Organizing Sustainable Innovation

COURSE OBJECTIVE
Academic skills: ability to critically evaluate innovations and innovation approaches from the perspective of sustainability

Knowledge: theoretical understanding of the management of innovation processes and understanding of specific challenges and approaches for developing and adopting sustainable innovations

Bridging Theory and Practice: developing skills for applying creative and analytical methods for new product, service, and business model development

Social Skills: working in teams for idea development

COURSE CONTENT
This course concerns the development and commercialization of sustainable innovations. Organizing for sustainable innovation implies a shift away from a reactive approach (i.e. organizations responding to economic, societal and regulatory pressure) to a pro-active system oriented approach: by relying on creativity and a systematic (re)design of their business processes and interaction with stakeholders, organizations are now developing innovative products, services and business models that have sustainability at their core. Organizing for sustainable innovation involves many of the general processes and methods for the development of new products and services, yet also offers particular challenges and approaches, which this course addresses by building upon the stakeholder perspective developed in the earlier courses.

The following topics will be covered:

• Innovation management for sustainability, including innovation in an ecosystem of stakeholders; types of innovation (incremental/radical; product, service, process and business model innovation); innovation processes;
• The business case for sustainability, including why sustainability can be framed as an opportunity (as opposed to a threat or disruption to current business), potential pitfalls and how these can be surmounted
• Templates and principles for sustainable innovation, including key approaches (e.g. circular business model, product servitization, base of the pyramid) and how they can be facilitated by digital technologies and innovative financing
• Developing ideas for sustainable innovation, including creativity and opportunity identification, and specific sustainability oriented approaches such as frugal innovation and reverse innovation
• The development of ideas into products, including co-creation with users and other stakeholders, design for sustainability, impact assessment, and the role of digitalization and dematerialization.
• Embedding sustainable innovations in value networks, including the important role that various stakeholders (e.g. suppliers, competitors, regulators, consumers) play in stimulating or inhibiting the adoption of sustainable innovations such as renewable energy.

TEACHING METHODS
Lectures
Tutorials

TYPE OF ASSESSMENT
Individual assessments
Group assessment

RECOMMENDED BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
First two courses of the minor program “Sustainability and innovation.”