BISE’s Responsibility for our Planet

Abstract

After the crisis of the New Economy we are now undergoing a second, more severe crisis in this still young millennium with the financial crisis. While investigating common patterns it becomes clear that we -at individual, corporate, and even state level -have systematically overestimated chances and therefore underestimated the associated risks.At the time of the New Economy hype, the speed of changes in life and economy resulting from the development of the Internet was overestimated. This resulted in the fact that every start-up related to high-tech received the prediction of a golden future -without considering potential risks -and that by the IPO at the latest so much liquidity was provided that many start-ups without clear business prospects followed. We know the result of this exaggeration, especially made on the part of the capital market: Many shakeouts, massive price declines in world stock markets in particular in the field of technology, affecting all markets and resulting in a sharp increase in unemployment.The financial crisis, the consequences of which the world is suffering today, is also characterized by a non-sustainable, world-wide mismanagement of opportunities and risks. This time starring: The financial services sector, which -thanks to supposed diversification -constructed perfect returns for itself and its clients by means of structured financial securities such as ABS, MBS, CDOs, CDO2s, ABCPs, CDS until the unnoticed or at least severely neglected risks of these complex instruments were revealed and a massive economic downturn began, resulting in the heaviest decline of global trade and economic crisis since World War II.Although at first glance it seems somewhat premature to discuss the next crisis already now, it takes no visionary: It will definitely arise! And we believe that this crisis could not only affect individual sectors but the economy as a whole. This will happen when resource price increases escalate to trigger the next crisis: the faster energy and commodity prices fall now, the sooner the next crisis will occur, because: Ifas a result of low prices and financial problems arising from the financial crisis -investments in resource reduction, processing, conservation, and substitution remain undone, the risk of massive price increases and adjustment shocks will rise at the latest with the recovery of raw material requirements. This will bring the tender shoots of resurgent economy to its knees again -if we still have not managed to learn from the last crises so far.Let us, therefore, put the question of what can be done at an individual and at corporate level to avoid the next crisis hitting us as hard as the current one. What can companies do especially now in order not to suffer from the foreseeable future resource price crisis or even to be absorbed by it? What kind of necessary steps can be identified at state level to proactively prevent future crises, instead of -as we can currently observe -playing fire fighters in a capital-intensive manner when the buildings of econo...

Business transformation towards sustainability

“…In order to maintain our current style of life, we would need the equivalent of two of our today's planets by 2030 (Buhl and Jetter 2009). Statements like this and the knowledge of scarce resources as well as the existence of more and more sensible customers (for example LOHAS) emphasize the necessity to integrate sustainable behavior into individual and corporate activities and decisions.…”

The Energy Consumption of Blockchain Technology: Beyond Myth

“…This article challenges the common prejudices regarding the energy consumption of the supposedly homogeneous blockchain technology by providing a detailed analysis of current scientific knowledge. It, thereby, addresses the energy consumption of IS, in general a subject for which BISE traditionally takes responsibility (Buhl and Jetter 2009;Schmidt et al 2009). In particular, it also addresses the need for a detailed investigation into the energy consumption of blockchain technology, as pointed out in Beck et al (2017).…”

An Idea for Modelling Exogenous Shocks on Supply Networks Using Petri Nets

“…Implementing this approach in a cross-industry system to recognize shortages and price development risks will enable companies to reinforce the whole supply network and to make it less vulnerable to exogenous shocks. Furthermore in terms of return and risk it enables an efficient resource management and creates corporate value more sustainably by coordinating the interplay of complex decentralized decisions [2].…”

“…Currently, especially resource shortages are an increasingly important topic, as the elemental limitation connected with the growing demand of emerging markets imposes a serious threat to a resource's availability [9]. Independent of the accurate coverage of specific resources we face an exponential increase of demand and prices in the long run, additionally tightened by the growth and growing wealth of population [2][6].…”