Innovation for sustainability
Innovating new sustainable products, services, business models and forms of consumption can help tackle global challenges.
Innovating new sustainable products, services, business models and forms of consumption can help tackle global challenges.
Our research looks at several dimensions of the transition toward sustainability societies.
Circular economy keeps materials in use longer using strategies like reuse, remanufacture, recycling, and replacing ownership with rentals.
Cross-national governance of businesses make ethical issues urgent.
The latest publications from SUB researchers
Sustainability course offerings in the School of Business
The SUB lunchtime seminar series provides a monthly forum for all interested to discuss topical research in social and environmental issues in management.
Thursday 31.3, 11.00-12.00
Ekonominaukio 1, U213 and Zoom
Karelia Dagnaud1, Linda Turunen1, Minna Halme1, Jarkko Levänen2
(1) Aalto University, (2) Lappenranta University of Technology
Objects as means of sustainability knowledge co-creation across the research-practice boundary
Thursday 28.4, 11.30-12.30
Ekonominaukio 1, U213
Leena Lankoski, Aalto University School of Business
Driving towards sustainable choice: A configurational analysis with a framing experiment
A thorough understanding of sustainable consumer choice is required so that it can be effectively promoted. Even if individual elements affecting choice have been identified, their joint impacts are less well understood. To address this gap, we examine the topic with a configurational approach. We use fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) with a randomized experiment to show how ‘accelerators’, ‘brakes’, framing, and gender are intertwined in influencing choice. Empirically, we address this topic through the example of animal welfare in food production. We thus offer more nuanced understanding of how multiple elements interact in complex ways in affecting sustainable consumption. We also show how framing sustainability in terms of losses or gains (in terms of avoiding unsustainability or seeking sustainability) affects choice so that under a loss frame, sustainable choice results more easily and under a gain frame, non-choice results more easily.
Thursday 12.5, 11.30-12.30
Ekonominaukio 1, U213
Ira Chatterjee, Hanken School of Economics
Social entrepreneurship and values work: The role of practices in shaping values and negotiating change
Ira writes together with Joep Cornelissen, Joakim Wincent and Dean Shepherd, and will speak about their research on social entrepreneurship in Barefoot College, an organization that trains poor women as solar energy entrepreneurs in India. Ira’s topic is of interest for those interested in social entrepreneurship and ethnographic research in low-income emerging market contexts. The presentation bridges her recently published and forthcoming results (Journal of Business Venturing).
Ira Chatterjee is a Ph.D. candidate at the Hanken School of Economics (defense April 19, 2022). Her work, situated at the intersection of entrepreneurship and social change, explores how organizations can tackle grand challenges and contribute to sustainable development goals. Ira’s research draws attention to the centrality of context and focuses on the mechanisms and strategic practices that enable positive social change, and how individuals and societies can thrive through entrepreneurship. Her work has been published in the Journal of Business Venturing and she has co-authored two book chapters. Ira received her MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, and spent 12 years in industry before making the shift to academia.
Article "When Is There a Sustainability Case for CSR? Pathways to Environmental and Social Performance Improvements" (co-authored with Jukka Rintamäki and Jette Steen Knudsen) received Business & Society’s 2020 Best Paper Award
Finalist for the EGOS Best Student Paper Award with the paper “Risk organization and moral multiplexity in the EU biofuels market” (presented at EGOS Edinburgh 2019)
HSE Support Foundation Societal Impact Award, 2019
Thesis "Trash to Treasure: A Multiple Case Study of Finnish Companies That Create Economic Value from Waste Materials" received award for top university master's thesis, Association for Environmental Management (Ymparistöjohtamisen yhdistys ry), 2018
Article "Polycentric Governance of Privately Owned Resources in Circular Economy Systems" received Carolyn Dexter Award for international papers, Academy of Management 2018
Article "Powering sustainable innovations: Strategies for collaborating with deviant partners" won Best Academic Paper at R&D Management Conference 2016, University of Cambridge
Article "Innovation for Inclusive Business: Intrapreneurial Bricolage in Multinational Corporations", Journal of Management Studies, 2012 received the Emerald Citations of Excellence for 2015
Dive deeper into SUB's work through our blog posts and news articles.
Blog post for Journal of Management Studies by Samuli Patala, Laura Albareda and Minna Halme
How can companies create sustainable value for the economy, the environment and society?
SUB scholars Minna Halme, Leena Lankoski and Mika Kuisma have won Business & Society’s 2020 Best Paper Award.
The newly funded T-Risk research project aims to shed light on transition risks in the maritime and aviation sectors, crucial for global trade and transportation.
Jouni Juntunen has been nominated to Network for Business Sustainability Sustainability Centres Community (SCC) Advisory Board for a three year period starting from 2021.
The Sustainability in Business research group organized a virtual workshop on conducting field research in methodologically challenging settings.
New Global has taken a holistic approach to exploring pathways from poverty to sustainable development. By com-bining interdisciplinary research and education with innovation work in the field, we have studied and experimented with co-innovation across Finland and emerging markets.
Guest blog for Business and Society by Leena Lankoski and Minna Halme.
Perinteinen kapitalistinen ajatus, että yrityksen tehtävänä on ainoastaan tuottaa voittoa osakkeenomistajilleen, tuntuu nykyään suunnilleen yhtä 1900-lukuiselta kuin lankapuhelin.
Kuuluisassa Kasvun rajat –raportissa (Meadows ym., 1972) todettiin jo lähes 50 vuotta sitten, että luonnonvarojen tuhlaileva käyttö ei voi jatkua loputtomiin.
Valitettavasti 2020-luvulle tultaessa on käynyt ilmeiseksi, että ihmiskunta on ollut hidas reagoimaan. Materiaalienkäytön ja päästöjen kasvu kielii siitä, että todellinen radikaali muutos vaatii aikaa. Näinhän se menee. Hammaslääkäriinkin vaivautuu vasta, kun tarpeeksi kivistää.
Onneksi löytyy myös kosolti kestäviä edelläkävijäyrityksiä, joiden innovaatiot ovat parhaillaan tehokasta juurihoitoa luonnonvarojen käytön kasvun kanssa kipuilevalle ihmiskunnalle. Näitä edelläkävijäyrityksiä löytyy tekstiilialalla esimerkiksi vastuullisten yritysten listasta, jota Finix-hankkeen tutkijat kokosivat koronakevään aikana #kestävävaate-kampanjassa.
From August 7-11, several members of the SUB research group will participate in the 80th annual meeting of the Academy of Management, this year held virtually because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Entrepreneurs need an innovative business idea, access to significant support and an environment that endorses entrepreneurship.
School of Business was included among the best practices for sustainability in teaching and student projects.
Researchers and partners from the Finix sustainable textile system project, co-led by SUB scholars, kicked off the Aalto Business School "Better Business - Better Society" seminar series.
From August 9-13, several members of the SUB research group will participate in the 79th annual meeting of the Academy of Management in Boston, USA. They will join scholars from across the world to share and discuss the latest research on the conference theme Understanding the Inclusive Organization, examining how organizations impact communities on many different dimensions, from the psychological to the ecological.
Researchers from the Sustainability in Business (SUB) research group are leading one of Aalto’s three consortia funded in the latest round of grants from the Academy of Finland’s Strategic Research Council.
When academics and practitioners work together on research, there’s no standard template to follow. Aalto researchers provide a model.
A circular economy workshop series develops new collaborations between engineers and business researchers.
It sounds simple — one business’s waste becomes another’s input. But the reality is challenging. Three case studies provide best practices.
Member of the Sustainability Centres Community
SUB is a member of the Sustainability Centres Community (SCC), hosted by the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS).
Väre, Otaniementie 14
02150 Espoo
Elizabeth Miller
[email protected]