Rob van Tulder

Rob van Tulder, PhD, is professor of international business-society Management at the Rotterdam School of Management, of Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has been teaching and researching on major issues – he calls them ‘wicked problems’- at the interface between business and society. Trained in political sciences (in particular international relations) and economics (in particular development economics), he published a wide variety of scholarly books and articles on issues like innovation, sustainability, small countries, regional integration and skills. Main focus thereby has been the multinational enterprise as prime carier of globalization. In 1997, he was awarded the Gunnar Myrdal Prize (together with his co-author Winfried Ruigrok) for the book ‘The Logic of International Restructuring’. He was also twice short-listed for the ‘best management book’ in the Netherlands in the area of sustainability strategies. He founded the department of Business-Society Management at RSM Erasmus University, which is nowadays leading in the area of sustainability. Since 2009, he is also the academic director of the Partnerships Resource Centre, which actively supports processes of cross-sector partnerships for sustainable development goals around the world with research and advice. In his view, the importance of teaching and research from different (pluralist) perspectives cannot be underestimated. For this, he developed a formula called ‘skill sheets’ – a book and a website - that is used at a large number of universities. The holistic approach applied thereby is also based on his previous experience in the world of sports, where he used to be a professional coach and tennis player. He is also one of the rare professors at department RSM that holds a diploma as “game leader”.

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A Business Approach to Sustainable Landscape Restoration (Coursera)

Integrated landscape management and large-scale landscape restoration should be in every company’s business strategy because in order to reach the Sustainable Development Goal on Land Degradation Neutrality (SDG Number 15.3) scaling up and acceleration of business-driven landscape restoration is urgently [...]

Principles of Sustainable Finance (Coursera)

Finance is widely seen as an obstacle to a better world. Principles of Sustainable Finance explains how the financial sector can be mobilized to counter this. Using finance as a means to achieve social goals we can divert the planet and its economy from its current path to a [...]

Introduction to Economic Theories (Coursera)

Wondering why economists have not predicted serious financial crises? Shocked by economic assumptions of human behavior as self-centered and focusing only on what can be measured? Asking yourself if there are no sensible economic alternatives to free markets? Then you are at the right place to learn economics! This [...]

Driving business towards the Sustainable Development Goals (Coursera)

Extreme weather events, wars, famine and environmental destruction are just a few of the wicked problems faced by humanity. That’s why in 2015 the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that target the big challenges such as how [...]