• Measure important capabilities, values, beliefs, and attitudes of corporate leaders for the engagement in strategies fostering the green transition
• Analyze how leadership characteristics influence corporate environmental policies
• Identify organizational resources such as corporate culture and purpose that managers draw to effectively engage in “green leadership”
• Design incentive schemes to motivate managers to engage in green transition strategies
• Identify board characteristics that lead to developing and prioritizing green transition strategies
• Critically evaluate how shareholders and stakeholders influence corporate leadership in green transition

The question of when leadership is effective in transforming companies into a carbon-free future is the focus of this course. Decisions at this level are associated with high complexity, uncertainty, and information asymmetry. This course uses multiple theoretical lenses by drawing from agency theory, resource dependency theory, upper echelon theory, leadership process theory, and stakeholder theory. We will start with the question of how to evaluate corporate strategies and the extent to which carbon emission reductions are embedded in these strategies. Next, we consider which capabilities at the leadership level are important to competently steer a company in a carbon-free future without compromising its competitive position. Further, we will analyze the organizational environment that helps to make top executives internalize the environmental concerns when taking important decisions. Specifically, we will consider the corporate purpose and culture, the set-up of the board of directors, and the set up and characteristics of shareholders and stakeholders. Moreover, we will study incentive mechanisms that positively influence the adoption of so-called green strategies. The main objective of this course is to equip stduents with a knowledge base such that they are able to participate in general decision-making concerning leadership of companies in their quest to transform their operations in line with carbon-free goals.

The format of the course is based on two elements:

Current academic literature: We will not use a textbook but a collection of academic papers that deal with specific issues of leadership in green transition, many of which have just been published in the recent years.

Student participation:You will actively participate in the class. In groups, you might be asked to present a paper, the solution to a case study and, if feasible, discuss a current example from the business press for which the paper is relevant.

Since this is a topic course, there does not exist one single course book covering the material in the course. Most of the required material is free to download when you are logged into the CBS network.. Some materials may be uploaded on Canvas.