Companies are confronted with increasingly demanding environments, including globalization, technologization, intergenerationality, and crises such as the coronavirus pandemic. To accept uncertainties as a challenge and to recognize opportunities for development, well-educated and resilient founders are needed who can foster innovation and sustainable development within society and the economy. The majority of today’s entrepreneurs have an academic background. Hence, institutions for higher education need to provide comprehensive educational offerings and support initiatives to train and sensitize future entrepreneurs. Therefore, since 2013, agile teaching formats have been developed in our project at a Bavarian university of applied sciences. In two stages, we founded a limited company for hands-on experimentation with entrepreneurship and also conceptualized an elective course and an annual founders’ night. Based on a theoretical model and continuous teaching evaluations, we adjusted the individual modules to suit the target group. The objective is to promote the acquisition of key competencies and exert a positive influence on the startup quotient in the region. There are six startups by students who can be traced back to our project. This indicates that a target-group-oriented educational program encourages motivation and awareness of entrepreneurial thinking and action among students.

Climate adaptation supports organizations in dealing with the current and projected effects of climate change by recognizing challenges as opportunities and increasing their economic efficiency. Based on the regional climate model REMO and 13 expert interviews with representatives from mainly manufacturing companies analyzed by the Grounded Theory methodology, this contribution aims to outline actual and future challenges of climate adaptation in the investigated region. We analyze how manufacturing companies respond to climate change and assess the main promoters and barriers of organizational learning in the context of climate adaptation. The expert interviews confirm the importance for companies of having a concrete business case for any strategies and of increasingly making their processes and manufacturing more transparent, through supply chain assessments. In accordance, a focus on strategic management levels is crucial for organizational learning processes as they are responsible for development, mobilization of resources and realization of adaptation concepts.

Climate adaptation and learning support organizations in dealing with the current and projected consequences of climate change by recognizing challenges as opportunities, ensuring business continuity and increasing their economic efficiency. Beside material resources, climate adaptation requires knowledge, technical expertise, and learning capacity. Our contribution examines the interrelationship between climate adaptation and organizational learning, as the consideration of climate adaptation in the long term and with respect to organizational learning or realignment is still represented very little in research. Thus, we conduct a regional study to analyze to what extent the companies already have climate-related structures conducive to learning, to what extent they take responsibility in terms of the learning object (climate change), and which elements prove to be limiting here. The survey of 288 companies and handicraft companies illustrate that intangible resources such as a sense of responsibility, executives’ positive attitude and common values have a significant influence on the way companies deal with climate change. Executives characterize key actors for organizational goal setting, strategic development, and functional process monitoring. The study shows that the number of climate-related measures taken increases due to higher resource capacities. As we draw conclusions about changing learning requirements, conditions, and mediums in the face of climate change, findings can provide relevant inspiration for scholars or practitioners to perceive climate adaptation as a valuable and strategic challenge to enhance the organization’s resilience per se.

Climate adaptation and learning support organizations in coping with the current and projected impacts of climate change by identifying challenges as opportunities, ensuring business continuity and increasing their economic efficiency. In addition to material resources, climate adaptation requires knowledge, technical know-how and the ability to learn. Our article examines the relationship between climate adaptation and organizational learning, as the consideration of climate adaptation in the long term and with regard to organizational learning or reorientation is still very little represented in research. Therefore, a quantitative study is conducted in order to determine whether companies already have climate-related structures conducive to learning, whether they take responsibility for the learning object (climate change), and which elements limit the learning process. The survey of 288 companies and craft businesses in a German industrial region shows that intangible resources such as a sense of responsibility, a positive attitude among managers and shared values have a significant influence on how companies deal with climate change. Managers are key players in setting corporate goals, developing strategies and monitoring functional processes. The study shows that the number of climate-related measures taken is increasing due to higher resource capacities. As we draw conclusions about the changing learning requirements, conditions and media in the face of climate change, the results can provide relevant suggestions for researchers and practitioners to understand climate adaptation as a valuable and strategic challenge and to improve the resilience of the organization itself.