Impacting Mindset and Innovation on Sustainability via Global Thematic Hackathon

Abstract

Innovations related to social, economic and environmental grand challenges are common targets not only for societies as a whole, but also for the universities and business schools in them. This paper studies an example of how an intensive intervention via a local implementation of a global 3-day design hackathon (IFTP= Invent for the Planet) on global needs has impacted participants' understanding and motivation towards sustainability issues and solving them. The paper approaches the research objective by studying via a qualitative research approach the motivation letters that the participants submitted when applying for the event, learning outcome -report immediately after the event and their self-reported orientation to the issue area one month after the event. In addition, the views of the impacts were collected from the local facilitators and coaches to reflect their considerations to the views of the learners. The theory base of the paper discusses the approaches and models of behavioural change (nudging, planned behaviour, functional triad, etc.). The analysis offers insight on whether short-term interventions can have an effect on a sample that is already exposed and interested in the topic, since a course is a non-obligatory element of studies for all participants (from both business and engineering schools).