1. Foundations of business models
This chapter introduces students to the concept of the business model as both a practical tool and a theoretical lens. It traces the evolution of business model thinking, highlighting key components (e.g., value proposition, revenue logic, governance), and distinguishes between different business model frameworks (e.g., Business Model Canvas, Value Architecture, systems mapping). It also introduces paradigmatic assumptions behind models: from neoclassical efficiency to more-than-human and relational ontologies. Students begin developing a critical lens to see business models as socially and culturally embedded constructs, not neutral tools.
2. Rethinking sustainability
This chapter critiques conventional notions of sustainability and growth-centered models of “green business.” It examines the evolution from weak to strong sustainability, integrates the concepts of planetary boundaries and social floors (as in the Doughnut model), and explores justice-based approaches such as climate justice and intergenerational equity. Students are exposed to the tensions between sustainability as market opportunity vs. sustainability as systemic transformation. This sets the stage for moving beyond sustainability toward regenerative paradigms.
3. Global North capitalist main models
This chapter surveys dominant capitalist business models as practiced in the Global North, including corporate, financialized, and digital platform-based models. It explores how these models prioritize growth, shareholder value, and scalability, often externalizing social and ecological costs. The chapter also examines variations within capitalism, such as B-Corps, ESG-certified businesses, and social enterprises, that attempt to reconcile profit with purpose. Students critically assess whether these adaptations offer genuine alternatives or reinforce existing paradigms.
4. Post-growth and regenerative models
This chapter introduces business models that fundamentally reject the growth imperative, including those aligned with degrowth, sufficiency, and regenerative economics. Students explore frameworks such as Doughnut Economics, care economies, community wealth-building, and commons-based peer production. These models emphasize redistribution, wellbeing, localism, and more-than-human flourishing. Tools for mapping and analyzing post-growth business models (e.g., PBMMF) are presented. The focus is on viability, ethics, and transition strategies beyond green capitalism.
5. State capitalist models
Focusing on state-capitalist economies such as China, Singapore, and Gulf monarchies, this chapter examines models where the state or ruling party plays a dominant role in shaping business ecosystems. It distinguishes between sovereign wealth-driven strategies, party-affiliated enterprises, and technocratic developmentalism. The chapter also discusses “authoritarian environmentalism” and centralized green transitions. Students learn to differentiate these from both liberal capitalism and post-growth alternatives, and evaluate their sustainability claims.
6. Global South models
This chapter explores the diverse landscape of business models across the Global South. It covers informal and subsistence-based enterprises, state-led industrialization, microfinance initiatives, and NGO-driven social entrepreneurship. It also examines hybrid economies shaped by colonial legacies, global markets, and local values. Special attention is given to ethical embeddedness, social reciprocity, and the role of family, kinship, and place-based trust. Students analyze how these models defy binary categories and bring unique logics of resilience and innovation.
7. Pluriversal and non-capitalist models
This chapter delves into radically different ontologies of economic life found in Indigenous, animist, and kinship-based communities worldwide. It includes examples from Turkana, Quechua, Sami, and other non-market-based economies. Students learn how these models embody relational ethics, cosmological reciprocity, and more-than-human responsibility. The chapter also discusses “ontological alternatives” and the notion of the pluriverse, a world in which many worlds fit, challenging modernist assumptions of universality, linear development, and extractivism.
8. Capstone synthesis and futures
In the final chapter, students engage in comparative reflection across all paradigms studied. They evaluate the limits and possibilities of each business model type in addressing social, ecological, and ontological challenges. The course culminates in student presentations of their own business model mappings or future-oriented scenarios, integrating tools and concepts learned throughout. Futures thinking and creative imagination are emphasized to envision regenerative, plural, and post-capitalist pathways in global business.
The evaluation will measure the capacities of the student to:
1. Define and explain the concept of a sustainable business model, its key components and how it differs from traditional models.
2. Analyze the drivers and barriers to sustainability in different global markets (economic, social and environmental).
3. Apply strategic tools to critically assess existing firms’ sustainability performance.
4. Design an original, viable business model prototype that integrates value creation for all stakeholders, customers, society and the planet.
5. Evaluate the potential social and environmental impacts of alternative business model choices
6. Communicate a clear sustainability strategy and business case
7. Collaborate effectively in teams to co-create and pitch sustainable solutions in a global context.
This evaluation system supports progressive and transformative learning by combining conceptual understanding, systemic analysis, contextual reasoning, and design-based creativity. It encourages students not only to understand what kinds of business models exist across the world, but to ask deeper questions about why they exist, when they are appropriate, how they function, and how they can be transformed to contribute to sustainable and just futures.
Specific criteria for the "No show" grade:
Students who have done neither continuous evaluation nor the single session evaluation, will receive the grade 'No presentat'
Single Assessment:
Oral exam
Minimum requirements to pass:
To pass the course, a minimum grade of 5.0 is required. All assessment activities are recoverable, and no single component exceeds 60% of the final grade, in compliance with Faculty regulations. A minimum grade of 4 out of 10 is required in the capstone project in order to pass the course.