Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre (bis 2010)

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Ökokaufhaus - Konzept der Zukunft? Empirische Analyse der Effekte eines innovativen Unternehmenskonzept auf Umwelt und Gesellschaft
(2006) Gebhardt, Beate; Schulz, Werner F.
Sustainable production and management in companies and sustainable consumption on the part of the consumers are the objectives, which are defined as trend-setting. However, it is not yet clear what role trade may play, as it is sometimes designated as the motor, sometimes the inhibitor of sustained development. With the shopping mall ?Ökokaufhaus Rommelmühle? in Bietigheim-Bissingen, an idealistically motivated eco-preneur wants to implement and realize different objectives of sustainable development in compagny concept. It opened in the autumn 1998. The innovative project incorporates the ecological shopping mall with nearly 6,000 m2 sales area, together with approx. 100 people who live in the old main building and in new, ecologically built houses. It is intended as a concept for the future, from which the economy, environment and society profit equally. The central question of this work is: can a company innovation in trade such as the ecological shopping mall actually promote steps towards sustainability? Apart from efficiency and consistency strategies, sufficiency strategies must also be successfully implemented. For this purpose the "Ökokaufhaus Rommelmühle" and its surrounding field is considered in the years 1998 to 2002 on the basis of various empirical investigations. The analyses of all aspects the Rommelmühle, as well as a further survey of other existing and planned ecological shopping malls in Germany, highlight the situation of an innovative trading venture on the eco-market. The results are summarized in the following four theses. Thesis 1: The basic idea of the eco-shopping mall is trend-setting. The idea of an ecologically influential and sustainably organised trading venture is still regarded as very positive. Today consumers demand more social and ecological responsibility from companies. In Germany people´s sense of responsibility remains high beyond the ecological dimension. Companies are slowly beginning to be sensitised. Despite the failure of the concept, the basic idea of an ecological shopping mall still meets with great enthusiasm. The idea of ecologically acting and the life-style of sustainably organised trade companies remains firm in people?s minds. This is a first and in a long-term view a central result of this work. Thesis 2: Eco-shopping malls enable a hybrid sustainable development Also in an ecologically motivated pioneering company the basis for corporate continuity is formed by the economic dimension. Thus the chances of changing ecologically and socially relevant elements in corporate operations depend on economic affordability. At present an ecological shopping mall in its realized or planned form is economically unsuccessful or at least endangered in its economic survival. If it can assert itself on the market, it acts as an innovative ?David? in the eco-niche. Eco-efficient basic conditions (like structure of buildings) and infrastructural offers (supply of goods) as typical ecological innovations in the eco-shopping mall substantially improve the chance of more sustainable production and consumption patterns. However, the ecological shopping mall sets as a potential supporter of sufficiency strategies provides no significant impetus. Even in planning, in the eco-shopping mall social components were subordinate to ecological aspects and in business a community-oriented approach was completely thwarted. In addition, the ecological shopping mall is an expensive supply installation and like the whole eco- market it is visited particularly by more highly educated consumers and by the older generation. Thesis 3: The establishment of eco-shopping malls is a matter of time. Particularly for economic reasons, the concept of an ecological shopping mall has no future ? at least in the short term. The demand for ecologically high-quality products is limited except with regard to organic food. The offer of different ecological branches of trade in one house hardly causes spill-over effects. However, in view of the production in industries and in the reflections and way of consuming of society at large in the long-term the beginning changes promise framework conditions, which could result in the success of eco-shopping malls in the future. Today in the ecological industries different lines of success in diffusion processes can still be observed. For example, the trade with eco-clothing has remained in the eco-niche, stigmatised since the eighties. And also the ecological building industry so far has not been able to develop remarkable movement, despite legally established standards of thermal insulation. Organic food alone, the oldest ecological commercial sector, is already on an economical successful course and enjoys increasing social acceptance. Historical experience shows: also the great department stores of the 19th Century developed over decades from offering a single branch of trade to a full range of products. Thesis 4: Ecological shopping mall is a model and chance for advancement in the trade. In the future the design and structure of an ecological shopping mall will be adapted to the things the economy will offer and the requirements of society. The ecological shopping mall of the future will not have much in common with the eco-mall Rommelmühle - analysed as a general case study. But the aim of this innovative idea will connect the past and the future: to place things again in a comprehensive context, to unite sustainable production/management and sustainable consumption, to see society and the environment as an interconnected whole. These expectations of people today will form the basis for how the companys will act tomorrow.

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