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2025/2026  BA-BPROO2502U  Sustainable Entrepreneurship

English Title
Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 15 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Bachelor
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Spring
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for General Management
Programme Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Business Administration and Project Management
Course coordinator
  • Kai Hockerts - Department of Management, Society and Communication (MSC)
Main academic disciplines
  • CSR and sustainability
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 28-08-2025

Relevant links
Learning objectives
At the end of the course you should be able to reflect critically on the sustainable business model your group will develop in this course. In particular, you will be required to:
  • Differentiate between sustainable development, corporate sustainability, and sustainable intra- and entrepreneurship, and discuss their interrelations using concepts from the syllabus.
  • Design and explain a triangulated, mixed-methods research plan, and compare qualitative field research methods in terms of their strengths and limitations for problem definition.
  • Analyse and contrast different hybrid strategies for identifying sustainable business opportunities, and evaluate potential complementarities between such strategies.
  • Discuss key forms of impact investing, and assess their suitability for different types of sustainable enterprises.
  • Evaluate sustainable impact assessment tools, and explain how their use can influence decision-making and performance in sustainable enterprises.
  • Evaluate how project management can be applied to the startup process, and discuss how to adapt it to that context.
Prerequisites for registering for the exam (activities during the teaching period)
Number of compulsory activities which must be approved (see section 13 of the Programme Regulations): 1
Compulsory home assignments
The mandatory assignment is the online completion of a seizmic business model (app.seizmic.eu) related to course topics completed in groups.

If the mandatory assignment is not approved, the student has the possibility to submit a new assignment with a similar scope, before the ordinary exam.

However, it is a precondition that the student has made a legitimate attempt when the assignment was set for the first time unless it can be documented that the lack of submission/participation was caused by illness or similar circumstances.
Examination
Sustainable Entrepreneurship:
Exam ECTS 15
Examination form Written sit-in exam on CBS' computers
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Assignment type Written assignment
Duration 4 hours
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and external examiner
Exam period Summer
Aids Closed book: no aids
However, at all written sit-in exams the student has access to the basic IT application package (Microsoft Office365 (minus Excel), document camera and paper, 7-zip file manager, Adobe Reader DC, PDF24, Texlive, VLC player, Windows Media Player – ATTENTION no sound allowed), and the student is allowed to bring simple writing and drawing utensils (non-digital). PLEASE NOTE: Students are not allowed to communicate with others during the exam.
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
The number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination may warrant that it most appropriately be held as an oral examination. The programme office will inform the students if the make-up examination/re-take examination instead is held as an oral examination including a second examiner or external examiner.
Description of the exam procedure

The written exam will be designed to assess your ability to  critically engage with key concepts from the required readings and apply them to your  group’s seizmic business model.

During the exam, you will be presented with a series of questions that ask you to:

  1. Reflect on core theoretical insights from selected readings covered in the course.

  2. Apply these insights to specific aspects of your seizmic business model (e.g., problem-solution fit, value proposition, or antagonistic asset use).

  3. Critically analyze the relevance and limitations of applying particular theories or concepts to your project context.

You are expected to demonstrate:

  • A solid understanding of the readings, including key arguments, frameworks, and terminology.

  • The ability to connect theory and practice, by thoughtfully integrating course literature into your analysis.

  • Independent critical thinking, particularly in evaluating trade-offs, tensions, or novel aspects of your business model.
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

Sustainable entrepreneurship describes the discovery and exploitation of opportunities to create business models which address humanity’s social and environmental challenges. Sustainable entrepreneurship generates disequilibria in market and non-market environments, by finding ways of turning environmental and societal problems into complementary assets. The course will develop capabilities in sustainable opportunity identification as well as sustainable enterprise modeling. At this point in history, particularly due to anthropogenic climate change, there is broad consensus that humans in aggregate need to use fewer resources, consume less, and set humanity on a sustainable relationship with the earth. Generally, when we ponder these sorts of changes to human existence, we think in terms of sustainability. 

 

Sustainable entrepreneurship will give you the opportunity to both define sustainability and design a business model for an organization or a startup to implement your idea of sustainability. 

 

The course Sustainable Entrepreneurship will be divided into three sections. In the first section, students will learn basic research design and design thinking as it relates to sustainability and then craft independent research projects which result in a robust and rigorous problem definition. In the middle section of the course, students will undertake group independent research on the topic of their choosing in order to develop a business model addressing the issue selected. In the final section of the course, students will analyze their research data and then design and present their sustainability solution. 

 

Sustainable entrepreneurship will be highly interactive and assignment based. Students will have the opportunity to try out and workshop everything they learn in the class. Most of the course's time will be spent in this sort of applied learning. Given that, attendance, diligent coursework, and participation are all essential parts of learning in Sustainable Entrepreneurship. 

 

The course is taught and examined in English. 
Research-based teaching
CBS’ programmes and teaching are research-based. The following types of research-based knowledge and research-like activities are included in this course:
Research-based knowledge
  • Classic and basic theory
  • New theory
  • Teacher’s own research
Research-like activities
  • Data collection
  • Analysis
  • Discussion, critical reflection, modelling
  • Students conduct independent research-like activities under supervision
Description of the teaching methods
Teaching will be a combination of lecture, discussion, workshop, and laboratory methods.
Feedback during the teaching period
Feedback will be constant in the course, as every class meeting will contain workshop elements. Also, students will have the opportunity to receive feedback on their midterm assignment.
Student workload
Contact Hours (lectures) 60 hours
Group-based research project resulting in a sustainable business model (field research and work via app-seizmic.eu) 120 hours
Class preparation (assigned readings in the syllabus) 149 hours
Examination Hours 80 hours
Expected literature

 

 

Richardson, Katherine, et al. "Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries." Science advances 9, no. 37 (2023): eadh2458 . (Note: Not available via CBS Library, but free access possible via this link.)

 

Dyllick, Thomas, and Kai Hockerts. "Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability." Business strategy and the environment 11.2 (2002): 130-141 .

 

Hockerts, Kai, and Rolf Wüstenhagen. "Greening Goliaths versus emerging Davids—Theorizing about the role of incumbents and new entrants in sustainable entrepreneurship." Journal of business venturing 25.5 (2010): 481-492.

 

Hockerts K. 2015. ”How Hybrid Organizations Turn Antagonistic Assets into Complementarities,” California Management Review, 57(3): 83-106, 2015 . 

 

Brown, T., & Wyatt, J. (2010). Design thinking for social innovation. Stanford Social Innovation Review , 8(1), 31–35 .

 

Guan, S., Tian, S., & Deng, G. (2021). Revenue diversification or revenue concentration? Impact on financial health of social enterprises. Public Management Review, 23(5), 754-774.

 

Kuratko, D. F., & Audretsch, D. B. (2013). Clarifying the domains of corporate entrepreneurship. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 9 (3), 323–335 .

 

Baden-Fuller, Charles; Morgan, Mary S., 2010: “Business Models as Models,” Long Range Planning , 43(2-3), Pages 156-171.

 

Peredo, A. M., Haugh, H. M., & McLean, M. (2018). Common property: Uncommon forms of prosocial organizing. Journal of Business Venturing , 33(5), 591-602 .

 

Fichter, K., Lüedecke-Freund, F., Schaltegger, S., Schillebeeckx, S. (2023).  Sustainability impact assessment of new ventures: An emerging field of research.  Journal of Cleaner Production .

 

Hockerts, Kai, Lisa Hehenberger, Stefan Schaltegger, and Vanina Farber. "Defining and Conceptualizing Impact Investing: Attractive Nuisance or Catalyst?." Journal of Business Ethics, (2022): 1-14.

 

Lam, David PM, Berta Martín-López, Arnim Wiek, Elena M. Bennett, Niki Frantzeskaki, Andra I. Horcea-Milcu, and Daniel J. Lang. "Scaling the impact of sustainability initiatives: a typology of amplification processes." Urban Transformations 2 (2020): 1-24.

 
Last updated on 28-08-2025