1,720,962 research outputs found
Toward Sustainable Development: Micro-Level Explorations in Management Research
Full text linkThe pursuit of sustainable development is a pressing challenge for today’s global society. Despite broad academic consensus on the need to transition towards more sustainable and resilient pathways, in practice shortcomings in the implementation and management of sustainability remain. The scientific discourse on sustainability management extends over various domains and perspectives, with a predominant focus on the macro- and meso-level of analysis. In contrast the micro-level literature on sustainability management is comparatively limited but growing, with the potential to deepen and broaden the understanding of sustainability. Within the micro-level research stream, scholars have pointed to promising avenues such as emphasizing more social elements and well-being, taking a glance across borders, exploiting the methodological toolbox and leveling up while investigating the micro-level. Collectively, the four articles advance on these avenues and address a wide range of sustainability management questions, contexts and stakeholders. In doing so, the present dissertation aims to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities of sustainability phenomena through a socio-psychological lens and a focus on the individual
Corporate Social Responsibility: Instrumental Approaches for a Fruitful Interplay between Business and Society
Full text linkCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a hot topic in management research. There is now widespread agreement that CSR is an important means for corporations to contribute to a fruitful interplay between business and society. Although CSR has an inherently normative foundation, the mainstream CSR discussion is rooted in an instrumental paradigm, within which scholars oft aim to uncover the business case for CSR, i.e. address the question whether and how CSR improves the corporate bottom line. In combination with the relative neglect of the normative foundation of CSR, the instrumentality of the debate results in the problematic tendency to reduce the notion of the social responsibility of business to single CSR activities that pay off for corporations. By implication, those CSR action fields for which the business case cannot be established in a straightforward fashion tend to receive little attention. Because in reality, many CSR action fields do not yield a readily discernible business case, the present debate is limited in its ability to provide guidance on how corporations can promote a fruitful interplay between business and society. In light of this, the present dissertation aims to contribute to the CSR discussion by developing instrumental approaches that explicitly enable CSR action fields without a readily discernible business case to be identified and addressed, both in theory and in practice. Collectively, the six papers collected in the present dissertation thesis indicate that for CSR to contribute to a fruitful interplay between business and society, it is important to approach CSR in a holistic fashion and conceptualize it as a management philosophy
Individual Behavior and Sustainability Transitions: Managing Uncertainty for Innovation and Resilience
Full text linkThe pursuit of sustainability is tied to large-scale change processes or transitions occurring within societal, ecological, and technological spheres. Innovation and resilience-centered approaches have emerged as important frameworks for analyzing sustainability transitions. While research on sustainability transitions often places innovation and resilience in the context systemic change, there is less understanding of how individuals contribute to these change processes. This is despite the potential of individuals to act as facilitators or inhibitors of change. Given that sustainability transitions introduce significant uncertainty, examining how individuals experience and manage uncertainty can provide important insights into their engagement in sustainability transitions. The four articles comprising this dissertation underscore the importance of an uncertainty management perspective in understanding individual intentions and behaviors related to innovation and resilience. This research aims to inform both research and policy in developing individual-centered approaches toward sustainability
Radical Innovations in the Food Industry: Investigating Perceptions and Acceptance of Cultured Meat
Full text linkThe modern food system, particularly the production of animal-based foods like meat, imposes a significant ecological burden that contradicts the goals of sustainable development. Despite widespread scientific consensus on the necessity of reducing animal-based food consumption to mitigate the environmental impact of the food system, the negative consequences are expected to be exacerbated by factors such as population growth and rising affluence. A potential paradigm shift toward a more sustainable food system could be realized through cultured meat, a radical innovation produced in vitro using tissue-engineering techniques. This method decouples meat production from traditional livestock farming and holds the potential to transform the meat industry. However, the successful adoption of cultured meat is contingent on consumer acceptance, a critical yet complex challenge given the inherent uncertainty and novelty associated with radical innovations. Research has identified numerous drivers and barriers to the consumer acceptance of cultured meat, emphasizing its multidimensional nature. This dissertation, comprising four articles and an edited volume contribution, investigates the factors influencing consumer acceptance of cultured meat, incorporating organizational factors and stakeholder perspectives. The research aims to provide new insights into consumer perceptions and acceptance, offering strategic implications for the successful market introduction of cultured meat within the food industry
impulse paper ; created within the MWK-funded project „Unser Fleisch von morgen? Zukunftsdiskurse zu kultiviertem Fleisch“
No full textCultured meat is considered a potentially pioneering technology to reduce the environmental impacts, animal suffering, and resource use associated with conventional meat production, while simultaneously opening new pathways for food security, health, and economic development. At the same time, the technology faces significant technical challenges, societal reservations, and economic risks that will strongly influence its future role in the food system. This impulse paper examines these opportunities and challenges and provides recommendations for science, policy, and agriculture with a view to a fact-based, transparent, and forward-looking development of this technology
Impulspapier ; entstanden im Rahmen des MWK-geförderten Projektes „Unser Fleisch von morgen? Zukunftsdiskurse zu kultiviertem Fleisch“
No full textKultiviertes Fleisch gilt als potenziell wegweisende Technologie, um ökologische Belastungen, Tierleid und Ressourcenverbrauch der konventionellen Fleischproduktion zu reduzieren und zugleich neue Wege für Ernährungssicherheit, Gesundheit und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung zu eröffnen. Zugleich stehen der Technologie noch bedeutende technische Hürden, gesellschaftliche Vorbehalte und ökonomische Risiken gegenüber, die ihre zukünftige Rolle im Ernährungssystem maßgeblich beeinflussen. Das vorliegende Impulspapier beleuchtet diese Chancen und Herausforderungen und formuliert Impulse für Wissenschaft, Politik und Landwirtschaft mit Blick auf eine faktenbasierte, transparente und zukunftsorientierte Gestaltung dieser Technologie.Cultured meat is considered a potentially pioneering technology to reduce the environmental impacts, animal suffering, and resource use associated with conventional meat production, while simultaneously opening new pathways for food security, health, and economic development. At the same time, the technology faces significant technical challenges, societal reservations, and economic risks that will strongly influence its future role in the food system. This impulse paper examines these opportunities and challenges and provides recommendations for science, policy, and agriculture with a view to a fact-based, transparent, and forward-looking development of this technology
Kultiviertes Fleisch: Sprunginnovation für eine nachhaltige Zukunft - Welche Ängste und Sorgen bestehen in der Gesellschaft?
Full text linkDie Sprunginnovation kultiviertes Fleisch bietet das Potenzial, bestehende Problematiken unseres heutigen Fleischkonsums zu adressieren und damit eine der bedeutendsten Innovationen für die nachhaltige Entwicklung des 21. Jahrhundert zu werden. Gleichermaßen stellt sie die Gesellschaft vor vielerlei Herausforderungen, insbesondere mit Blick auf die Schaffung von Akzeptanz. Um diesen Herausforderung begegnen zu können, ist es unabdingbar, zunächst die in der Bevölkerung bestehenden Ängste und Sorgen zu ermitteln und zu verstehen. Die im Rahmen verschiedener Gruppendiskussionen gesammelten und klassifizierten Bedenken von Bürger*innen werden im vorliegenden Diskussionspapier dargestellt, um einen Ausgangspunkt für einen öffentlichen Diskurs zu schaffen. Auf Basis dieser Erkenntnisse erwächst die zentrale gesellschaftliche Verantwortung von Wissenschaft und Politik, Informationen bereitzustellen und transparent zu vermitteln, um Offenheit gegenüber Innovationen im Allgemeinen und kultiviertem Fleisch im Speziellen zu fördern
Science, policy, and public expectations: A qualitative investigation of consumer perspectives on cultured meat
No full textRadical innovations such as cultured meat have gained attention as potential pathways toward more sustainable food systems. However, such innovations can only realize their societal potential if they are met with public acceptance. Achieving this acceptance poses multiple challenges – one of which is the inherent uncertainty that often accompanies unfamiliar and novel (food) technologies like cultured meat. Drawing on uncertainty reduction theory, consumers faced with unfamiliar innovations seek information to mitigate this uncertainty, and often turn to institutions involved in their development and regulation, such as science and policy. These institutions thus play a pivotal role not only in providing credible information but also in cultivating trust. Gaining insight into consumers’ concerns and perceived potentials of cultured meat, as well as their expectations of scientific and political actors, is essential for fostering informed public discourse and strengthening societal trust. In the present study, we conducted exploratory focus group discussions in four German cities. Participants reflected on the perceived potentials and risks of cultured meat and formulated concrete expectations toward science and politics. Our findings confirm well-established acceptance factors, such as concerns about animal welfare and health, while also revealing novel themes – especially regarding systemic transformation and food system resilience. This paper contributes to the literature by offering a qualitative account of how consumers conceptualize the roles and responsibilities of scientific and political actors in the development of cultured meat, thereby addressing a previously overlooked dimension of consumer acceptance
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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