance and make strategic and other relevant management decisions towards sustainable business growth and company’s value maximization.

Learning outcomes:

• To be able to specify main tasks of managerial accounting, needs and characteristics of management accounting information and their relevance to value creation and sustainable business development.
•  To be able to explain how value chain model can be used to analize various activities carried out by an organization and what is the link between the activities and their use of resources.
• To be able to identify, classify and analyse costs, make indirect cost allolation decisions, differentiate and be able to apply costing and pricing methods for different cost objects.
• To be able to perform support department costs and divisional profitability analysis and measure efficiency of various business processes.
• To be able to explain the link between strategies, plans and budgets; design tools for budgeting and other financial planning; identify business risks and design their management tools.
• To be able to explain how organization could measure and manage its performance; differentiate business performance measurement models and tools; define critical success factors, design a scorecard and suggest relevant KPIs;
• Be able to explain the scope, content and managerial implications of sustainability accounting and integrated corporate reporting.
•  Be able to cooperate with team members; to assume leadership while evaluating and solving complex ideas and cases.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

Data Collection & Research Methods for Sustainability is a module which aims to equip the students with the skills necessary to plan and undertake independent research, with a view towards the master thesis and beyond. Students are taught qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis and are given the opportunity to practise these during the module.

Students receive instruction on fundamentals of research: academic integrity, ethics and risk assessments. They are shown where and how to search effectively for academic literature and how to use it to construct a literature review. Following sessions exploring different research methodologies which can be used for sustainability studies, the students get the opportunity to practice these principles before applying them to qualitative and quantitative reports which contribute to the assessment of the module.

The later stages of the module will include lectures showing how the methodologies and practices they have learnt are applied in real-world research projects. Finally, all elements of the module are brought together as the students reflect on what makes for good research and apply that to a research proposal demonstrating the skills which they have developed.

Learning outcomes:

• To conduct a review of relevant and appropriate literature.
• To produce and structure a research report in the approved format.
•  To have an awareness and practical knowledge a range of quantitative and qualitative enquiry
• To understand what makes for a good research proposal and report.
• To effectively utilise data and other evidence adopting correct statistical or qualitative practices
• To formulate research questions and associated hypotheses.
• To use appropriate data sets (primary and/or secondary) and devising a suitable schedule of analysis, which may involve fieldwork.
• To plan a research project to address those research questions.
• To understand why risk assessments and ethical assessments are needed for data collection and able to create these.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

Supply chain management is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the business world. Products are sourced, manufactured and transported on a global scale, leading to the need for skilled specialists in this area. These specialists also need to be increasingly aware of the wider impacts of these activities, with a focus beyond just economic impacts.

Supply chains are complex adaptive systems that are composed of structures, processes and managerial activities which facilitate the flows of products, services, finances and information in (to and) from raw material suppliers to (and from) consumers. They are highly affected by the sustainability challenge and trying to utilize developments in technology, alternative ways of service provision, networking strategies and other managerial initiatives to tackle with this challenge. Introduction of the circular economy concept is altering the way linear supply chains are designed which requires the development and adoption of new strategies at different layers of supply chains.

Significant changes are required in management of supply chains around the world to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. These changes are needed to be done on all three dimensions of the triple bottom line, namely the economy, the society and the environment. Furthermore, changes do not only affect the actors that are involved in production of goods and services but also all the other actors that are involved in distribution, collection or storage of those offerings. It is a mentality change in supply chain management that aims to end the difference between supply chain management and sustainable supply chain management and treat environmental and social performance of supply chains as equally and even more valid than economic performance.

The aim of the course is to provide students with knowledge on sustainability in and sustainable development of contemporary supply chains, ranging from suppliers and customers towards logistics services providers and consumers. The course is based on a full supply chain perspective including multiple actors from raw material suppliers, to customers and even post-consumption, second-cycle supply chain members. The links and flows between these actors are covered in relation to sustainable products and services being offered in these structures and managing the sustainability of the actors themselves.

Learning outcomes:

• To understand the role of value creation and impact measurement in managing future-fit businesses.
• To analyze and evaluate the value creation process of a company from sourcing via production to sales.
• To develop an impact-oriented value chain which creates positive impact for all stakeholders.
• To enable management decisions based on data on value creation and impact towards society.
• To develop a new mindset based on real value creation and positive impact which enables them to build future-fit business models.
• To critical reflect actual business strategies and transform them towards impact oriented business models.
• To apply the knowledge in a team project.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the personal and professional lives of people across the world. AI refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks usually requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, and even decision making. These technologies can be applied to a number of undertakings to benefits organizations seeking to improve outcomes and productivity. To compete in this new tech-driven economy, professionals in different areas have to understand how game-changing technologies such as AI can benefit the different business functions in the organisation.

This course will focus on understanding how AI can be leveraged for social good and for making progress towards sustainable development. The course encourages students to reflect on the impact of AI on different organisational levels, to understand how AI can be effectively and responsibly implemented and managed in organisations, as well as ethical challenges faced while developing and implementing these tools. As part of this course students will learn how AI works, and its potential applications in different areas, such as logistics, policy, customer service.

Learning outcomes:

• To analyse and evaluate the role of AI to the business environment.
• To analyze and evaluate how AI impacts society more broadly.
• To evaluate the implementation of different AI solutions in an institution and develop a strategy based on AI.
• To develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills around increasingly important technologies to today’s managers.
• To evaluate how AI may modulate consumer’s behaviour.
• To analyse emerging technologies and their ethical challenges.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

This course is the study of finance and sustainability as an integrated subject beginning with an introduction of financial and investment principles and moving towards financial analysis, financing and valuation. The course covers diverse aspects of sustainable investments and offers tools for effective financial valuation and effective risk assessment. The perspective proposed by this course is motivated by the desire of corporations for continued prosperity, expansion and in some cases even to promote their own survival. Sustainability is in essence a triple bottom-line that includes economic, social and environmental (ESG) considerations into its analysis. Sustainable Finance and Investments incorporates additional elements into that scope that include among others investment metrics, investment terms, risk, ethics, corporate responsibility, etc. Different approaches for investments and finance result from this analysis and new industries and products result from these added metrics.

Sustainable finance and investing based on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors remain a fairly novel concept, however numerous signs are pointing to a paradigm shift globally. This course supports capacity building in the rapidly changing financial and corporate sectors where the integration of non-financial frameworks such as the TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure), initiatives like the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), PRI (Principles of Responsible Investment), or the FSA Stewardship Code’s recent revision, are becoming material requirements across organizational value chains. Furthermore, this practitioner-oriented course on sustainable finance and investments will be instructed taking into account the intersection of technology, innovation, business, finance, social and natural sciences, hence covering the complexities of the topic.

The main objective of the course is to provide students with the necessary theoretical and conceptual tools used in finance and investment analysis. In light of the central role of the finance and investment sectors in fostering sustainable development and manage climate-related risks, this course will employ a mix of lectures and applied case method teaching to familiarise graduate-level students in a practical manner with the challenges and the opportunities that arise through ESG factor integration at the organizational and institutional levels. The lectures and cases will examine the approaches that various economic actors and sustainability stakeholders have been pursuing to promote sustainability and manage climate-related risks in the financial and corporate sectors.

Learning outcomes:

• To understand the implications of sustainability in priority areas of economy and the way they are reshaping global markets.
• To understand how markets react to the new standards of sustainable finance and investment.
• To be able to develop a model of sustainable financial analysis to value a financial project.
• To understand financing and investment principles by applying financial concepts and techniques to analyze sustainability activities and transactions.
• To implement sustainability related decision, all while distinguishing between positive analyses and normative judgements.

The aim of the thesis is to provide an opportunity for Master degree candidates to refine, in some cases acquire, a range of skills at an appropriate level to do a quality research. A successful thesis is evidence that the candidate has acquired the minimum level of research skills and can therefore be accredited a Master degree. Upon the completion of the Master Thesis a student will have achieved the learning outcomes.

Learning outcomes:

• Knowledge and its application. Graduate is able to define the research problem and the main goals of a Thesis in a concise way and integrate the theoretical knowledge obtained in the master studies.
• Research skills. Graduate is able to analyze critically, synthesize and assess research data necessary for the thesis development. He/she is also able to collect quantitative and/ or qualitative data and perform appropriate empirical analysis to solve the research problem.
• Special abilities. Graduate has the ability to develop a clear explanation and justification of the selected methodological approach and refer to published research on methodology to support the statement on its appropriateness, present a testable hypothesis, consistent with assumptions derived from literature review, and conduct (on an individual basis) an empirical research.
•  Social ability. Graduate has the ability to develop the elaborated discussion to reveal the study findings in the light of prior research in the field, compare the results with those reported by other investigators considering the questions that remain unanswered and suggest the additional further research perspectives by demonstrating proficiency in academic writing, proper literature citation and compilation of a reference list.
• Personal abilities. Graduate has the ability to plan the process of thesis writing in an autonomous manner, choose the direction of improvement and study in an autonomous manner. Graduate has the ability to use scientific research data, has experience in research work, and skills of systemic and strategic thinking necessary for autonomous professional activity and scientific research work.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

Climate change presents some of the biggest challenges facing modern society. Economics can provide a powerful intellectual foundation for understanding and analysing many of these challenges. This course employs insights and tools from economics to study problems around climate change impacts, the design of mitigation and adaptation policies, and the consequences of these policies. The course builds on key concepts from environmental and natural resource economics but also draws from other fields in economics.

This course explores the economic characteristics of the climate change problem, assesses national and international policy design and current implementation issues, and surveys the economic tools necessary to evaluate climate change policies. The objectives of the course are to understand how the costs and benefits of mitigation are measured, to understand the economics of carbon pricing and other regulatory policies and key design questions; to understand the current landscape of domestic and international policy planning and implementation.

Climate change has a unique set of attributes that make standard economic analysis very difficult to apply. It is a global problem requiring unprecedented international cooperation. It is pervaded by uncertainty in every step of the process of translating global emissions into local damages. The costs and benefits of its mitigation are highly mismatched geographically as well as temporally. And its damages are largely irreversible. This class is about breaking down the many challenges of climate change and seeing what economics research has done to address them. The course will discuss what is known (and what is not known) about the economic damages of climate change; will study theoretical models that clarify the policy problem; and will examine existing and potential climate policies and their relative strengths and weaknesses.

The course is discussion oriented and will require a high degree of participation by students in the classroom. Each class will generally consist of a half-hour discussion of a single assigned academic article, followed by lecture to prepare students for the next assigned reading. Students will, at the end of this course, know significantly more about the economics of climate change and also be equipped to begin carrying out research on this all-important topic.

Learning outcomes:

• To understand economic characteristics and outcomes of the climate change.
• To assess national and international climate policy design and their implementation issues.
•  To understand what are the costs and benefits and how the costs and benefits of mitigation are measured
• To learn how to plan strategic development of a company with environmentalist mindset
• To learn make better-informed environmental policy related decision, all while distinguishing between positive analyses and normative judgements
• To sharpen critical analysis and communication abilities, especially in the context of complex and systemic climate change issues, and apply systems thinking to real-world business problems.
• To expand general understanding of the complex decisions faced by managers in business, government, and non-profit organizations.