Strategy, Economics and Societal Impact

Course goals

Learning objectives
At the end of the course the student is able to:

• Understand different perspectives on the role of corporations in society;
• Understand and apply frameworks for identifying societal as well as ecological challenges and opportunities that are relevant (material) for specific businesses;
• Connect broader developments on economics and sustainability with the business perspective
• Link these to appropriate strategic and managerial responses that increase resilience of businesses in an uncertain transition.

Content

One the one hand, society increasingly expects that corporations demonstrate a broader ‘purpose’ than doing business for making profit: they should make a positive contribution to environment and show responsibility towards their stakeholders, for example by committing to the UN sustainable development goals. On the other hand, most corporations are expected be competitive and profitable to survive, create value for their shareholders, and contribute to economic prosperity. This tension is aggravated in the current uncertain societal environment.

This course focuses on how corporations can create sustainable long-term value by making global societal and ecological challenges an integral part of their strategy, management, and governance. The course starts by introducing frameworks that enable a company to identify global societal challenges, and determine which of these challenges pose strategic corporate risks and opportunities for a company. Students are then encouraged to combine these frameworks with real-world industry and corporate data to assess companies’ sustainable value opportunities, and propose specific projects that create sustainable value because of their positive societal or environmental impact. The course then discusses real-world implementation through business models, partnerships, the role of policy and reporting. Academic and practical approaches to corporate societal impact measurement as well as assessment of sustainable value creation are also incorporated throughout the course.

Creating sustainable value may require that firms adopt fundamentally distinctive set of organizational processes, and that they are guided by the appropriate set of governance and control mechanisms. The course also discusses which of such factors encourage companies to be more responsive to global sustainability challenges and consequently be more resilient in an uncertain world that is currently in transition.