Finished dissertation projects

Brief description

Implementing sustainability in organizations, whether for-profit, public, or nonprofit, presents challenges stemming both from the unique nature and complexity of sustainability issues and from the conditions within and outside the organization.
This project addresses various aspects and contingencies of sustainability management and its implementation. In particular, the focus here has been on transdisciplinarity.

Publications:

• Beckmann, M., Hielscher, S. & Pies, I. (2012): Commitment Strategies for Sustainability: How Business Firms Can Transform Trade-Offs Into Win–Win Outcomes, in: Business Strategy and the Environment (Online First)
• Klewitz, Johanna, Anica Zeyen, und Erik G. Hansen (2012): Intermediaries driving eco-innovation in SMEs: A qualitative investigation, European Journal of Innovation Management, 15(4), 442-467.
• Pies, I. , Beckmann, M., & Hielscher, S. (2012) Nachhaltigkeit durch New Governance. Ein ordonomisches Konzept für strategisches Management. Die Betriebswirtschaft.
• Schaltegger, S., Beckmann, M., & Hansen, E. G. (forthcoming). Transdisciplinarity in Corporate Sustainability. Business Strategy and the Environment.
• Zeyen, A., Klewitz, J., & Hansen, E. G. (2011). Ökoeffizienz in deutschen Unternehmen: Nachhaltigkeit durch Intermediäre ?. Ökologisches Wirtschaften, 16(3), 47-50.

People involved:

• Prof. Dr. Markus Beckmann
• Dr. Anica Zeyen
• Roya Akhavan
• Michael Garkisch
• Jasper Meyer
• Prof. Dr. Stefan Schaltegger, Centre for Sustainability Management der Leuphana Unviersität Lüneburg
• Prof. Dr. Erik G. Hansen, Centre for Sustainability Management der Leuphana Unviersität Lüneburg

Brief description:

The research project “Sustainable Supply Chain Management – Corporate Strategies and Capabilities” examines the integration of sustainability into supply chain management strategies and processes, with a particular focus on procurement.

In the first part of the project, a study examined which management practices were implemented to integrate sustainability aspects into companies. The project also investigated whether the composition and selection of measures differ across various strategic approaches and to what extent contextual factors, such as region or industry, influence them.

The second part focuses on the development of resources and capabilities that companies need to implement sustainability measures and strategies. The aim is, on the one hand, to clarify what supply chain management—as a cross-functional and cross-organizational approach—can achieve and how this is transformed by sustainability.

On the other hand, using the automotive industry as a case study, the project examines how companies along various value chains develop organizational capabilities and resources to integrate sustainability. The primary focus is on the interactions and relationships between different stakeholders and how companies respond to sustainability requirements in a dynamic environment.

Publications

• Akhavan, R. & Beckmann, M. (2016): A Configuration of Sustainable Sourcing and Supply Management Strategies Article reference, in: Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Doi: 10.1016/j.pursup.2016.07.006 (im Erscheinen)
• Akhavan, R., & Beckmann, M. (2015). Corporate Management Practices to Integerate Sustainability into Sourcing: A Taxonomy of Firms. Academy of Management Proceedings. https://dx.doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2015.280

Involved people:

Roya Akhavan

Prof. Dr. Markus Beckmann

Dr. Dimitar Zvezdov

Brief description

This research project is being conducted in collaboration with researchers at Leuphana University Lüneburg. It focuses on the question of how social innovations can be scaled up and disseminated by social entrepreneurs and their organizations. Sub-questions of the project address how social entrepreneurs, as their organizations grow, manage potential tensions arising from the interplay of socially oriented and market-oriented internal logics. To this end, another subproject empirically examines how the perspectives of social entrepreneurship differ from those of commercial enterprises regarding organizational success.

A further sub-question explores the possibilities and limitations of social franchising strategies for broadly scaling new solutions in light of the unique characteristics of the social sector.

Publications

• Beckmann, Markus und Steven Ney: Wenn gute Lösungsansätze keine Selbstläufer werden:Vernetzung als Skalierungsstrategie in fragmentierten Entscheidungslandschaften am Beispiel des Social Labs in Köln
• Beckmann, Markus und Anica Zeyen (2014): Franchising as a Strategy for Combining Small and Large Group Advantages (Logics) in Social Entrepreneurship: A Hayekian Perspective, in: Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly Vol 43(3), S. 502-522

Involved people

• Prof. Dr. Markus Beckmann
• Dr. Anica Zeyen

Brief description

One research project in this area is a collaboration with Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. The project examines the phenomenon of “new governance”—that is, regulatory processes in which not only the state but also civil society organizations and businesses are involved in shaping the rules governing corporate activity. Examples include the Forest Stewardship Council or integrity pacts for corruption prevention. Given the patchy regulatory framework for globalized business relations, these issues are becoming increasingly relevant for corporate practice.

Publications:

• Zeyen, A., Beckmann, M., & Wolters, S. (2016). Actor and Institutional Dynamics in the Development of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives. Journal of business ethics, 135, 341-360.
• Pies, Ingo, Markus Beckmann und Stefan Hielscher (2011): The Political Role of the Business Firm: An Ordonomic Concept of Corporate Citizenship Developed in Comparison with the Aristotelian Idea of Individual Citizenship, in: Business and Society (angenommen)
• Pies, Ingo, Markus Beckmann und Stefan Hielscher (2010): Value Creation, Management Competencies, and Global Corporate Citizenship, in: Journal of Business Ethics, 94,S. 265-278.
• Hielscher, Stefan und Markus Beckmann (2009): Social Entrepreneurship und Ordnungspolitik:Zur Rolle gesellschaftlicher Change Agents am Beispiel des Kruppschen Wohlfahrtsprogramms, in: ORDO – Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Band 60, Stuttgart, S. 435-461.

Involved people:

• Prof. Dr. Markus Beckmann
• Dr. Anica Zeyen
• Stella Wolters
• Dr. Stefan Hielscher, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
• Prof. Dr. Ingo Pies, Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg

Brief description

This research project is a collaboration with Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. “Ordonomics” is the name of a long-term research program that develops general methodological and sociological foundations for business and corporate ethics: Ordonomics is a rational-choice-based analysis of (the interdependencies between) social structure and semantics. The term “social structure” refers to the institutional regulatory arrangements of a society and their differentiated incentive effects on individuals (persons) and corporate actors (organizations). The term “semantics” refers to linguistic terms and concepts as well as the underlying categories of thought. The ordonomic research program focuses, on the one hand, on central normative semantics such as responsibility, justice, and sustainability; on the other hand, on the dilemmatic characteristics of modern social structures; but above all, on possible discrepancies between social structure and semantics.
In 2010, our chair holder, Prof. Dr. Markus, received the Max Weber Prize for Business Ethics for his research work “Ordnungsverantwortung: Rational Choice as an Ordonomic Research Program.”

Publications:

• Beckmann, Markus (2010): Ordnungsverantwortung. Rational-Choice als ordonomisches Forschungsprogramm. Berlin: wissenschaftlicher verlag berlin.
• Pies, Ingo, Markus Beckmann und Stefan Hielscher: The Political Role of the Business Firm: An Ordonomic Concept Inspired by the Aristotelian Idea of Citizenship, in: Business and Society
• Pies, Ingo, Stefan Hielscher und Markus Beckmann (2009): Moral Commitments and the Societal Role of Business: An Ordonomic Approach to Corporate Citizenship, in Business Ethics Quarterly, 19(3), S.375-401.
• Beckmann, Markus (2008): Governance durch politische Selbstbindung – Wider die Ausbeutungsspiele afrikanischer Eliten, in: Zeitschrift für Politik (ZfP), 55. Jg. 2/2008, S. 199-220.
• Beckmann, Markus und Ingo Pies (2007): Freiheit durch Bindung – Zur ökonomischen Logik von Verhaltenskodizes, in: zfbf – Zeitschrift für betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung 59, August 2007, S. 614-644.

Involved people

• Prof. Dr. Markus Beckmann
• Dr. Stefan Hielscher, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
• Prof. Dr. Ingo PIes, Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg