Time and place: May 10-14, 2027, LUT University, Lahti.
Learning goal and objectives: The aim of this course is to deepen the students’ understanding of key concepts, theories, and research traditions in business sustainability and responsibility. The course takes a multi-disciplinary approach to corporate sustainability and responsibility, sustainability science, and systems science, integrating the current debate and state-of-the-art from business in society, management and organization, and additional research fields. Special attention is devoted to the past development and evolution of these research fields, as well as current and emerging topics and debates. These include systemic and transformational change processes and other shifts that are needed in mindsets, actions, and interactions (at individual, organizational, and societal levels) to address global sustainability problems, business collective action and grand challenges (e.g., nature regeneration/biodiversity loss, climate change, poverty, and social inequality).
During the one-week intensive course, the students will have the opportunity to discuss and reflect on various sustainability and responsibility-related challenges, issues, and topics (including social-ecological systems, planetary boundaries, business collective action, cross-sector partnerships/interactions, and sustainability-oriented innovation) with the other participants as well as established corporate sustainability and responsibility scholars. Moreover, the students will present their own research ideas and can further improve their projects and papers based on feedback from the faculty. Finally, the course enables the students to develop their scientific writing, research, and teamwork skills.
At the end of the course, the students will be able to understand and critically assess the main concepts, theories, and research traditions in this broad, multidisciplinary field. They will also be able to evaluate and justify the theoretical and methodological approaches used in their own studies on business sustainability and responsibility.
Instruction and examination: The course includes three components:
- Pre-course work: submitting an extended abstract and reading a package of research articles
- Instruction: a one-week intensive course in May 2027 in Lahti
- Final research paper
The students are expected to read the reading package, consisting of scientific articles (ca. 500 pages) prior to the course, and submit an extended (paper or dissertation project) abstract to be discussed and receive feedback at a research development workshop during the course. All lectures (including class discussions, teamwork, and workshops) will be held during a one-week intensive course in Lahti in May 2027. The students will write a 20-25-page final paper and submit it within one month after the intensive course. The course will be evaluated as pass or fail by the faculty, considering both the final paper and course participation.
Credits: 6 ECTS
Grading: pass/fail.
Prerequisites: The course is designed as cross-disciplinary. It is targeted at doctoral students doing research on topics related to corporate/business sustainability, CSR, systems change, corporate citizenship, cross-sector interactions, multi-stakeholder partnerships, sustainable supply chain management, sustainable/circular business models, MNE/global corporate responsibility, critical and political CSR, and global governance, among other topics. It is especially suitable for students majoring in management and organization studies, strategy, sustainability and CSR, supply chain management/logistics/purchasing, industrial engineering, international business, and environmental management, for example.
Admittance: Maximum number of participants is 25. Deadline for course applications: March 12, 2027. Applications should be sent by email to both of the course coordinators: Laura Albareda (laura.albareda@lut.fi) and Anne Quarshie (anne.quarshie@utu.fi).
Course application form:
Name:
Contact address:
Phone:
E-mail:
University:
Department:
Discipline/major:
Research area/thesis topic:
When officially accepted to doctoral program:
Phase of doctoral studies:
Motives for participating in the course:
Applicants are advised to complete the application form carefully as the number of applicants may exceed the maximum number of participants. In that case, the KATAJA guidelines for student selection along with other criteria (incl. relevance and suitability of course for student, motivation, phase in the dissertation process, quality of application) will be used in selecting the participants. Acceptance notifications will be emailed directly to all the applicants by March 19, 2027.
Admitted students must submit an extended paper or dissertation project abstract (max. three pages incl. references, single-spaced) to be presented and discussed at a research development workshop during the course. The abstracts should be sent to the course coordinators (laura.albareda@lut.fi, anne.quarshie@utu.fi) by March 31, 2027. The abstract will be expanded to a 20-25-page final paper after the course.
Instructors:
- Miriam Feuls, Associate Professor, Department of Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
- Oana Branzei, Donald F. Hunter Professor of International Business/ Professor of Sustainability and Strategy, Ivey Business School, Western University, London, Canada
- Laura Albareda, Professor of Sustainable Business and Entrepreneurship, LUT Business School
- Anne Quarshie, Assistant Professor of Biodiversity and Business, Turku School of Economics
- Satu Teerikangas, Professor, Management and Organisation, Turku School of Economics
- Paavo Ritala, Professor, LUT Business School
- Laura Olkkonen, Associate Professor, LUT Business School
Instructor Bios:
Miriam Feuls, Associate Professor, Department of Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
https://www.cbs.dk/en/research/departments/department-organization/miriam-feuls
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Cs_BwC8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Miriam Feuls is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. Her research focuses on time and temporality and on process philosophy to inquire into the practices and processes of change, sustainable transformation, future making, creativity and innovation in multi-actor settings. Her research primarily aims to explain how change emerges, identify the conditions that influence these processes, and understand the impacts of transforming organizations and society toward sustainable futures. Her current research project focuses on the politics of time, examining how imaginaries are enacted in practice and the role of power generated in interaction.
She works from multiple perspectives within the social sciences and philosophy to examine complex and ever-changing organizing processes and develop conceptual and empirical knowledge sensitive to everyday organizational life and society. Her research reflects ‘engaged scholarship’, building on transformative collaborations within the world of organizational and management practice. Her overarching research ambition is to advance the concepts and methods for organizing and managing sustainable transformation within and across organizations and provide insights to address the grand challenges in contemporary organizing and contribute to a sustainable society.
Oana Branzei, Donald F. Hunter Professor of International Business/ Professor of Sustainability and Strategy. Director, Sustainability Certificate Program, Ivey Business School, Western University, London, Canada.
https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/faculty/directory/oana-branzei/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1g9hoNgAAAAJ&hl=en
Oana Branzei is Paul MacPherson Chair in Strategic Leadership, Donald F. Hunter Professor of International Business and Professor of Strategy and Sustainability at the Ivey Business School at Western University in Canada. Professor Branzei, a Western Faculty Scholar (2018-2020), is currently cross-appointed with Western University’s Centre for Climate Change, Sustainable Livelihoods and Health and an Advisory Board member for the Africa Institute. She sits on the Steering Committee for Western’s Carbon Solutions Fund. Oana served as vice-chair of the Western University Research Board and adjudicator for the Ontario COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund. She has chaired the Social Sciences Panel for the Early Researcher Awards for Ontario’s Ministry of Innovation since 2018 and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Engage Grant Committee since 2022. Oana is also the founding Director of the HBA Sustainability Certificate program and the Master of Science Graduate Diploma in Sustainability; the founder, convener and host of PhD Sustainability Academy, an annual event of the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability; and co-founder of the Spring Institute. As head of her global Regeneration lab, established with her 2010 Early Researcher Award, Oana leads rapid-response research teams collaborating on prosocial, circular, place-based, regenerative, and restorative organizing on five continents. She has convened communities of inquiry that actively promote positive social change through social innovation, social enterprise, sustainable communities, and cross-sector partnerships. Oana’s current research interests develop research and practice on regenerative economies, grand challenge innovation, and inclusive organizing. Professor Branzei has guest co-edited special issues on regeneration for Organization and Environment, the Journal of Business Ethics and the Journal of Supply Chain Management. She currently serves as a field editor for the Academy of Management Perspectives, Business and Society, and the Journal of Business Venturing. Her research has been published in the Academy of Management Discoveries, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, Strategic Organization, and Strategic Management Journal, among others.
Laura Albareda, Professor of Sustainable Business and Entrepreneurship, LUT Business School
https://research.lut.fi/converis/portal/Person/9585024?auxfun=&lang=en_GB
https://scholar.google.fi/citations?user=eBhKu58AAAAJ&hl=en
Laura Albareda is Professor of Sustainable Business and Entrepreneurship at LUT University Business School, Finland, and a visiting scholar at the University of Granada, Spain. Her research focuses on business collective action, biodiversity and business–nature regeneration, commons organizing, and polycentric governance, with applications in the circular economy, bioeconomy and climate futures. She has conducted longitudinal research on how actors regenerate natural commons in fisheries in Finland by exploring social-symbolic work and temporal commons. She is the lead researcher of the ACTION4COMMONS project (2022–2026), funded by the Research Council of Finland, which examines collective stakeholder action in the context of business, biodiversity, mining, and the circular economy. She also leads research on circular mining and business regeneration within the CINTEM project, and contributes as lead research to several EU Horizon projects, including REINFORCE and RELIEF on critical raw materials and circular batteries, as well as PRIMED on business and the bioeconomy, studying living labs of organic waste and bioproducts across five European countries. Previously, she has held positions as Assistant Professor at Deusto Business School, Lecturer at ESADE Business School, and Postdoctoral Fellow at Boston College. Her research on polycentric governance in circular economy systems, published in the Journal of Management Studies, has received several awards, including the Dexter Award for Best International Paper and Best Business Ethics Paper (Academy of Management, 2019), and the Distinguished Winner of the Responsible Research in Management Award (2023), co-sponsored by the Academy of Management Fellows Group and RRBM. Her work has been published in leading journals such as Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Business Research, Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, and Industrial Marketing Management.
Anne Quarshie, Assistant Professor of Biodiversity and Business, Turku School of Economics
https://www.utu.fi/en/people/anne-quarshie
https://scholar.google.fi/citations?user=LTOEv5QAAAAJ&hl=fi&oi=ao
Anne Quarshie is an Assistant Professor of Biodiversity and Business at Turku School of Economics, Department of Management and Entrepreneurship. Previously, she has worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at LUT School of Business and Management, a Doctoral Researcher at Aalto University School of Business, and a Visiting Researcher at Rutgers Business School in New Jersey, USA. Her research interests include biodiversity-respectful, regenerative, and sustainable business and supply chain management, systemic change processes, and disaster preparedness. She is involved in the BIODIFORM and BIODIFUL consortia, which investigate the interface between biodiversity and business, systemic transformations, and biodiversity-respectful leadership. She is also the vice program chair of UTU-GreDiT (Solutions for a Green and Digital Transition), which is an EU-co-funded doctoral training program. Her research has received several recognitions, including the IPSERA Best Doctoral Dissertation in Purchasing Award 2017 and the Routledge Best Paper Award in Social Partnership 2016. Her work has appeared among other outlets in the Journal of Business Ethics, Organization & Environment, the Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, and Futura. She is the lead author of the Finnish Nature Panel’s Publication “Liiketoiminta vahvistamaan luonnon monimuotoisuutta” and a co-author of the book “Corporate Social Responsibility in Finland: Origins, Characteristics, and Trends”. She is a member of several committees at the University of Turku (e.g. the Biodiversity and Sustainability Multidisciplinary Theme Group), and serves as a European Ambassador for the Academy of Management’s Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) division. Prior to becoming a researcher, she worked for several years at Fairtrade Finland where she managed relationships with Finnish retailers and food manufacturers.
Satu Teerikangas, Professor, Management and Organisation, Turku School of Economics
https://www.utu.fi/en/people/satu-teerikangas
https://scholar.google.fi/citations?user=2MZFIFcAAAAJ&hl=fi
Satu Teerikangas is Professor of Management and Organization, University of Turku (UTU), Finland and Honorary Professor, University College London, UK, where she was tenured (2010–15). Her PhD was from Aalto University’s industrial management department (2006). Satu’s research centres on the management of strategic change, particularly as regards the management of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and sustainability transformations. Within this remit, Satu’s empirical and conceptual contributions relate to the sociocultural dynamics of strategic change, change agents, and research methods. Her international academic journal publications appear in e.g. Journal of Management, British Journal of Management, Human Resource Management, International Journal of Project Management, International Business Review, European Management Review, European Journal of Management, and Management International Review. As an academic, her approach to scientific inquiry is collaborative and interdisciplinary. She is member of the editorial team of Journal of Change Management, and editorial board member in European Management. She is lead editor of the Research Handbook of Sustainability Agency (2021, 2027) published by Edward Elgar, and co-editor of the Handbook of Mergers and Acquisitions (2012) published by Oxford University Press. She bears in excess of 4M€ research funding, currently co-leading the Strategic Research Council funded research project BIODIFUL – Biodiversity respectful leadership, while also involved as one of the co-PIs in the Finnish Academy’s Profilation 6 (2021-2026)-funded BIODIFORM consortium connecting biodiversity and business in an interdisciplinary setting across University of Turku. She was awarded UTU’s Executive Educator as well as Impactful Business School Academic of the year (2020). Prior to an academic career, Professor Teerikangas worked in the oil and gas industry in the Netherlands and the UK.
Paavo Ritala, Professor, Strategy and Innovation, LUT Business School
https://scholar.google.fi/citations?user=oQ2zykwAAAAJ&hl=en
https://research.lut.fi/converis/portal/Person/113328?auxfun=&lang=en_GB
Paavo Ritala is a Professor of Strategy and Innovation at LUT Business School, Finland. His main research themes include ecosystems and platforms, the role of data and digital technologies in organizations, collaborative innovation, sustainable business models, and circular and regenerative economy. His research has been published in journals such as Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Research Policy, and Journal of Business Ethics. He is closely involved with business practice through research projects, executive and professional education programs, and in speaker and advisory roles. Prof. Ritala is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of R&D Management and he serves in the editorial review board of Journal of Product Innovation Management and Organization & Environment.
Laura Olkkonen, Associate Professor, LUT Business School
https://research.lut.fi/converis/portal/Person/123728?page=pers_has_publ:3
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YIb7YgMAAAAJ&hl=en
Laura Olkkonen is an Associate Professor at LUT Business School and Docent at Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics. Her research focuses on business-society relations and CSR communication. Currently, she works on a 3-year research project on corporate activism, funded by the Academy of Finland. She teaches courses related to sustainable business and business ethics, and supervises several Master’s and Bachelor’s theses yearly. Dr. Olkkonen also acts as a local coordinator of the United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) at LUT. She is co-author for the book “Corporate Social Responsibility in Finland: Origins, Characteristics, and Trends”, and has published her research in journals such as Business & Society, Journal of Cleaner Production, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, and Journal of Communication Management.
Course coordinators and contact information:
Anne Quarshie, Assistant Professor, Biodiversity and Business, Turku School of Economics, (anne.quarshie@utu.fi)
Laura Albareda, Professor, Sustainable Business and Entrepreneurship, LUT School of Business and Management, (laura.albareda@lut.fi)