Heterodox theory of the firm and sustainability – Concept and application in teaching

The thesis gives an overview of different discussions on economic education and develops possible pathways to improve it by better integrating sustainability issues with the help of heterodox economics in the economic syllabus. The main idea is developed from recognising that for a sustainable survival of humankind, a sustainable economy is needed and that for a change from the current state to a more sustainable economy, education is one of the key drivers.

After recalling major shortcomings of current mainstream economics, the specific incompatibility of mainstream economic education for understanding the pressing challenges of sustainability issues is explained. The work shows with the example of firm behaviour how heterodox economic theories together with findings from business economics instead of neoclassic mainstream theory can not only improve the validity of economic models but also enhance the understanding of the role of firms for sustainable development and the understanding of sustainability as a guiding criterion for firm behaviour. It is demonstrated how new, modern and openminded economics can constitute a scientific framework for profoundly understanding the situation of impacts driven by economic activity on environment, society and economy. According to the previous findings, a more sustainable economy can only be achieved by an improved scientific framework for the necessary preliminary understanding of the situation and an appropriate economic education that enables the future generations of economic actors such as managers, journalists, and government officials to make informed, normative decisions towards sustainable economic development.

In this spirit, a concrete example of a microeconomic teaching concept for firm theory is sketched as an outlook on how an economic education that incorporates sustainability issues with the help of heterodox economic theories and a change in the economic syllabus in general might be looking. The thesis is a groundwork for a change in economic education and the deliberately chosen conceptual nature and the innovative heterodox approach leaves a great demand for following elaborations of the ideas as well as analyses of existing barriers to change.