Over 65 people followed the founding of the Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainable Strategy (IBES) at FHWien der WKW live via video conference on May 27, 2020. The founding of IBES creates an internationally visible research institute in Vienna that will take an academic approach to addressing the issue of sustainable and responsible corporate governance. The new institute cooperates increasingly with domestic companies and international research institutions.
With IBES, FHWien der WKW is pooling and expanding its well-established research capacities in the fields of strategic sustainability management and business ethics. The new research institute builds on long-standing partnerships with local companies such as Berndorf, Blaguss, Hofer, Kapsch and Manner, and cooperates with the institutes of Harvard Business School, INSEAD and the University of St. Gallen, among others. Through the institute, companies, NGOs, governmental organizations and students are provided with an academically renowned, but at the same time practice-oriented partner responsibly and sustainably getting to grips with the pressing issues of digitalization, globalization and climate change.
IBES evolved from the two forerunner organizations at FHWien der WKW, the Center for Corporate Governance & Business Ethics and the Center for Strategy & Competitiveness.
Media coverage on the foundation of IBES
Economist: "Sustainability is neglected in Austria”
Tech & Nature (AT), June 17, 2020: Article on the opening ceremony of the IBES, available at: techandnature.com
Research on corporate responsibility
DerStandard (AT), June 8, 2020: Article on the opening ceremony of the IBES, available at: derstandard.at
Sustainability research - at a high level and practical
CSR News (AT), June 1, 2020: Article on the opening ceremony of the IBES, available at: csr-news.net
Research Institute for Sustainable Management founded
BusinessArt (AT), May 28, 2020: Article on the opening ceremony of the IBES, available at: businessart.at
Sustainable management - Austria's research gets a boost
Windkraft-Journal (AT), May 27, 2020: Article on the opening ceremony of the IBES, available at: windkraft-journal.de
Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainable Strategy opens the gates
GLOCALIST, Daily Newspaper for innovation (AT), May 27, 2020: Article on the opening ceremony of the IBES, available at: glocalist.press
Video recording of the Inaugural Meeting of IBES
Comments from practice partners on the foundation of IBES
As a hub for research, teaching and knowledge transfer, IBES cooperates with partners from business practice.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our partner organizations for their long-standing support.
As real estate developers, we have to deal with complex problems with social causes. In these cases, our firmly established values are what we orientate ourselves around. Recently these values have faded into the background in business life.
This is why it is so important to show students different approaches to business decisions that can and must be taken. After all, you can only be successful in the long term in harmony with society and with concern for the individual and the environment.
This is why we are personally committed to making corporate governance and business ethics an integral part of the academic program through IBES.
As part of the Kapsch Group, now managed by the fourth generation, Kapsch TrafficCom AG understands the challenge of long-term and responsible entrepreneurial activity. We feel particularly committed to the goal of economic, ecological and social sustainability. At the same time, we are convinced that many current problems cannot be solved alone. For this reason, since 2012 Kapsch has cooperated with the Center for Corporate Governance & Business Ethics at the FHWien der WKW, which founded the Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainable Strategy (IBES) in 2020. As a corporate partner of IBES, we are extremely interested in developing a comprehensive understanding of profound responsibility in a multidimensional perspective.
Manner supports IBES because the topics "values" and "ethics" play a central role in our everyday business. We want to set an example of how companies with high ethical codes can be competitive in the long term. This is why we support the inclusion of values management and ethics in university education by promoting IBES.
We believe that future managers should learn at an early stage that it is indeed possible to ensure the long-term and sustainable preservation of corporate value by following a code of ethics.