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Instructors: Dr. Matthew Phillip Johnson
Event type:
Seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
Sust. Bus. Dev.
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
6,0
Language of instruction:
English
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 42
Comments/contents:
In this seminar offered as both lectures (5 sessions) and blocked workshops (3), the challenges of forming and continually developing a company’s business model will be portrayed as business model innovation, especially in the environmental, social, and integrated sustainability context.
The goals of this seminar are to innovate an existing business or even create a business model plan for a sustainability-oriented start-up (strongly encourage this. It also focuses a the creative, yet focused approach to the following problem:
How can creative and innovative thinking in new business models generate positive environmental and social contributions above and beyond financial success?
We will not be writing business plans, but using well-developed entrepreneurial concepts, including the business model canvas (Osterwealder & Pignuer, 2011) as well as effectuation and causation (Sarasvathy, 2008).
Learning objectives:
1. To learn the theoretical basics of social and sustainable entrepreneurship;
2. To learn theoretical and conceptual basics of business model innovation, effectuation and causation;
3. To learn how to develop values-based and sustainable business models; and
4. To train and strengthen solution-focused thinking in practical contexts.
Didactic concept:
There are two parts to the course – Fundamentals and Practical Application.
In the first part, Fundamentals, the students will deal with the phenomenon of sustainable entrepreneurship and its description in the theoretical literature. Furthermore, you will learn about the business model as a management and innovation concept as well as various techniques of business modeling. Furthermore, the concepts of effectuation and causation will be introduced not only for effective development of business ventures, but also to acheive greater environemntal and societal impacts. These basics are contained in scientific and practical literature on sustainable entrepreneurship and business models, in particular in the intersection on topics of entrepreneurial sustainability management and sustainable social development. These entrepreneurial and societal perspectives are supplemented by a network perspective from which different actors work together to tackle entrepreneurial and social challenges.
The Fundamentals part of the course will be covered in five sessions from 04.04. until 09.05.2022. It is my intention to hold these lectures in the classroom. However, if the University forces us into an online learning mode, the lectures will still be held live in Zoom sessions.
In the second part, Practical Application, the students will work on real-life challenges in a particular industry of choice, for instance energy, health care, education, or base-of-the-pyramid enterprises. Students are required to form working groups (circa five persons per group), which will be organized and moderated by the students themselves. These groups will take up real-life problems and solve them from a “market-orientation” perspective supplemented with taught business modeling techniques. Topics could include, for instance, the development of virtual power plants at the regional level, the provision of disadvantaged families with access to clean drinking water and facilities, etc. These solutions can tackle a particular Sustainable Development Goal (e.g., SDG 7 Clean and Affordable Energy), or think beyond, i.e. developing a concept for biodiversity.
For the Practical Application part of the course, students will be able to choose these cases themselves by the beginning of May (deadline is 8.05.2023), which will include cases from either an online search or personal preferences in forming a new venture.
The project application will be covered during two sessions on 26.05. and 9.06.2023 in the form of group workshops. Additionally, you must organize and work as groups outside of these scheduled sessions. IMPORTANT: These workshops are most effective in the classroom setting. Thus, there will be no hybrid option available for these workshops.
The final session, scheduled for Friday, 30.06.2023, is to be used for the final presentations, which will be graded.
Literature:
(* to read before the lecture on 17.04.2023; ** to read before the lecture on 08.05.2023)
Introduction to social and sustainable entrepreneurship
- *Johnson, M. P., & Schaltegger, S. (2020). Entrepreneurship for sustainable development: A review and multilevel causal mechanism framework. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 44(6), 1141-1173
- *Schaltegger, S. & Wagner, M. (2011): Sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainability innovation: categories and interactions, Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 20, No. 4, 222–237.
- *Zeyen, A., Beckmann, M., & Akhavan, R. (2014): Social entrepreneurship business models: Managing innovation for social and economic value creation. In Managementperspektiven für die Zivilgesellschaft des 21. Jahrhunderts (pp. 107-132). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
Introduction to business models
- Gassmann, O.; Frankenberger, K. & Csik, M. (2014): The business model navigator. 55 models that will revolutionise your business. Pearson Education Limited.
- Osterwalder, A. & Pigneur, Y. (2010): Business model generation. A handbook for vi- sionaries, game changers, and challengers. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Introduction to effectuation and caustation
- Sarasvathy, S. D. (2001). Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. Academy of management Review, 26(2), 243-263.
- Reymen, I. M., Andries, P., Berends, H., Mauer, R., Stephan, U., & Van Burg, E. (2015). Understanding dynamics of strategic decision making in venture creation: a process study of effectuation and causation. Strategic entrepreneurship journal, 9(4), 351-379.
Introduction to sustainable business models
- **Boons, F. & Lüdeke-Freund, F. (2013): Business Models for Sustainable Innovation: State of the Art and Steps Towards a Research Agenda, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 45, 9-19.
- **Bocken, N.; Short, S.; Rana, P. & Evans, S. (2014): A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 65, 42–56.
- Clinton, L. & Whisnant, R. (2014): Model Behavior – 20 Business Model Innovations for Sustainability. London: SustainAbility.
- Schaltegger, S.; Hansen, E. & Lüdeke-Freund, F. (2016): Business Models for Sustainability: Origins, Present Research, and Future Avenues (Editorial), Organization & Envi ronment, Vol. 29, No. 1, 3-10.
Introduction to (sustainability-oriented) business modelling tools
- Upward, A. & Jones, P. (2016): An Ontology for Strongly Sustainable Business Models: Defining an Enterprise Framework Compatible With Natural and Social Science, Organization & Environment, Vol. 29, No. 1, 97–123.
- Joyce, A. & Paquin, R. (2016): The triple layered business model canvas: A tool to design more sustainable business models, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 135, 1474–1486.
Additional examination information:
Student groups have to present their results (40% of grading) on the final block seminar date (30.06.2023), and to submit a seminar paper detailing certain aspects of their presentation (60% of grading). The seminar paper has to build on theory and describe the practical business model solution for the group’s case challenge. As a group, you have to submit 25 pages (text) + appendix (‘market research’, multiple business model canvases in the development stages, further materials). The seminar paper's deadline is August 31, 2023.
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