In recent years, sustainable development has increasingly become a key imperative for businesses. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by world leaders in 2015, showcase universally applicable targets intended to mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities, and tackle climate change. While the SDGs are not legally binding, countries are expected to take ownership and establish national frameworks aimed to accomplish the goals. Furthermore, all stakeholders including governments, civil society, the private sector, and others are demanded to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. Consequently, businesses are supposed to play an integral part in contributing to the Agenda 2030. However, these developments imply radical rethinking of established business practices, models, approaches, and paradigms. From an international perspective, in particular, they demand rethinking the very notion of international management in order to identify the role international companies and managers can play in contributing to the achievement of the SDGs.

Under the theme of the SDGs, this course encourages students to rethink international management. It is a blended course, combining online and face-to-face sessions. The online component embeds the virtual Responsible Business Course, jointly designed by six universities in the SIGMA Alliance (Copenhagen Business School, ESADE, Singapore Management University, Université Paris-Dauphine, University of St. Gallen, and WU Vienna). The joint online course covers the following modules:

• What are the SDGs: Origins and perspectives
• From social problem to business model
• Responsible global leadership
• Social innovation and social entrepreneurship
• From carbon risk to clean energy business opportunities
• SDG communication: Key factors of success

In addition to completing all online modules, students work in virtual cross-national, cross-institutional teams, to develop a best-practice case study on a selected company or organization. Teams receive guidance from assigned supervising instructors from any of the participating universities. The in-class sessions at WU include discussion pertinent to the online materials, practical in-class exercises, and reflection.    

After completing this course, students will

• have completed the online modules of the SIGMA Responsible Business Course
• have developed best-practice case studies on companies
• have collaborated in cross-national, cross-institutional virtual teams
• have understood the imperative for sustainable development and why businesses and managers are expected to contribute to achieving the SDGs
• have learned about important topics such as social innovation and responsible leadership relevant under the theme of rethinking international management with regard to the SDGs
• have engaged in an in-depth reflection and discussion process under the theme of rethinking international management with regard to the SDGs

The course emphasizes the training and development of the following skills and competencies:

• Virtual collaboration and communication abilities: The online modules as well as the virtual teamwork provide a setup that trains students in virtual collaboration, including the required technical and soft skills.
• Discussion and reflection abilities: The in-class meetings provide an opportunity for students to practice discussion and debating as well as reflection.
• Navigating paradoxes and trade-offs: With regard to sustainable development, students will encounter numerous paradoxes and trade-offs that one must take into account in order to develop groundbreaking approaches crucial for the achievement of the SDGs.  
• Creative and out-of-the-box thinking: Students rethink established business practices, models, approaches, and paradigms and they are encouraged to engage in innovative, creative, and unconventional reasoning as relevant and required in the context of sustainable development.

Students need to be available virtually for the online kick-off of the Responsible Business Course on 2 October as well as for online technical preparation sessions on 27 or 28 September. The specific times will be announced on https://www.wu.ac.at/en/sigma-rbp/

Apart from these occasions, WU students do not need to be present physically for the individual online models, and can complete the modules at their preferred time (and not necessarily as scheduled above). However, they must complete the online modules in a sequence and at a pace that allows for reflection and discussion of their respective contents during the face-to-face meetings at WU Vienna to which the modules have been assigned. For the in-class meetings, the attendance requirement is met if students are present for at least 80% of the scheduled sessions. Students who fail to meet the attendance requirement are de-registered from the course. Missing sessions will affect class participation credits negatively.

In addition to the above, students are expected to have virtual weekly meetings within their student groups (comprising participants from the different participating universities) and will have two virtual coaching meetings with their supervisor.

In terms of online teaching, this course embeds the virtual Responsible Business Course as developed by the SIGMA Alliance and its member institutions. Online materials – including video inputs, required readings, and module completion assessments – will be offered through the Coursera platform (private course mode, not a MOOC). In addition to completing the online modules, students will engage in virtual cross-national, cross-institutional teamwork, in groups composed by students from each of the participating institutions. Each team will develop a best-practice case study, based on desk research, publically available information, interviews, and other case-study tools. Teams will be mentored by a supervisor form one of the participating institutions.

For WU students, the face-to-face sessions will take place at WU Vienna (as scheduled above). These meetings are intended as discussion and reflection sessions in order to derive and develop specific implications for rethinking international management under the lens of sustainable development. Students will have to complete the online materials and submit a one-page reflection paper on each module before the corresponding in-class meeting (for more details, see “Assessment”). Under the theme of rethinking international management and the SDGs, the main objective of reflection exercises and in-class debates is to derive the attendant implications for students’ personal development in terms of skills and competencies as well as possible career choices.

Please note that several of the course contents or elements of the course setup might still change until the first meeting due to ongoing developments.

The course consists of two major components relevant in terms of grading – a virtual and a non-virtual component:

1. Virtual component - 60% of final grade

• 30% - completion of Responsible Business Course and module assignments (pass/fail) [individual]
• 70% - case-study work [group]

2. Non-virtual component - 40% of final grade

• 40% - active participation during discussion and reflection meetings [individual]
• 60% - reflection papers (six times one page) [individual]