How can businesses combine commercial success with social responsibility? And what skills do future leaders need to tackle complex global challenges? At the Media University, innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability play a central role in teaching. Two recent publications by MU authors underscore this focus.
The world of work faces complex challenges – ranging from sustainable business development to new forms of innovation and collaboration. For students, this means that, alongside theoretical specialist knowledge, entrepreneurial thinking and the ability to develop innovative solutions are increasingly in demand.
At the Media University, innovation and entrepreneurship are therefore an integral part of the curriculum. MU is one of the few universities in Europe that systematically integrates these future-oriented skills into degree programmes such as Business Psychology.
This is not merely about understanding innovation as an economic concept. Students are encouraged to learn how innovation can be shaped, embedded within organisations and linked to social and environmental goals.
Two recent books demonstrate how these topics can be linked in a way that is both academic and practice-oriented.
The book *Sustainable Business Model Design* has been published by the renowned Stanford University Press. It explores the development of business models that create both economic and social value. The book presents practical frameworks that can be used to develop and design sustainable business models. An introduction is already available online.
Another publication is “Sustainable Innovation Cultures”. The book emerged from a European project led by the Media University and examines how organisations can develop innovation cultures that simultaneously support sustainability goals. The publication is freely accessible as open access.
The new publications complement other academic contributions in the field of innovation and sustainability and are also incorporated into teaching at the MU. These include, amongst others, interdisciplinary optional modules such as ‘Gamification for Organisations’ and the new Master’s programme in Sustainability Management.
This directly links the latest scientific findings with the training of future specialists and managers. Students are given the opportunity to explore issues at the intersection of innovation, entrepreneurship, psychology and sustainability.
The Media University congratulates MU authors Henning Breuer and Kiril Ivanov, as well as their co-authors – in particular Florian Lüdeke-Freund and Lorenzo Massa – on their recent publications.
The new content is set to serve as a starting point for discussions with students in the coming winter semester and help to develop innovative and sustainable perspectives on the design of organisations and business models.
– Sustainable Business Model Design, Stanford University Press: Introduction and excerpt
