Course objectives

To introduce participants to different conceptual approaches and tools, enabling them to grasp the issues faced between transformation strategies for more environmentally-friendly governance of corporations in a global context, on the one hand, and the strategies and implementation of policies and systems for territorialised management of ecosystems on the other.

Course contents

Today, companies play a central role in the dynamics of ecosystem degradation, and as such are increasingly called upon to be involved in their protection. The fundamentals of the strategic analysis of companies, as well as two main approaches, rooted in management sciences, will be presented:

• The GVC approach is a critical analysis framework that provides a multidimensional perspective on the processes of globalisation of companies and production streams, integrating the territorial aspects, input-output, governance and socio-institutional context and by questioning their consequences on the sustainable development potential of countries in the southern hemisphere. This framework allows pinpointing of the emergence of problems of social responsibility of enterprises (CSR) and the way in which they influence the behaviour of actors in the sector. It also makes it possible to grasp a number of structural elements in the context of environmental actions, concerning north-south interconnections and the socio-economic logic which guides the redeployment of sectors and the exploitation of resources within the context of globalisation;
• Ecological accountancy proposes a transformation of accounting systems traditionally used by companies in order to better take into account the value of natural capital (biodiversity, ecosystems), and thus anchor it at the heart of the processes of management at various levels of corporate management . Innovation in ecological accounting also exists in other areas (national, socio-ecosystem-wide) and can thus enable coordination of different levels of ecosystem governance both inside and outside the corporate structure.

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures: These two approaches (GVC and ecological accountancy) will be structured, educationally, around an introduction to the strategic analysis models needed to understand rules of competition, cooperation and coopetition that are established between both companies and public and private figures in globalised sectors, as well as the phenomena of emergence, structuring and spread of the standards that guide their actions.

The GVC framework will be introduced in keeping with this introduction and an example of its application to an environmental management issue will be proposed.

The key issues in the field of ecological accountancy will then be introduced, and proposals for innovation regarding ecosystems (internally or externally) will be presented and discussed in terms of their ability to create profound changes in the collective management of natural assets.

Specific seminars may be organised in collaboration with the University of Montpellier MRM-Montpellier Research in Management.

Course evaluation

Individual evaluation on the basis of written scientific articles.

Target skills

Understanding of

• the analytical framework of global value chains (GVC) and an ability to mobilise it in order to understand the context of environmental management action
• an overview of the methods of ecological accounting as applied to biodiversity and ecosystems and the ability to understand their biases and underlying issues.