Sustainable Development and Corporate ESG Practices

Bachelor 2024/2025

Type: Compulsory course (International Business)

Delivered by: Department of Strategic and International Management

When: 1 year, 2 module

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Tom Rawlins

Language: English

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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 the 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 paradigm of humanistic management. 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, discussions, and practical projects students will develop a holistic mindset that combines ecoliteracy and systems thinking. Students will learn to analyze sustainability-related risks and opportunities, implement sustainable business models, and measure the triple bottom line impact of their decisions. 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 the 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 conscientious 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

To get acquainted with the basic concepts, concepts and standards in the field of business ethics, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability in the context of solving management problems.
To get an idea of the ‘best’ and the ‘worst’ practices of international and Russian companies in the context of business ethics and CSR.
To understand the barriers and opportunities to stimulate socially responsible behaviour in Russia.
To develop basic skills to identify, analyse and resolve ethical dilemmas in the workplace, resolve corruption cases, represent the interests of stakeholders in corporate documents on business ethics and responsible CSR practices to assess the consequences of organisational and managerial decisions, taking into account the social significance and implementation of managerial decisions in conditions complex and dynamic environment.
To form one’s own position in relation to socially responsible behaviour.

Expected Learning Outcomes

Students understand three constituting fields of managing responsibly: sustainability, responsibility and ethics.
Students will be able to understand the ethical frameworks that support different approaches to decision-making and their strengths and weaknesses. In particular, students will understand how the current dominance of normative theories of rational choice based on expected utility, often preferred by economists, can lead to socially irresponsible management and an unsustainable business.
Student will understand the role of different concepts and approaches to CSR
Student will understand relevant ESG trends
Students will acquire theoretical knowledge and practical skills in applied ethics, ethical thinking and ethical behaviour as mediation.
Students analyze external and internal environment of entrepreneur and customer
Students use elements of the entrepreneurial process: feasibility analysis and business plan communication
Students identify and evaluate opportunities in external in internal environment
Students create business ideas using right methodologies
Students search for and evaluate opportunities; they create teams, using methods of resource allocation and team building
Students use right methods to create and exploit innovations to create sustainable competitive advantage
Students analyze purpose and limitations of organizational structures
Students formulate and produce working business models to exploit opportunities
Students calculate unit economy of an entreprize and a startup firm

Course Contents

Topic 1. Introduction
Topic 2. Integration of sustainability into a corporate strategy
Topic 3. Sustainable Operations.
Topic 4. Sustainable HRM
Topic 5. Sustainable Marketing and Communications.
Topic 6. Sustainable Finance
Topic 7. Performance Tracking and Evaluation

Assessment Elements

Written assignment
Four assignments (two written and two video) will also be given which must be completed and uploaded to the StartExam platform before the end of the module.
Multiple choice test
Multiple choice test will be given in the lectures and/or seminars during the course. The test will be given using the StartExam platform and you must ensure you have access to this platform for the test, when required.
Video assignment
Four assignments (two written and two video) will also be given which must be completed and uploaded to the StartExam platform before the end of the module.

Interim Assessment

2024/2025 2nd module
0.4 * Multiple choice test + 0.4 * Video assignment + 0.2 * Written assignment

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Principles of management : practicing ethics, responsibility, sustainability, Laasch, O., 2021
Sustainability assessment : a rating system framework for best practices, Poveda, C. A., 2017

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Kokubu, K., & Nagasaka, Y. (2020). Sustainability Management And Business Strategy In Asia. World Scientific.
Schönborn, G., Berlin, C. 1981, Pinzone, M., Hanisch, C., Georgoulias, K., & Lanz, M. (2019). Why social sustainability counts: The impact of corporate social sustainability culture on financial success. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 17, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2018.08.008

Authors

Roulins Tomas Edvard

Course Syllabus