The brief: You have been asked to produce a management report on the following issues:

The brief: You have been asked to produce a management report on the following issues:

1. the potential impact of the environmental sustainability issue for the firm’s competitiveness;

2. the role of technological or social innovation in responding to this issue

3. the opportunities and challenges of adopting / developing a specific technological or social innovation.

The Report:

Should address all three parts of the brief: 1) impact, 2) role of innovation in responding to the issue, 3) opportunities and challenges

It must be underpinned by an appropriate conceptual framework (i.e. you link to and draw on ideas from the course)

Supported by qualitative and quantitative evidence

Explicitly draw recommendations for the firm about whether to invest and what factors may facilitate/ hinder investment

Executive Summary – between 200-400 words

Main body of the Management Report – 2,500 words max. (excl. references and exec summary)

Sub-headings (examples of the type of content but don’t use these words directly!)

o Problem: Outline of the environmental or social issue being addressed (incl. the ‘burning platform’ / the potential

impact for the firms competitiveness)

o Potential solution: Description of the innovation and its progress (thinking about the role of your selected

innovation for responding to the issue)

o How the innovation has been conceived and what other orgs are doing with it: The wider context of emergence

and diffusion

o Any learnings from existing use: The challenges, knock on effects and unintended consequences of diffusion

o Critical assessment of sustainable innovation (think about the level of fit, how the innovation can affect the firms

competitive advantage for example / you might want to consider the ‘organisational fit’)

o Recommendations: Should the firm invest (to develop or adopt), what would be required.

• References