Sustainable Business Practices (MSB325)

Is economic growth constrained by scarce resources or environmental policies? How is supply chain management effected by a transition from a linear to a circular economy? What characterizes the relationship between governments and businesses in a circular economy? These are among the questions we will explore in this course. The course gives a thorough introduction to the literature on sustainable business strategies and practices. This is a cross-disciplinary field related to topics such as circular economy or industrial symbiosis, resource economics through valuation of natural resources and optimizing energy use and extraction of natural resources, or business strategies linked to ecodesign of products, XaaS, and adapting to circular value chains.

NB! This is an elective course and may be cancelled if fewer than 15 students are enrolled by August 20th for the autumn semester.

Core business trends and strategies are increasingly related to sustainability considerations. Natural resources may be scarce, waste production may be higher than necessary, and the processing, distribution, and consumption of resources may produce externalities that harm businesses operations. Social resources are also critical for businesses. They come in many forms: as employees and potential employees, strategic partners, suppliers, customers, as the general public, or as the property of a network covering one or more of these actors. This course provides a thorough introduction to the literature on sustainable business strategies and practices. The course will also introduce the candidates to cases of circular economy by offering guest lectures and course tasks.

This is a cross-disciplinary field related to topics such as supply chain analysis linked to circular economy or industrial symbiosis, resource economics through valuation of natural resources and optimizing energy use or extraction of natural resources, and business strategy linked to ecodesign of products, XaaS, and adapting to circular value chains.

The course covers the following topics:

• How do you delineate sustainable business practices?

• How the development of the modern business entity and business model has impacted sustainability

• Sustainability policies and regulations. Race to the bottom and a level playing field:

• Life cycle cost (LCC), negative externalities, trading with bads, emission trading and carbon pricing, and valuation of natural resources.

• Transaction costs, and supply chain management in a circular economy

• Sustainable business metrics and reporting

Knowledge:

Upon completion of the course, students will have acquired a thorough understanding of:

• Definitions of "corporate social responsibility" and "sustainability", "exergy", and "entropy".

• A circular economy and life cycle costs, and of business cases

• The historic development of the business enterprise and early examples of sustainability debates

• Drivers of and barriers to sustainable business strategies.

• Government regulations and incentives aiming to influence sustainable business practices.

• The main alternatives and implications with regard to life cycle costs and externality costs.

• Current examples of sustainable business practices.

• International regulations and policies concerning sustainable business practices.

Skills:

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to

• Participate in the academic debate on the "race to the bottom" and the "level playing field".

• Explain the dilemmas and challenges related to sustainable business leadership.

• Analyse and discuss sustainable business strategies

• Present various challenges concerning sustainable business practices using appropriate theoretical framework and business cases

Before submitting the final group assignment, students need to fulfill the following coursework (chronological sequence):

• A group sketch describing your plans for the final group assignment and presentation.
• An individual assignment submitted midway through the course
• Presentation of group assignment

Coursework items are required in order to submit the final group assignment on Inspera.

The course will be delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars and feedback to written assignments. The

seminars will include student presentations and discussions. Each student will be required to be part of the

presentation of group assignment. All students are expected to read the required literature ahead of the seminars and

to actively participate in discussions. The seminars will focus on case stories.

To be approved and ready for submission of the final assignment, the following requirements must be fulfilled (one

retake is allowed):

An outline indicating the topics and data sampling for the final assignment must be approved (pass/no pass)An

individual assignment.Grading in this course is based on a review of the group assignment (3,000-5,000 words) and an

oral presentation of this assignment.

Estimated student workload:

1. Lectures: 26 hours

2. Seminar/exercise: 26 hours

3. Supervision (including peer-to-peer): 40 hours

4. Student's self studies: 120 hours

5. Written assignments: 80 hours

TOTAL 292 hours