CBS Sustainability

About

The Research group “Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation” is concerned with the identification of opportunities to achieve the SDGs through new business models, which create market disequilibria resulting in the transformation of industries towards a sustainable future.

For more information, please contact the Group Coordinator Kai Hockerts at kho.msc@cbs.dk.

See the full member list here.

Areas of expertise

The research group focusses in particular on (but is not limited to) the following sub areas:

Identification of Sustainability Opportunities. Research in this area is concerned with the question of how the market failures underlying SDGs can be overcome and turned into business opportunities through new combinations of complementary assets.

Sustainable Business Models. This area studies how sustainability opportunities are turned into profitable business models (e.g. a value proposition based earned income strategy) and how these business models drive market transformation by attracting other industry players.

Sustainable/Social Venturing. Next, we also research the creation of start-up ventures founded with the explicit mission to address SDGs. These can be for-profit firms as well as new organizational forms (e.g. benefit corporations, community interest companies, or social økologiske virksomheder), in which all profit is reinvested in line with the mission.

Financing Sustainable Entrepreneurship. This area studies the emerging practice of impact investing which aims to create efficient capital markets to fund early stage sustainable and social enterprises and business models.

Sustainable Entrepreneurship Intentions and Education. Finally, we are concerned with the motivations of sustainable and social entrepreneurs as well as the role education can play in encouraging more students to engage in sustainable entrepreneurship.

Industry sectors. In terms of industry areas the group covers many areas including (but not limited to) innovations in circular economy, sustainable fashion, urban planning, work integration social enterprises, fair trade.

Research

It is our intention for members of the group to:

• foster research collaboration with leading scholars and environments on sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation (see list of international faculty contacts below),
• promote new PhDs and Postdocs within the field of sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation,
• co-edit at least one special issue per year in the are (in 2019, we had a Special Issue on Impact Investing at the Journal of Business Ethics),
• co-organize one Professional Development Workshop (PDW) at the Academy of Management (or similar event) per year (in 2019, we had an impact investing PDW).

It is our intention for members of the hub to:

• be collaborative with public and private organisations on research and education activities relevant to theory and practice (engaged scholarship/action research approach),
• be involved in at least one CBS hosted workshop or conference every year (in 2019, we organized the Beijing and the Copenhagen Impact Investing Days).

Group's highlights

Virtual Brown Bag Seminar

The SE&I Virtual Brown Bag Sessions has been running since Autumn 2019. We intend to hold at least one brown bag paper development seminar per semester.

If you are interested to join our group, you can register here.

Participants are welcome to submit a paper for discussion. Our brown bag rules are broadly speaking, that only papers get discussed that are close to being submitted to a clearly identified target journal and address a theme related to Sustainable Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship. We will arrange a discussant from CBS or one external (who ideally are experienced reviewers and/or editorial board members of the target journal). The purpose here is not just to give feedback on the paper at hand, but also to understand how papers with a Sustainable Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship theme should best be framed for the target journal at hand.

Grants

• The group is currently involved in the AURORA partnership which is an alliance of 8 universities planning to apply for funding under the European Universities call, to be launched later in 2019.
• There is also a Erasmus Mundus application under way.

Publications

See the list of selected publications in the area authored by members of the Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation group.

Teaching

It is our intention for members of the hub to:

• contribute with new education and teaching material on sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation (e.g. blended learning, MOOCs etc.),
• commit to integrating discussions of innovation and entrepreneurship in their existing courses.

Participants are welcome to submit a paper for discussion. Our brown bag rules are broadly speaking, that only papers get discussed that are close to be submitted to a clearly identified target journal and address a theme related to Sustainable Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship. We will arrange a discussant from CBS or one external (who ideally are experienced reviewers and/or editorial board members of the target journal). The purpose here is not just to give feedback to the paper at hand, but also to understand how papers with a Sustainable Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship theme should best be framed for the target journal at hand.