Faced with the urgency of climate threats (IPCC reports) and the extent of the degradation of the biosphere (biodiversity, pollution, etc.), it is a question of designating, describing and correctly understanding an unprecedented situation. During this session, we will see that the concept of transition (and resilience) which is more systemic, replace those of sustainable development and sustainability. At the end of the session, participants will be able to define societal transition.

Designing societal transition requires thinking about the relationships and interdependencies between phenomena and between different scientific disciplines. Climate and environmental threats induce systemic risks to human societies, and addressing them requires policies that are themselves systemic. In addition to this systemic dimension, we must add the complexity resulting in particular from the probable non-linearity of the process and therefore its high unpredictability. At the end of the session, participants will be able to represent the societal transition as a complex system.

If technical change and innovation carry a lot of hope in the contemporary situation, the thought of technology leads to relativize this optimism. Indeed, the societal transition requires major changes in behaviour in most areas of human activity and involves large-scale transformations in the way we produce, consume and live together. It will be a question of identifying them and putting them in relation to grasp their interdependencies. At the end of the session, participants will have this global vision in order to better define the positioning of their own activity.

According to sociologist Harmut Rosa, individuals in "late postmodernity" societies, characterized by a "great acceleration", are experiencing a crisis of their "relationship to the world" that he develops with the concept of "resonance". We will see that one of the conditions for the success of the societal transition is the transformation of the "relationship to the world" of contemporary individuals. At the end of the session, participants will be able to understand that the societal transition implies finding "resonant" relationships with the world.

Like all actors, societal transition profoundly affects private companies both in their purposes and in their operation. During this session, we will examine some dimensions of this questioning to conclude on the theme of sustainable business models treated in the next module. Participants will thus be able to position sustainable business models in the context of the changes induced on private companies by the societal transition.

In order to either re-invent existing business models to align them with today’s grand societal challenges or design new business models that tackle some specific societal grand challenge, one must first understand the concept of business models and learn to analyse them. In this first session, we will introduce the participants to the basic concepts, frameworks, and theories on business models. By the end of this session, participants are able to identify, describe, and analyse existing business models to find out about their strengths and weaknesses and the necessity as well as potential to change them in ways to address and tackle societal challenges.

Sustainable business models integrate the creation of economic, environmental, and social value. A sustainable business model differs from a conventional business model in that it creates, delivers, and captures value for all stakeholders without depleting the natural, economic, and social capital it relies on. In this session, we will introduce the participants to different types of sustainable business models and develop criteria to choose the one that may fit best with a company’s mission. We will furthermore discuss trends that are disrupting different industries (e.g., the sharing economy, disruptive innovation, digitalization) and explore how these trends require, or have enabled, new sustainable business models to emerge, such as circular business models, hybrid organizations, or collaborative business models. By the end of this session, participants have acquired a comprehensive overview of the different types of sustainable business models and can identify which of these business models may be best suited for a company, or industry.

In established firms, sustainable business model innovation refers to the process of either (1) introducing a sustainable business model to the firm’s existing business model portfolio (by diversification), or (2) innovating the firm’s core business model to increase its positive (or reduce its negative) impact on society and/ or environment. In this session, we will discuss the various challenges when attempting to design sustainable business models. We will furthermore explore possible solutions to these challenges. By the end of this session, participants …

Innovation is central to either types of sustainable business model innovation, whether the focus is on modifying an existing business model to make it sustainable or designing a new business model to address and tackle a specific societal challenge. In this session, we will introduce the participants to the fundamental aspects of entrepreneurship as a process with innovations as its outcome. We will learn the relevant criteria to distinguish different types of innovations and explore the question of how “new-to-the-world” successful innovations should (not) be. Furthermore, we will discuss models describing certain trajectories that innovations typically follow in terms of (technological) performance and diffusion. By the end of the session, participants will understand the principles of innovation, the difference between inventions and innovations, as well as the key features of different types of innovations and their diffusion patterns.

Spurred by increasing use of digital technologies and platforms, sustainable business models and their underlying innovations are increasingly prone to produce certain demand side externalities that determine their diffusion potential. In this session, we will focus on network externalities as powerful driver of innovation diffusion and key factor determining the successful scaling of the business model innovations within and across country borders. We will explore different types of network effects, their antecedents, and their consequences for companies, industries, and societies. By the end of the session, participants will understand the link between specific features of innovations and the strength of the network effects they may produce, including the role of national country borders as potential impediments to leveraging sustainable business model innovations prone to network effects internationally.