The principal aim of this project is to develop a broad, cross-institutional and interdisciplinary teaching program on “Sustainable Business Models”. The contents and materials developed through the project are primarily intended to be used as a basis for online courses in Sustainable Business at the partner institutions and in the CEMS network. It can also be used as building blocks for regular courses that may allow for a “flipped classroom” approach that frees up time for more interactive forms of learning in the classroom.Sustainability is one of the major challenges facing contemporary societies and it has very significant implications for business. Global surveys of CEOs show that sustainability is being placed on the top of the agenda of companies across all industries. In part, this is due to the challenges faced by stronger expectations by customers and other stakeholders, as well as the threat of regulation of social and environmental performance. Increasingly, however, there is an awareness that there are profitable opportunities associated with being more sustainable or by offering products and services that enable others to lead more sustainable lives. In this sense, there is a growing understanding of the possibility that firms can become sustainable while at the same time being responsible. The knowledge of business models that allow for such sustainable functioning are however still scarce in contemporary business education.This project attempts to address this shortcoming by developing a comprehensive educational program consisting of video lectures and other teaching material from the frontiers of research on sustainable business. The project is a collaboration between NHH Norwegian School of Economics, Corvinus University of Budapest, Copenhagen Business School and ESADE. Each of the partners will contribute teaching modules on specialized topics related to sustainable business, and taken together, these modules form a coherent whole of relevant knowledge and theories, cases from international business and solutions for future scenarios, all intended to enable companies to promote sustainability while being competitive in the market place. The project has the following objectives:• To develop a course program consisting of six modules on topics related to the design, innovation and implementation of sustainable business models. Thereby, the project will deliver 30 teaching videos and additional materials. This material will be used in CEMS seminars as part of the project, but will also be used in existing courses at the four partner institutions. In addition, all the videos will be available at the project's online portal. • To organize a kick-off seminar for students and faculty at NHH in February 2017, as part of the development of the project.• To organize CEMS Global Responsible Leadership seminars at three of the four partner institutions (NHH in February 2017 and CBS and Corvinus in February 2018) during the project period in order to test the developed content and to contribute to ongoing teaching in corporate sustainability within the CEMS community.• To organize a CEMS Block seminar at ESADE (in October 2018) towards the end of the project, in order to ensure the application of the course content at the institutions and in the CEMS network. This can in turn be offered regularly through CEMS.•To organize a concluding seminar for faculty and students at Corvinus in December 2018. The seminar will present the intellectual and methodological outputs and experiences from the project, and will also be filmed and made available via the online portal.In this way, the project will improve the teaching capabilities in sustainable business as well as the proficiency in employing relevant educational technology to improve learning outcomes.The project will contribute to the development and diffusion of research-based insights on sustainable business and will thus build competencies among European business school students in the design, implementation, innovation and management of sustainable business models.
The principal aim of this project has been to develop a broad, cross-institutional and interdisciplinary teaching program on “Sustainable Business Models”. The contents and materials developed through the project are primarily intended to be used as a basis for online courses in Sustainable Business at the partner institutions and in the CEMS network. They can also be used as building blocks for regular courses that may allow for a “flipped classroom” approach that frees up time for more interactive forms of learning in the classroom. Sustainability is one of the major challenges facing contemporary societies and it has very significant implications for business. Global surveys of CEOs show that sustainability is being placed on the top of the agenda of companies across all industries. In part, this is due to the challenges faced by stronger expectations by customers and other stakeholders, as well as the threat of regulation of social and environmental performance. Increasingly, however, there is an awareness that there are profitable opportunities associated with being more sustainable or by offering products and services that enable others to lead more sustainable lives. In this sense, there is a growing understanding of the possibility that firms can become sustainable while at the same time being responsible. The knowledge of business models that allow for such sustainable functioning are however still scarce in contemporary business education. This project has addressed this shortcoming by developing a comprehensive educational program consisting of video lectures and other teaching material from the frontiers of research on sustainable business. The project had the following objectives: 1. To develop a course program consisting of six modules on topics related to the design, innovation and implementation of sustainable business models. 2. As a main outcome, the project will deliver 30 teaching videos and additional materials freely accessible online. Initially, four business schools took part in the consortium. The lead organization was NHH Norwegian School of Economics and the three other participating organizations were ESADE Business School, Copenhagen Business School and Corvinus University Budapest. After an initial round of contract negotiations, however, Corvinus University Budapest chose to withdraw from the project (cf. Amendment to Grant Agreement, Nov. 6th 2017). The remaining organizations agreed that NHH Norwegian School of Economics would take on the workload intended to be conducted by Corvinus University Budapest. As a consequence, researchers from NHH Norwegian School of Economics developed and produced four of the six modules in the program (modules 1-3 and 6), while ESADE Business School (module 4) and Copenhagen Business School (module 5) developed and produced one module each. The main outcomes of the project, as planned, are the seven intellectual outputs (IO). IO1-6 are the six video modules comprising a total of 32 videos, while IO7 is the online, open access platform at www.SUSTBUS.com, through which all videos can be accessed. The modules are as follows: - IO1: The problem of sustainability - IO2: Business Models for Sustainability - IO3: Circular and Collaborative Business Models - IO4: Social Innovation - IO5: Strategizing and Organizing for Sustainability - IO6: Business in a Sustainable Future - IO7: Online portal at www.SUSTBUS.com In addition, there have been several learning and teaching activities, as well as multiplier events, carried out as part of the project. The following learning and teaching activities were carried out in order to test the material throughout the development and production phases: - "Sustainable Business Models" - Responsible Global Leadership Seminar at NHH, Jan/Feb 2018 - "Sustainable Business Models" - bachelor program seminar at ESADE, Jan 2019 - "Sustainable Business Models" - Responsible Global Leadership Seminar at NHH, Jan/Feb 2019 The following multiplier events have been carried out to disseminate results from the project: - "Sustainable Business Models" - seminar for NHH Alumni, Oslo, April 2019 - "Sustainable Business Models" - closing seminar at CBS, April 2019 - Sharing of Practices, Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships, NHH, 2019 In addition, a "Sustainable Business Models" seminar was held at Global Responsibility Week 2018 at CBS. Also, a panel debate was hosted during the Global Responsibility Week at NHH in 2018, involving local entrepreneurs heading sustainability iniatives. In terms of impact, the material has already been used widely in teaching at the three partners schools, both at bachelor and master level. In addition, as shown above, it has been used in the CEMS programs, in which there are students from all partner schools in the CEMS network. This application of the program will continue, thus ensuring long-term impact on the teaching of sustainability in and beyond these curricula.