Business economics students' views in doing business sustainably: determinants from formal and informal education (R-10269)

Sustainability is often more related to natural science disciplines, although it is equally important in the domain of business economics. Graduate business economists will often play a crucial role in companies or within government organizations. In the basis of economic disciplines, business economists study choices that must be made due to scarcity. Sustainability has to play a key role in the decision making process because economic decisions can have crucial environmental impacts. However, classical economic training encourages mostly self-interest and reduces fairness concerns. Research is done in the domain of business economics education to advocate the inclusion of sustainability in business economics curricula but little is known about new teaching approaches in this domain. The research is based on the theory of Andersson and the roles of a responsible business man that she describes. The goal of this research is firstly to investigate to which extent the different roles of a responsible business person with regard to sustainability among business economics students are formed by informal and formal learning respectively. Secondly, the relation dynamics between the roles will be described. More specifically it is investigated how the role articulated by the teacher interacts with the existing role in the mind of a student. The results of this research will provide guidance in creating a more effective learning environment for sustainable development.

Keywords:Economic aspects of clean technologies

Disciplines:Agricultural and natural resource economics, environmental and ecological economics, Economics, business and management curriculum and pedagogics