MG4L2      Half Unit
Managing the Environmentally Sustainable Enterprise

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

The need for an environmentally sustainable economy to address the challenges posed by climate change is well-documented.  It is also generally agreed that business has an important part to play in the emergence of an environmentally sustainable economy.  As a result, enterprises seeking to achieve multiple objectives such as financial return and either environmental or social impact, or both, have emerged, creating an important research area in management. 

In this course we consider three theoretical approaches relating to the management of organizations with multiple objectives. These include, first, Porter & Kramer’s shared value theory; second, stakeholder governance theory and its relationship to the resource based view; and third, theories of hybrid organizations.  The course will draw on these theories to inform student learning in two respects.  First, we will compare these theories in relation to the alignment that they assume between multiple objectives.  Second, where there are trade-offs between multiple objectives, we will draw on these theories to consider how managers strike a balance between these objectives, focusing on the dual objectives of financial return and environmental impact.  Further, we will apply these theories to a range of cases in contexts such as circular business, offsetting of negative impacts, management of sustainable supply chains, institutional agency and others.  Finally, we will expand the discussion of context by examining the historical development of theories and techniques informing the management of environmentally sustainable enterprises.

15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

In its Ethics Code, LSE upholds a commitment to intellectual freedom. This means we will protect the freedom of expression of our students and staff and the right to engage in healthy debate in the classroom.

Essay (1500 words) in Winter Term Week 5

• Amis, J., Barney, J. Mahoney, J. T. & Wang, H. (2020). “From the Editor: Why we need a theory of stakeholder governance - and why this is a hard problem.” Academy of Management Review. Vol. 45, No. 3:499-503.
• Barney, J. B. (2018) “Why Resource‐Based Theory’s Model of Profit Appropriation must Incorporate a Stakeholder Perspective.” Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 39: No. 8: 3305–3325.
• Battiliana, J. (2008) “Agency and Institutions: The Enabling Role of Individuals’ Social Position” Organization Vol. 13, No. 5:653-676
• Battiliana, J. (2022) “Beyond Shareholder Value Maximization: Accounting for Financial / Social Trade-offs in Dual-Purpose Companies” Academy of Management Review Vol. 47, No. 2, 237–258.
• Battilana, J. & Lee, M. (2014) “Advancing Research on Hybrid Organizing – Insights from the Study of Social Enterprises” The Academy of Management Annals, Vol. 8, No. 1:397-441
• Bridoux, F. & Stoelhorst, J. W. (2022) “Stakeholder governance: solving the collective action problems in joint value creation” Academy of Management Review Vol. 47 No. 2:214-236
• Epstein, M. J. (2008) Making Sustainability Work, Greenleaf Publishing
• Marshall, J. D. & Toffel, M. W. (2005) “Framing the Elusive Concept of Sustainability: A Sustainability Hierarchy” Environmental Science and Technology Vol. 39, No. 3:673-682
• Ostrom, E. (1990) Governing the commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action Cambridge University Press
• Porter, M. E. & Kramer, M. (2011) “Creating Shared Value: How to reinvent capitalism—and unleash a wave of innovation and growth” Harvard Business Review Vol. 89, No. 1-2:1-17

Report (30%) in Winter Term Week 7

This component of assessment includes an element of group work.

Essay (70%, 1500 words) in Winter Term Week 11