Sustainable corporate decision making in complex realities : a general approach and an illustration in the German food vs. fuel conflict

This thesis suggests Comprehensive Understanding as an alternative approach of sustainable corporate decision making. It shows how sustainability becomes the intrinsic rationale of corporate decision making in complex realities. The approach of Comprehensive Understanding is based on a synthesis of different concepts of sustainability science. As methods, a review of academic literature,a dialogue with practitioners and academics as well as own reflections have been applied. Modern disciplinary understanding can only provide a limited perspective on complex realities through its focus on deep analysis. I argue for a more Comprehensive Understanding that covers the impacts of a corporate decision made within complexity of reality. For such understanding, the integration of diverse, rational as well as emotional perspectives is the basic guideline. In contrast to other concept of sustainable decision making, it fulfills two basic requirements to achieve that. First, it is practical for daily corporate decision making practices in complex realities. Second, its application lies in the self‐interest of the decision maker. The functioning of the approach will be illustrated by an exemplary corporate decision from the German food vs. fuel conflict. Besides other alternatives of mitigation, this thesis will evaluate the option of importing food from a country with a high theoretical potential of production increase; such as Ukraine. It will be shown that a Comprehensive Understanding is necessary to understand the complexity of the issue and to make sustainable decisions within such complex environment