Core Values and Decision-making for Sustainable Business: An International Perspective

This open access volume discusses the core values and decision-making for sustainable business in general, and includes research findings and country cases on addressing challenges. It emphasizes the importance of adapting products or services to local needs, considering cultural differences and sustainability. Some of the chapters address questions related to improving sustainability in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and cover circular economy and responsible consumption. Others look at the normative framework conditions for business development; sustainability in supply chains; the involvement of stakeholders and their influence on market presence; entrepreneurial decision-making for sustainability; and approaches to teaching international and sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship. The volume sheds light on the pivotal role MSMEs play in shaping a sustainable future and is written for researchers, practitioners, and students working on related topics. 

Arie Hans Verkuil is a theologian and holds a doctorate in business ethics from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He has a postgraduate degree in nonprofit management from the Institute for Association, Foundation and Cooperative Management (VMI) at the University of Fribourg, and Swiss Postgraduate Studies in Human Resource Management (SNP). He is a lecturer in management, mindful leadership, and ethics at the School of Business, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, and heads the Institute for Corporate Management there. He was a strategic advisor to the Swiss Federal Administration for many years. He is a member of various scientific advisory boards of South-East-Asian Universities.

Uta Milow is a lecturer and researcher of economics at FHNW with a research focus on sustainable and international entrepreneurship. She attended the University of Mannheim, Germany, and the University of Oregon, USA. After finishing a master’s degree in economics, she continued her studies with a PhD-program in Economics at Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Germany. She participated in an interdisciplinary postgraduate research program on European integration (political science, law, and economics). Since 2000 she has been a lecturer at the School of Business FHNW. She is head of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs at the School of Business, FHNW, and is responsible for all executive education programs of the Institute of Management, FHNW.

Andreas Hinz is Program Manager of the Swiss-Asian MBA and of the MBA-MCI programme, Ho Chi Minh City/Vietnam, at the School of Business, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. His research focuses on entrepreneurship, business model innovation, startup incubation, startup competitions in Switzerland and Asia, and digital transformation. His current research projects are on startup incubators for refugees, digitalization and smart service portals of public organizations, and in-vitro diagnostics / e-Health.

Mahmoud Al-Kilani is at the School of Business, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. He has a PhD from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK, and has a postgraduate degree in teaching and learning in higher education. His research focus is on business model innovation, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems, business start-ups, and sustainability. He is involved in various projects, on the landscape of intangible reporting, which is a joint project of KPMG and the International Association for Accounting Education & Research; and on social innovation hubs in the Middle East.