LEARNING OUTCOMES
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Comprehensive Understanding of Systems Change: Develop a deep understanding of the role of market-based activity, in driving systems change, acknowledging the complexities and challenges involved.
- Analyze the role of entrepreneruship in systems change. Analyze the pivotal role of entrepreneurship in facilitating systems change, understanding how entrepreneurs bring new ideas to markets, and help diffuse new ideas.
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Venture level trandeoffs: Gain the ability to critically analyze the tensions and trade-offs in sustainable entrepreneurship, such as balancing social, environmental, and financial goals, and navigating short-term versus long-term objectives.
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Enhanced Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking: Develop advanced problem-solving and critical thinking skills, essential for addressing the complexities of sustainable entrepreneurship
Credits: 6
Schedule: 21.10.2024 - 05.12.2024
Teacher in charge (valid for whole curriculum period):
Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Patrick Shulist
Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation):
CEFR level (valid for whole curriculum period):
Language of instruction and studies (applies in this implementation):
Teaching language: English. Languages of study attainment: English
CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD
Content
valid for whole curriculum period:
This course is broken down into two parts. We start the course looking at the ‘big picture’ of systems change. Given that the majority of the world’s economic activity happens through markets, it is critical to understand the role that market-based activity might have in causing this change. Though we will briefly talk about corporations, our primary focus is on entrepreneurship, as entrepreneurship is how new ideas enter the marketplace, and how society is pushed to change. When examining systems change, we will be very pragmatic about what is, and is not, possible. Make no mistake, systems change is hard.
We then change the level of our analysis, moving from the systems level down to the venture level. Here, our focus is understanding how and why sustainable entrepreneurship is hard for companies; it is critical to systems change, but it is hard. Indeed, entrepreneurs encounter a multitude of tensions whilst trying to use their ventures to cause systems change. For instance:
- Though there are ‘win-wins’ out there, there are inevitably trade-offs between social, environmental, and financial goals; a venture may have to sacrifice some environmental value if it is to be financially sustainable.
- There are temporal trade-offs; a venture that favours financial viability in the short term may be better positioned to accomplish social or environmental goals in the long term
- Ventures must set boundaries on the system that they want to change; the world is full of problems, but systems change is hard, and a venture that tries to change too many things at once is almost certainly destined to fail. This may mean that ventures pay little attention to some issues that are very important, but are beyond their core focus
With these tensions in mind, this course will take a pragmatic approach. Above all else, I want you to understand that sustainable entrepreneurship is brutally difficult (this is, after all, the third time I’ve mentioned difficulty). If it were easy, many systems would have been changed by now. We need to recognize this difficulty, because only once we recognize this complexity that we can address it.
Finally, also note what this course is NOT doing: it is not helping you design your own sustainable start-up.
Assessment Methods and Criteria
valid for whole curriculum period:
Individual and group work (100%)
Exam
Workload
valid for whole curriculum period:
Contact teaching
Independent work
DETAILS
Study Material
valid for whole curriculum period:
A variety of articles on sustainability entrepreneurship. More detailed instructions will be provided in the course syllabus.
Substitutes for Courses
valid for whole curriculum period:
Prerequisites
valid for whole curriculum period:
FURTHER INFORMATION
Further Information
valid for whole curriculum period:
Teaching Language: English
Teaching Period: 2024-2025 Autumn II
2025-2026 Autumn IIRegistration:
Students are admitted to the course in the following priority order 1) Creative Sustainability / Sustainable Entrepreneurship students, 2) CEMS students / Department of Management Studies Students, 3) Other BIZ Students 4) BIZ exchange students 5) Other students.
There are two iterations of the same course. When registering, please choose which set of lectures you will be attending (morning or afternoon).