Магистратура
2025/2026
Управление устойчивым развитием компании
Статус:
Курс обязательный (Стратегический менеджмент: инвестиции и консалтинг)
Где читается:
Высшая школа бизнеса
Когда читается:
2-й курс, 2 модуль
Охват аудитории:
для своего кампуса
Преподаватели:
Иванова Екатерина Александровна
Язык:
английский
Кредиты:
3
Контактные часы:
24
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This innovative course explores the critical intersection of business management and sustainability in today's rapidly evolving global marketplace. It equips future business leaders with the essential knowledge and skills to navigate global challenges while driving sustainable development and creating long-term value. "Sustainable Business Management" delves into how purpose-driven organizations can act as agents of world benefit, addressing planetary 'grand challenges' such as climate change, inequality, and social impacts of global supply chain practices. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to integrate sustainable practices into core business strategies, operations, and decision-making processes, aligning with the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria.
The curriculum covers key topics such as circular economy principles, stakeholder engagement, corporate social responsibility, and the humanistic management paradigm. This approach focuses on protecting dignity and promoting well-being rather than just wealth acquisition, emphasizing the shift towards a net-zero economy. Through case studies, interactive discussions, practical projects, and innovative experiential learning approaches, students will develop a holistic sustainability mindset that combines ecoliteracy, systems thinking, and emotional and spiritual intelligence. Students will learn to analyze sustainability-related risks and opportunities, implement sustainable business models, and justify their decisions by means of ESG-Dashboards as a digital sustainability management tool.
By the end of the course, students will be equipped with the knowledge and tools to drive sustainable innovations, enhance organizational resilience, and lead responsible businesses that contribute positively to both profit and planet. Students will emerge prepared to implement ethical and responsible management practices, engage diverse stakeholders, and drive positive change in both local and global contexts. This course aims to nurture a new generation of conscious business leaders capable of steering organizations towards higher purposes while addressing complex global issues. Students will be ready to navigate the complexities of sustainability, create competitive advantages in an increasingly conscious market environment, and contribute to making our planet a better place for living.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the evolution, key concepts and practices of sustainability management and sustainable development with focus on implementing the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
- Gain the extensive knowledge on sustainability strategies in global business, developed and communicated in line with the generally accepted international frameworks and standards (e.g. the UN Global Compact, ISO 26000, GRI, etc.) and approaches for addressing the ESG challenges at the operational level;
- Grow personally and professionally through experiential learning opportunities, based on learning from inspiring case studies and reflecting upon the interaction with ethical, responsible and sustainable management practices from the cutting edge ESG experts;
- Develop critical and appreciative view of the world, facilitate cultivation of the sustainability mindset, by taking into account contemporary debates on the role of business in society and nature with respect to local culture, global challenges, and opportunities;
- Implement an experiential learning research team project “ESG-Dashboard” as a digital sustainability management tool for the selected company.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- The key terms, concepts, and their managerial implications for sustainability management, stakeholder management and sustainable development
- The UN Global Agenda 2030 and implementation of the UN 17 SDGs in the local and global context
- The centrality of stakeholder theory in sustainability management and sustainable development
- The complexities of incorporating challenges of sustainable development into organizational strategies and sustainable lifestyles.
- Develop proficiency in analyzing complex organizational situations, identifying key problem areas, and formulating strategies for ethical, responsible and sustainable management practices in global business
- Develop an ability to critically evaluate courses of managerial action in cases relating to ethical, responsible and sustainable management practices in global business.
- Be aware of, and understand the appropriate seminal academic publications on sustainable management and sustainable development.
- Synthesize material, write and debate analytically on current business ethics, responsible business and sustainable development problems in national and international contexts.
- Conduct research projects both independently and in groups in a multicultural context
- Translate a complex societal problem into a scientific research question, develop a research design for a study to answer it, by applying up-to-date social empirical methods, such as appreciative inquiry interview.
- Interlink different subjects and disciplines on a specific, theoretical, methodological and empirical level.
- Cultivate the sustainability mindset: as an integrated way of thinking (knowledge), doing (competency), and being (values) in ecological worldview, systems thinking, emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence.
- Grow in personal awareness, creativity and independent critical thinking with relevance to complex social situations.
- Acquire the capacity to listen and communicate to professionals and laymen in English with precision and clarity both orally and in writing
- Analyze, communicate and present ideas, principles and evidence that support a reasoned and consistent argument
- Contribute successfully to a peer work group, while delegating and coordinating tasks in culturally diverse teams.
- Through self-learning train how to effectively manage time, extract essence from a large amount of information, and approach it analytically.
- Basic ICT competences for communicating, retrieving and elaborating on the ESG-Dashboard research projects.
- The changing roles and expectations in the relationships between business, governments, society and nature in different contexts
Course Contents
- Lecture 1. Introduction into sustainable development
- Lecture 2. Concepts and reasons for sustainability management
- Seminar 1. Team-building for sustainability management
- Lecture 3. Sustainability strategies and stakeholder perspectives
- Seminar 2. Sustainability management practicum
- Seminar 3. Presentations of the ESG-Dashboard project
Assessment Elements
- Reflections on the experiential learning activities (individual)The individual reflection papers assignments on (1) world book café (10%), (2) museum (5%) and (3) one hour in nature (5%) will be assessed and evaluated according to the criteria formulated in the table below. The first criterion applies for the quality of performance by the student and weights 70% of the grade. The second criterion applies for the work engagement demonstrated by the student and weights 30 % of the grade.
- Case study on corporate sustainability management (50% team and 50% individual)
- Cinemalogia (team)o Watch a film indicated below and be prepared to discuss the key takeaways and on what you saw in a de-briefing session in class
- Research project “ESG-Dashboard” (50% team and 50% individual)
Interim Assessment
- 2025/2026 2nd module0.15 * Case study on corporate sustainability management (50% team and 50% individual) + 0.15 * Cinemalogia (team) + 0.2 * Reflections on the experiential learning activities (individual) + 0.5 * Research project “ESG-Dashboard” (50% team and 50% individual)
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Digging deeper : how purpose-driven enterprises create real value, Sternad, D., 2017
- Doughnut economics : seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist, Raworth, K., 2022
- Green swans : the coming boom in regenerative capitalism, Elkington, J., 2021
- Natural capitalism : the next industrial revolution, Hawken, P., 2000
- Principles of management : practicing ethics, responsibility, sustainability, Laasch, O., 2021
- The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility [Электронный ресурс] / А.Crane, D.Matten, A.McWilliams, J.Moon, D.S.Siegel, eds.; БД oxfordhandbooks. - Oxford University Press; 2008. – Режим доступа: http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199211593.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199211593 – Загл. с экрана.
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Laszlo, C. (2003). The Sustainable Company : How to Create Lasting Value Through Social and Environmental Performance. Washington, DC: Island Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=118249
- Tickling sharks : how we sold business on sustainability, Elkington, J., 2024