Research focus areas

Businesses play a pivotal role in the context of sustainable development. On the one hand, they are often key drivers of environmental and social problems, for example, through resource-intensive production processes or global supply chains. On the other hand, they frequently possess the necessary competencies, resources, and innovative potential to effectively address sustainability challenges. Meaningful progress toward sustainable development is therefore hardly conceivable without the active involvement of businesses.

Against this background, the Sustainability Management Research Group focuses on the role of businesses in addressing environmental and social challenges. Our research aims to make a high-quality contribution to academic discourse while also addressing sustainability problems that are relevant to both society and business practice. To achieve this objective, our research focuses on the topics “Sustainable Strategies and Business Models,” “Managing the Sustainability Transformation,” and “Sustainability Reporting.” More specifically, we investigate three fundamental questions:

• How do discontinuities in the business environment affect sustainable strategies and business models?
• Which internal factors facilitate or hinder the sustainability transformation of businesses?
• How can sustainability reporting contribute to the internal and external steering of businesses toward sustainability objectives?

To answer these questions, the Sustainability Management Research Group draws on a broad range of theoretical perspectives from management and organization studies as well as adjacent disciplines. In our empirical research, we employ both qualitative and quantitative methods, in particular qualitative case studies based on interview and archival data as well as choice experiments (in combination with eye-tracking). Empirically, our research focuses on industries that are of particular importance for sustainable development. Examples include the energy and financial sectors as well as the information and communication technology industry.