This module aims to:

Enable students to examine the relationship between Business Enterprise, Corporate Governance and Sustainability in a way that explains why “ESG” is now such a fundamental part of business discourse, investment practice, and societal consideration;

Provide students with a deep understanding of “G”(corporate governance) and its role in relation to “E”(nvironmental), “S” (ocial) challenges as conveyed through frameworks such as: Sustainable Development Goals; Grand Challenges; Planetary Boundaries and Wicked Problems;

Equip students with the skills to:

Examine and evaluate corporate governance arrangements at firm and national levels;

Differentiate management and leadership from corporate governance (including board leadership);

Identify and probe societal challenges that constitute the ESG rubric;

Assess how business ownership and governance inform stakeholder intere sts and shape responses to ESG;

Identify and distinguish between authentic/inauthentic corporate governance in respect of ESG;

Practically govern for sustainability through application ideas of corporate purpose, sustainable business models, alternative forms of ownership and stakeholder relations;

Distinguish between so-called traditional corporate governance and a newer ‘social’ corporate governance.

(LO1) Students will be able to present and critique concepts and theories of corporate governance.

(LO2) Students will be able to analyse scenarios of when and how governance can go wrong and evaluate solutions.

(LO3) Students will be able to demonstrate how governance can affect sustainability outcomes.

(LO4) Students will be able to to evaluate the differences between governance systems of firms and national contexts.

(LO5) Students will be able to evaluate the role and effectiveness of boards in governing for sustainability taking into account a variety of stakeholders.

(S1) Enterprise and Ethical Awareness
Setting the module in the context of a variety of forms of enterprise and the commitments those forms imply to owners, the public, other stakeholders will confront students with governance practices and norms which they can evaluate as good, bad, right, wrong, responsible, irresponsible etc.

(S2) Adaptability and International Awareness
The attention to multiple levels of governance context will teach students that there is no single best model of corporate governance. Effective corporate governance involves understanding of and adaptation to context. Students will have the chance to consider this through examples and cases. The module engages with corporate governance as it is embedded in the institutional and legal framework of nations. Students will develop their appreciation of varieties of corporate governance and they relate to varieties of capitalism and business systems, with implications for their ability to apply ideas to real contexts and settings in present and future times.

(S3) Problem-solving
The corporate governance literature is laced with examples for students to study corporate problems rooted in, or exacerbated by, governance failure. It is also plentiful in its supply of solutions to such problems which can be considered for their efficacy and practical utility.

(S4) Commercial Awareness
The module will cover trade-offs between the interests of one party over another, for example, shareholders versus employees, creditors, wider public. In so doing, it will engage students with the dilemma of avoiding profiting from creating problems for society (British Academy, Future of the Corporation, 2022).

(S5) Teamworking, Communication and IT skills
Students will be assessed in groups, so task performance will require skills to work within a diverse team of individuals to accomplish a presentation of high standard that displays effective research and communication skills enabled by IT and other presentational technologies.

Weeks 1-4
Lectures x 8 hours (2 hours per week)
Seminars x 8 hours (2 hours per week)

Weeks 5-6
Lectures x 2 hours
Seminar x 2 hours
Coaching x 2 hours

Or, one VR experience day (funding permitting)

Presentation day x 6 hours

Week 7
Revision lecture x 2 hours

Spread over seven weeks, will afford the module an opportunity to create a break in teaching, after week 4 to allow for initial consolidation of learning and group preparation for assessed presentation in week 6, and prior to a revision session in week 7.

Self-directed learning x 170 hours

In keeping with the aims, objectives and timing of module delivery, the syllabus is intended to: emphasise integrated thinking; contextual awareness and multi-level analysis spanning macro, meso and micro levels. Integrative attention to governance and sustainability will occur by relating corporate governance to established theories of enterprise, firm growth and performance. Corporate governance will be taught with attention to theories of: the firm, institutionalism, value creation and destruction. For contextual awareness, students will be shown national differences in business systems and governance. They will also be taught how challenges of sustainability are different according to location, industry and sector. In relating enterprise, governance and sustainability, students will be taught to cross levels of analysis to cover structural arrangements, cultural norms and governance action/behaviour. To these points of emphasis the following topics and themes will constitute the syllabus:

Introducing and modelling enterprise, firm growth and performance: shifts in thinking towards addressing the challenge of sustainability.

Understanding corporate governance as a determinant of firm enterprise, growth and performance.

Competing concepts of corporate governance: ‘economic’ and ‘social’ theories of corporate governance.

Typologies of corporate ownership, governance and control: what public, private firms, family, private equity, industrial foundations etc. mean for sustainability.

Corporate governance: varieties of capitalism and business systems.

External and internal mechanisms of corporate governance: regulations, the market for corporate control, boards of directors, contracts and codes of corporate governance.

Understanding environment fit, forces and sustainability through, for example, frameworks ESG, Planetary Boundaries; Sustainable Developments goals, Wicked problems.

Tensions around Sustainability: Sustainability standards, regulation, reporting, legitimacy, symbolic action, “washing” phenomena and effects.

Prospects for sustainability: Remaking capitalism by overcoming corporate governance failure.

Business models for sustainability: The role and effectiveness of boards of directors in governing and managing for sustainability.

Alternative concepts of corporate governance and board effectiveness: serving stakeholders and shareholders; ‘owner’ engagement and stewardship; serving the needs of environment and society.

Transfer and diffusion of corporate governance concepts and practice to other settings and contexts of organised enterprise.