The educational goal of this course is to develop a holistic understanding of today's business world. Sustainability refers to the relationship between business, society, and planet. Understanding these connections, and connecting them to business decisions is the first milestone of this course.

Based on this holistic view, the ultimate objective of the course is for every student to develop his or her own personal synthesis and approach for identifying and solving the key problems that they will face in the business world, be it as entrepreneur or as a member in an existing corporation. There is an increased need in the business world for people being able to plan strategic innovation for a sustainable future.

As we move toward the third decade of the 21st century, the very nature of corporate and competitive strategy is undergoing radical transformation. Business will become increasingly focused on transformation rather than continuous improvement, as the global challenges of sustainability come to dominate the competitive landscape.

Forces such as the accelerating rate of technological change, the mounting environmental crisis or the widening gap between rich and poor - to mention only a few – will make clearly defined competitive strategies allowing for long terms competitive advantage practically impossible. Indeed, over the next decade or two, we will witness some important changes in existing industries which will be restructured, with many incumbents losing their positions to new entrants emerging from beyond traditional industry boundaries.

There is a personal and skill development aspect to this course. Competencies that students need to mobilize include team work, analytical skill, and multitasking between theory and practice.

Book, articles and case studies. Occasionally, this will be supplemented by videos.

TRANSITIONAL REGULATIONS:
This course is in transition within the master International Business specialisation Entrepreneurship and Business Development. It also effects master Business Research students who choose first year electives from the Entrepreneurship and Business Development group. Students from other programs can ignore this.

The following rule applies to master International Business specialisation Entrepreneurship and Business Development and certain master Business Research students who started the programme prior to academic year 2023-2024.
TRANSITIONAL REGULATION (EBC4106):
Students are able to repeat the course, including an examination and a resit opportunity in 2023-2024. Students who have not finished the course by then will be given the opportunity to repeat the examination and a resit opportunity in 2024-2025.

See the Transitional Regulations section in the Master Education and Examination Regulations for more information.


PREREQUISITES:
* Excellent command of English, spoken and written.
* Basic understanding of strategic management and business economics. E.g. basic concepts such as ROA or the five forces should be known.
* Basic understanding (in terms of reading rather than actually doing) of statistics, allowing you to properly understand regression analysis and other types of statistical analysis in academic articles.