Activities & research

We aim to implement activities (workshops, multi-stakeholder meetings) and research priorities through funded and non-funded research projects, interacting with all organizations and Universities of the Institute’s members and beyond. 

The Institute is  also integrating Bachelor Theses, Master Theses and PhD theses projects as part of its research agenda. To do so, the Institute collaborates with the University of Helsinki, the University of Applied Sciences Munich,  and the EHL Hospitality Business School, Lausanne, and its Master in Hospitality Management. 

Activities & research projects by members of the team

• 2018: research project “Cross-scale effects of resilience – From soil resilience to farmyard resilience”. 
• 2017/2018: survey-based study on German business using reporting standards, IGWW e.V. und IfW, Institute for the World Economy, Kiel.
• Jäger, M. (2017). “IG Soziale Dreigliederung – Die Bedeutung der Tugend der «Brüderlichkeit» für das wirtschaftliche Handeln” Vortrag zur Tagung, Ökonomie der Brüderlichkeit, Freitag 17. bis Sonntag 19. November 2017, Goetheanum, Dornach: Programm_Ökonomie der Brüderlichkeit.pdf 
• Dornbirner Sparkasse Bank (2015). Dornbirner Sparkasse präsentiert erste Gemeinwohl-Bilanz: Wirtschaftszeit | Dornbirner Sparkasse präsentiert erste Gemeinwohl-Bilanz. Volker Jäger (Auditor Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie).

Publications from the Institute’s research activities as well as those by team members arising from other research activities related to Common Good topics:

• Steiner, B.E. & Makarenko, I. (2026). Bridging Governance, Public Support, Innovation, and Transparency: A Combined Approach to Sustainable Development in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan Cham. 
• Palazzo, G., & Hoffrage, U. (2025). The dark pattern: The hidden dynamics of corporate scandals. New York: Basic Venture.
• Johansson, J., Roitto, M., Steiner, B., & Alakukku, L. (2024). Co-creation of urban agriculture through participatory processes in residential building environment: insights from Finland. Cleaner and Responsible Consumption, 13, 100197.
• Hoffrage, U. & Marewski, J. N. (2020). Social Scoring als Mensch-System-Interaktion. In O. Everling (Ed.), Social Credit Rating: Reputation und Vertrauen beurteilen (pp. 305-329). Springer.
• Wang, C., & Steiner, B. (2019). Can social capital explain business performance in Denmark?. Empirical Economics, 1-25.
• Steiner, B. E. & Jäger, V. (2019). Anwendung der Gemeinwohl-Bilanz in der Wertschöpfungskette für Lebensmittel: Erfahrungen und Implikationen zur Verbesserung der betrieblichen Nachhaltigkeit, in: Baumast, A., Pape, J., Weihofen, S. & Wellge, S. (eds.)., Betriebliche Nachhaltigkeitsleistung messen und steuern: Grundlagen und Praxisbeispiele. Stuttgart: UTB Verlag, p. 349-365.
• Gemeinde Mäder (2019). Gemeinwohlbericht 2017, Rezertifizierung: Die Auditierung wurde im Juli 2017 von Dott. Arch. Bernhard Oberrauch und Volker Jäger durchgeführt.
• Hoffrage, U. (2019). Persönliche Verantwortung und Verantwortungsübernahme in Systemen. Pädiatrie & Pädologie, 54(1), 4-9.
• Ludwig, M., Wilmes, P., & Schrader, S. (2018). Measuring soil sustainability via soil resilience. Science of the Total Environment, 626, 1484-1493.
• Contribution by V. Jäger with short chapter on “Economy of the Common Good” in: Von Weizsäcker, E. U., & Wijkman, A. (2017). Come on!: capitalism, short-termism, population and the destruction of the planet. Springer.
• Deterding, T., Trautmann, S. & S. Siehl (2016). Weiterentwicklung von KMU Praxismodellen zum nachhaltigen Wirtschaften unter besonderer Ber ücksichtigung des Gemeinwohl-Ansatzes, Abschlussbericht AZ 31200/ 44 (wissenschaftliche Begleitung u.a. durch Prof. U. Hoffrage & V.M. Jäger).
• Steiner, B. E. & Wang, C., (2016). Social capital, religious affiliation and business performance in Denmark. Academy of Management Proceedings. Vol. 2016: 1812-1817.
• Wang, C. & Steiner, B. E., (2015). Can Ethnic-Linguistic Diversity Explain Cross-Country Differences in Social Capital Formation? Economic Record. 91(294): 338-366.
• R. L. Greene (2015, June 18). Social capital in the 21st century. The Economist. “Multilingual countries have less trust between people and in institutions. That is no reason to force countries into a monolingual mold. … A new paper* by Bodo Steiner and Cong Wang, two economists at the University of Southern Denmark, reach the conclusion that less linguistically diverse countries tend to prosper (rather than the other way round). Messrs Steiner and Wang set out to find the relationship between linguistic fragmentation and social capital. …”.