LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students gain a topical overview of current scholarly and policy discussions about sustainable entrepreneurship, and learn to analyse the social and ecological sustainability of current business practices. Based on individual learning interests, students are able to engage in real-life sustainability research, consultancy or start-up projects. They learn to identify practical challenges for developing sustainable business solutions, and to present their solutions to different stakeholders, such as entrepreneurs, civic society organizations and policy makers.
Credits: 6
Schedule: 23.10.2023 - 04.12.2023
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):
Patrick.shulist@aalto.fi
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:
The course focuses on the role of entrepreneurship in the transitioning towards a more socially and ecologically responsible world. The course is based on two core pivots: 1) why entrepreneurship is important for sustainability, 2) how sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship differs from "traditional" entrepreneurship. To accomplish this, we will explore the entrepreneurial process (e.g. ideation, venture creation, initial market entry, early growth, and late growth) with a focus on how the components of that process change by including sustainability considerations. Understanding these differences fundamentally necessitates understanding the complexity of sustainability-oriented value propositions, as well as the increased importance of gaining support from other ecosystem actors.
A unique feature of the course design is the strong emphasis on problem-based learning through a group course project where students get to work on the real-world challenges of start-ups and other entrepreneurship actors. Students are also encouraged to use the course as an opportunity to explore their own start-up ideas.
applies in this implementation
I am excited to have you in this course. The world faces extensive sustainability issues and requires massive systemic change if we are to make a better world, both socially and environmentally.
This course is broken down into two parts. Sessions 1-4 look 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. Of course, other actors - such as governments, NGOs, and academia - are also important, but they are not the focus of this course. When examining systems change, we will be very pragmatic about what is, and is not, possible. Make no mistake, systems change is hard.
In session 5-12, we will 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. For this type of hands-on activity, check out these courses:
Assessment Methods and Criteria
valid for whole curriculum period:
Individual and group work
Exam
applies in this implementation
Component
Percent of Final Grade
Due Date
Individual Work
65%
Pre-session assignments
20% (10x2%)
Due before start of sessions
Exam
45%
Group work
35%
Create Group
November 1st
Group contract
November 6th
Report
20%
November 17
Presentation
15%
Scheduled in class, sessions 9, 10, and 12
Peer evaluation
December 9th
Workload
valid for whole curriculum period:
Contact teaching
Independent work
DETAILS
Study Material
applies in this implementation
see full syllabus in MyCourses
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
Course that may be completed several times
Teaching Period : 2022-2023 Autumn II
2023-2024 Autumn IIEnrollment :
Students are admitted to the course in the following priority order: 1) Creative Sustainability / Management and International Business students, 2) BIZ exchange students, 3) other students.
applies in this implementation
see full syllabus in MyCourses
As there is usually more interest in the course than spots available, if you are enrolled via Sisu in the course, you will need to confirm during the week before the course that you do in fact want to attend. In years past, 8-10 people have not shown up for the course, which has meant 8-10 spots are wasted.
Details on the schedule
applies in this implementation
Session #
Date
Day of week
Sesstion name
1
23-Oct
Monday
What is sustainable entrepreneurship?
2
25-Oct
Wednesday
Systems change: What is it, and why is it important?
3
30-Oct
Monday
Systems change using markets: The role of corporations
4
1-Nov
Wednesday
Systems change using markets: The role of entrepreneurship
5
6-Nov
Monday
Iteration in Sustainable Entrepreneurship
6
8-Nov
Wednesday
Group Work time
7
13-Nov
Monday
Competing goals and trade-offs
8
15-Nov
Wednesday
Complexity along the value chain
9
20-Nov
Monday
Presentations
10
22-Nov
Wednesday
Presentations
11
27-Nov
Monday
Impact versus scaling
12
29-Nov
Wednesday
Simulation + Presentations