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Research

Research Priorities

Research at the Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainable Strategy covers four areas: Business Ethics, Corporate Governance, Strategy & Competitiveness and Sustainability Management.

In many cases, research projects are carried out jointly with colleagues of renowned national and international research institutions and published in renowned scholarly journals. At the same time, transfer publications and conferences serve to inform practitioners about the research results.

Main research areas of the IBES

Business Ethics

In the 21st century, the reflection on ethical issues is one of the central elements of modern management. Companies are required to base their business practices not only on economic factors, but increasingly also on social and ecological factors. The challenge for managers is how to meet these expectations.

IBES examines the issues associated with these challenges at the institutional, organisational and individual level.

Corporate Governance

Corporate governance refers to the legal and factual design of corporate management and concerns, in particular, the relationship between owners, managers and boards, but also with other stakeholders.

In this context, IBES conducts research in a wide range of topics. These include, for example, forms of management compensation, the influence of the capital market on managerial decisions, and advisory boards as voluntary bodies of corporate governance.

Strategy & Competitiveness

The dynamics of technological developments, digitalization and changing general environmental conditions are causing upheavals in the design of traditional value chains and industry structures.

The research area “Strategy and Competitiveness” investigates current strategic phenomena and decisions of organizations and analyses their effects on the competitiveness of companies and regions.

Using different theoretical and methodological approaches, we/IBES examines the antecedents and consequences of strategic decisions.

The focus is on restructuring measures, portfolio decisions, value chains, organizational design and performance management, cooperation, and how companies deal with digital transformation.

Sustainability Management

In recent years, there have been increasing calls for greater corporate commitment to social and environmental sustainability. These demands are contributing to increasing pressure for sustainability-oriented change in companies. In particular, their fulfilment requires companies to make far-reaching strategic and organisational adaptations.

The research at IBES in this area relates to the advantages and limitations of instrumental approaches to CSR & sustainability management and analyses how these strategies are successfully operationalised and implemented.

Furthermore, IBES investigates whether a purely business-oriented CSR & Sustainability Management can lead to the necessary radical changes in companies and whether this requires the development of certain organisational and personal capabilities.