The Centre for Sustainable Economic and Corporate Policy (SECP) in Darmstadt is an institute of the Department of Economics of the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (h_da) and the Darmstadt Business School. The SECP understands itself as an integral part of the university. The institute aims to broaden the research output of the university and to further develop the research and teaching capacities of the Darmstadt Business School.
The SECP builds on the idea that economic activity can make a significant contribution to the common good of future generations. The SECP contributes to research in the Darmstadt Business School, primarily in areas in which individual and macroeconomic issues are analyzed in the context of overall social developments. The focus is therefore on the interplay between social and organization-specific transformation and expectation-building processes.
Only “with the economy” will society succeed in mastering the numerous ecological and social challenges of the coming decades and establish more sustainable forms of resource use and creation. Similarly, only with society and the public will the business world be able to meet their own challenges. In recent decades, economic questions have been at forefront of the public discourse. This poses challenges for politics and civil society. The decoupling of economics from overall societal objectives is also becoming a problem in management of organizations where executives experiencing an ever greater change processes. Although rapid technological progress creates innovation pressure and innovation dynamics, these dynamics are perceived as less socially embedded. An important focus of the SECP is on business organisations pursuing complex objectives and requirements. They act as an infrastructure for other sectors of the economy (as is the case of energy and finance companies), set goals that go beyond pure profit-making (cooperatives and public enterprises, but also private institutions contributing to public value creation) or provide the framework for sustainable economic growth (public administrations). German society is characterised by a high degree of organisational diversity. Entrepreneurial activity and innovation are at times considered as different ‘animals’. We see this as a strength, potentially interesting for an international audience.