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Leader Profile: University of Exeter Business School


Exeter Business School

Recently top of the charts among sustainable MBA programs and featuring a range of sustainable business classes and research activities, the University of Exeter Business School is indeed a leading business for the future.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation Pioneer University helping to lead the way to a circular economy

The school was recently named as an Ellen MacArthur Foundation Pioneer University. The Foundation, which MacArthur started in 2010 after retiring from sailing, has risen to become a thought leader in the regenerative, circular economy. In February 2005 MacArthur broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe, a accomplishment which gained her international fame.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Pioneer University program is an international network of eight leading universities who are developing pioneering and innovative circular economy-orientated research or teaching programs.

Best MBA for the World

Corporate Knights crowned University of Exeter Business School as the best MBA program in the world devoted to environmental and social issues.

The Better World rankings recognize courses which equip their graduates to understand sustainability issues. The University of Exeter was recognized as the world-leader because of the sustainability content of its MBA and the high volume of research carried out by its academics in this area.

Sustainability and Circular Economy research cluster

The "Sustainability & Circular Economy" research cluster is an exciting new interdisciplinary research community at the University of Exeter Business School. We bring together political economists, supply chain experts, biologists, business administrators, mathematical modellers and social scientists from across the Business School to explore, interrogate and challenge a wide variety of ideas relating to how we can make life on this planet more sustainable, circular and resilient.

Research themes:

  • Circular Economy

  • Food and agricultural systems and supply chains

  • Energy, climate change and low carbon transitions

  • Philosophy, strategy and governance systems of sustainability

  • Health & wellbeing

Sustainable Innovation Lab (SusIN Lab)

Global economic, environmental and social challenges are making innovation more necessary than ever before - but not just any kind of innovation!

This Exeter Business School center asks "What if...."

  • Any innovation today, be it around products, services, processes or business models, was driven by one common goal, the big idea: In 2050 some nine billion people live well and in the limits of the planet?

  • The role of business in society would change; co-creation and cooperation leading to multi-stakeholder value creation became the new competitive edge?

  • New strategies, ways of thinking and working, tools and measures required to implement sustainable innovation were already there, waiting to be found and applied?

They have held workshops, conferences and seminars on Theory U and a number on Sustainability-Oriented Innovation.

Sustainability Baked into the MBA

The Exeter MBA counts the following among its modules/courses in the MBA program.

  • Sustainable Enterprise Economy

  • Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility

  • Sustainable Tourism Management

  • Economics for a Sustainable World

  • The Human Factor in Sustainable Organizations

  • Strategic and Responsible Innovation Management

  • Sustainability Consulting Project

  • Sustainable Supply Management

  • Innovations in Sustainable Finance

  • Biomimicry in Business: Learning from Nature

  • Finance and Responsible Investment

  • Sustainability in Context

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