BSc Management (Innovation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship) with Industrial / Professional Experience / Course details

Society is facing a number of pressing “grand challenges” including climate change, dwindling biodiversity poverty, environmental pollution, malnutrition, and obesity.  Many business leaders already recognise that commercial organisations must play a key role in addressing these problems. In this context successful managers are moving beyond the mind-set of limiting harm and managing risk, to proactively driving the adoption of environmentally sustainable and socially responsible products, services and practices within and beyond their own organisations. This re-imagining of the role of business requires knowledge of novel conceptual frameworks to better understand the connections between firm strategies, intra-industry relationships, various forms of innovation and longer-term socio-technical change. The course draws on a range of world-class sustainability research from AMBS and beyond to develop advanced knowledge of the role of business in the transition toward more sustainable societies. 

Only available to students on: BSc Mgt/Mgt Specialism; IMABS, IM & ITMB.

Only available to students on BSc Management/Management Specialism and IM

The course aims to broaden and deepen your understanding of (1) key issues in the relationship between sustainability, business, and society, and (2) the range of conceptual approaches, frameworks and research topics relevant to the advanced study of sustainability.

The course will cover a range of theories and research-led case studies related to the following topics:

• Planetary boundaries and the SDGs
• Life cycle thinking
• The circular economy
• Sustainable consumption and production as policy discourse and research agenda
• Sustainability-oriented innovation: typologies, dynamics and theories
• The diffusion of sustainable innovation  
• Theories of behavioural change: the role of business and consumers
• Sustainability transitions and the multi-level perspective
• Corporate responses to sustainability challenges
• Sustainable business and 'Green Recovery' 

The course will be delivered through Lectures, and seminars which will include interactive group tasks and workshop discussions, plus students' self-directed study. Total study hours: 200 hours split between lectures, seminars, self-study, and group and individual assignments.
 

• Demonstrate awareness of a variety of ways in which the relationship between business activities, society and the natural environment can be conceptualised.
• Understand the role of different actors and approaches to implementing sustainable business practices and sustainability-oriented innovation.  
• Identify and critique strategies for managing environmental and social impact, across organisations, sectors and geographical contexts. 

• Develop a critical awareness of the consequences of adopting different perspectives for conceptualising the role of business in making progress toward more sustainable societies.
• Critically assess the challenges and opportunities associated with a range of strategies for improving  sustainability across key societal spheres (business, policy and domestic).
• Demonstrate an understanding of the role of different actors and the importance of context in constraining and enabling sustainability-oriented innovation.
   

• Communicate the need for business to engage with environmental and social issues
• Collect, analyse and present evidence to support a case for action to improve environmental and social sustainability.
• Enhance skills at time and task management, feedback assimilation and delivering outputs in an individual and group context.

• Appreciate the importance of taking personal and organisational responsibility to promote sustainability-oriented innovation and the adoption of sustainable business practices.
• Critical analysis, research and data presentation skills.
• Effective contribution to a team in order to develop solutions to unstructured problems. 

Formative Assessment

Group Presentation 

Summative Assessment

Group report, 1000 words (25%)

Annotated Bibliography, individual (10%)

Individual Essay, 2,000 words (65%)

• Written feedback within 15 days of submission.  
• Verbal formative feedback during weekly seminar discussions

• Bocken, N.M.P., de Pauw, I., Bakker, C., & van der Grinten, B. (2016) Product design and business model strategies for a circular economy. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 33(5):308–320  
• Bohnsack, R., Kolk, A., Pinkse, J. and Bidmon, C.M., 2020. Driving the electric bandwagon: The dynamics of incumbents' sustainable innovation. Business Strategy and the Environment 29(2),pp.727-743  
• Corvellec, H., Stowell, A.F. and Johansson, N., 2022. Critiques of the circular economy. Journal of industrial ecology, 26 (2), pp.421-432
• Geels, F.W., McMeekin, A., Mylan, J., Southerton, D. (2015) A critical appraisal of Sustainable Consumption and Production research: The reformist, revolutionary and reconfiguration positions. Global Environmental Change, 34:1–12  
• Kopnina, H., Padfield, R. and Mylan, J. (2023) Sustainable business: Key issues. 3rd ed. Routledge: London  
• Middlemiss, L.(2018) Sustainable Consumption: Key issues. Routledge: London
• Smith, A., Voß, J.-P. & Grin, J., 2010. Innovation studies and sustainability transitions: The allure of the multi-level perspective and its challenges. Research Policy, 39(4), pp.435–448  
• O'Rourke, D. and Lollo, N., 2015. Transforming consumption: from decoupling, to behavior change,to system changes for sustainable consumption. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 40, pp.233-259  
• Whiteman, G., et al 2013. Planetary Boundaries: Ecological Foundations for Corporate Sustainability. Journal of Management Studies, 50(2), pp.307–336 
   

Programme restrictions: BSc Management and Management (Specialisms) and BSc International Management