Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Stefan Schaltegger

21335 Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1, C11.311
Fon +49.4131.677-2180, stefan.schaltegger@leuphana.de
Professor*in, Professorship of Sustainability Management
Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM)

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Vita

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Stefan Schaltegger is full professor of sustainability management. He founded the Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM) and introduced the world's first MBA programme in Sustainability Management in 2003. From 2006 to 2010, he was Vice President Research of Leuphana University Lüneburg. According to the Stanford World Scientist Ranking, Prof. Schaltegger is among the 2% most cited researchers worldwide. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the scientific management journal "Organization & Environment" (together with Prof. Minna Halme, Aalto university), has more than 500 publications and has received various scientific awards.

Professor Schaltegger's research interests include topics of corporate sustainability management, in particular measurement, accounting and management control of corporate sustainability (incl. the sustainability balanced scorecard), sustainability transformation of companies, fundamental concepts and methods of sustainability management (operationalization of corporate sustainability, biodiversity management, etc.), sustainable business models and management of stakeholder relationships.

Academic Career

  • 2020 - 2025: among the top 2% in the World Scientist Ranking (https://www.adscientificindex.com/top-lists/?c=99)
  • 2022 - 2023: Dean, School of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg
  • 2006 - 2010: Vice President for Research, Leuphana University Lüneburg
  • Since 1999: Professor for Sustainability Management, Leuphana University Lüneburg
  • 1996 - 1998: Assistant Professor of Economics at the Center of Economics and Business Administration (WWZ), University of Basel, Switzerland and Deputy Head of the Department of Public Economics and Policy
  • 1994 - 1996: Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Economics of the WWZ, Basel, Switzerland
  • 1992 - 1993: Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Business Administration, University of Washington, Seattle, USA

 

Memberships

  • Founder of the Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM) and the MBA Sustainability Management (www.sustainament.de).
  • Co-Editor-in-Chief of the scientific management journal "Organization & Environment" (together with Prof. Minna Halme, Aalto university Helsinki).
  • Member of international editorial boards of scientific journals (selection): Business Strategy and the Environment (since 1998; 2022-2025 associate editor), Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management (since 1998), Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal (SAMPJ) (since 2009, 2011-2024 deputy editor), Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (since 2011), Meditari Accountancy Research (since 2012), Journal of Corporate Citizenship (since 2013), Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship (since 2014), Supply Chain Management. An International Journal (since 2016), Journal of Accounting and Organizational Change (associate editor 2016-2024), Journal of Business Ethics (associate section editor until 2025), Organization & Environment (associate editor 2019-2025; Co-Editor-in-Chief since 2025).
  • Honorary doctorate from Danubius University, Galati, Romania (2017).
  • Member of steering committees of the framework research program "Research for Sustainability" of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (2004-2008), the BMBF research program "Sustainable Biotechnology" (2003-2007), the research program "Sustainable Infrastructure Development" of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2004-2011), and the High-Tech Forum for the implementation and further development of the High-Tech Strategy of the Federal Government (2015-2017).
  • Jury and methodology partner of the Next Economy Award and member of the jury of the German Sustainability Award (since 2010), member of the steering committee of EMAN (Environmental and Sustainability Management Accounting Network; since 2001, 2005-2020 Chairman); member of various corporate sustainability advisory boards.

Awards/Prizes (Selection)

  • 2025 Hall of Fame Award of the Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ) for Interdisciplinary Accounting Research
  • 2020 - 2025: Ranked in Stanford's top 2% of scientists worldwide
  • 2023: Mary Parker Follett award for Outstanding Paper (Max Baker, Rob Gray and Stefan Schaltegger: Debating accounting and sustainability: from incompatibility to rapprochement in the pursuit of corporate sustainability, AAAJ, 36(2), 591-619).
  • 2019: Karl-Leitl-Partnership-award (together with Erik Hansen) for the article "The sustainability balanced scoregard: A systematic review of architectures" (journal of business ethics, 133, 193-221).
  • 2011: Outstanding reviewer: Award for Excellence 2011
  • 2007: Environmental award in the category "Science" by Bundesdeutscher Arbeitskreis für Umweltbewusstes Management (B.A.U.M.) e.V.
  • 2003: Research award ("article of merit") by the Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) together with Roger Burritt and Tobias Hahn
  • 1992: Best Paper award of the Academy of Management (1992) together with Ann Ilinitch
  • Various awards for publications as "top-downloaded" and "top-cited" in different journals

 

Teaching

Sustainability management

Research Interests

  • Concepts and methods of sustainability management (strategic sustainability management, operationalisation of corporate sustainability, biodiversity management)
  • Sustainable entrepreneurship
  • Measurement and management of corporate sustainability performance (environmental and sustainability accounting and reporting, sustainability management control, Sustainability Balanced Scorecard, etc.)
  • Management of stakeholder relationships

Projects

  1. KuNaH-T - Realexperimente transformativer Lern- und Forschungsprozesse für eine Kultur der Nachhaltigkeit an Hochschulen - Transferphase. Teilprojekt: Guideline für informelle Prozesse zwischen Change Agents und Governance
    Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Project manager, academic)
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    Project: Research

  2. Innovationsnetzwerk Zukunftsfaktor Nachhaltigkeit
    Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Project manager, academic)
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    Project: Research

  3. Research Consortium ‘Sustainability governance of global value chains’
    Jens Newig (Project manager, academic) , Andrea Lenschow (Project manager, academic) , Franca Angela Bülow (Coordination) , Barbara Pamela Ehbauer (Project staff) , Jelto Zissis Makris (Project staff) , Jelena Bäumler (Project manager, academic) , Elke Sybille Schüßler (Project manager, academic) , Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Project manager, academic) , Patrick Velte (Project manager, academic) , Frank Teuteberg (Project manager, academic) , Alexander Schall (Project manager, academic) , Martin Franz (Project manager, academic) , Christian Busse (Project manager, academic) , Jann Lay (Project manager, academic) , Henrike Jost (Project staff) , Kathleen Evers (Project staff) , Nora Große (Project staff) , Finn Jonas Bongert (Project staff) , Sofyia Pohurskyy (Project staff) , Frederik Kamphues (Project staff) , Philip Verfürth (Project staff) , Satwant Dahiya (Project staff) , Jia Zuo (Project staff) , Frauke Steglich (Project staff) , Saumya Satishbhai Raval (Project staff)
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    Project: Research

  4. Account4GreenEco
    Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Project manager, academic)
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    Project: Other

  5. Hochschulen in Gesellschaft – Realexperimente transformativer Lern- und Forschungsprozesse für eine Kultur der Nachhaltigkeit an Hochschulen: Teilprojekt D - Begleitung Realexperimente und Synthese
    Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Project manager, academic) , Daniel Johannes Lang (Partner) , Thomas Potthast (Coordination) , Mandy Singer-Brodowski (Partner) , Benjamin Nölting (Partner) , Oliver Parodi (Partner) , Christian Thomas Scheiding (Project staff)
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    Project: Research

View all projects

Publications

Journal contributions

  1. Corporate sustainability management accounting and multi-level links for sustainability – A systematic review
    Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Author) , Julius Nathanael Ramin Wenzig (Author) , Katherine Leanne Christ (Author) , Roger Burritt (Author) , 01.10.2022 , in: International Journal of Management Reviews, 24, 4 , p. 480-500 , 21 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  2. Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development: A Review and Multilevel Causal Mechanism Framework
    Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Author) , Matthew P. Johnson (Author) , 01.11.2020 , in: Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 44, 6 , p. 1141-1173 , 33 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Scientific review articles › Research

  3. A stakeholder theory perspective on business models: Value creation for sustainability
    Birte Freudenreich (Author) , Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Author) , Florian Lüdeke-Freund (Author) , 01.09.2020 , in: Journal of Business Ethics, 166, 1 , p. 3-18 , 16 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  4. Multinational Enterprise Strategies for Addressing Sustainability: the Need for Consolidation
    Roger Leonard Burritt (Author) , Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Author) , Katherine Leanne Christ (Author) , Hussain Gulzar Rammal (Author) , 01.06.2020 , in: Journal of Business Ethics, 164, 2 , p. 389-410 , 22 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Scientific review articles › Research

  5. Developing sufficiency-oriented offerings for clothing users: Business approaches to support consumption reduction
    Birte Freudenreich (Author) , Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Author) , 20.02.2020 , in: Journal of Cleaner Production, 247 , 10 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  6. The influence of feedback and awareness of consequences on the development of corporate sustainability action over time
    Caspar Jacob Hörisch (Author) , Isabell Maria Tenner (Author) , Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Author) , 01.02.2020 , in: Business Strategy and the Environment, 29, 2 , p. 638 - 650 , 13 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  7. Business model patterns of sustainability pioneers - Analyzing cases across the smartphone life cycle
    Julia Hagenbeck (Author) , Simon Norris (Author) , Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Author) , Ferdinand Paul Revellio (Author) , Erik G. Hansen (Author) , 20.01.2020 , in: Journal of Cleaner Production, 244 , 15 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  8. Business Cases for Sustainability: A Stakeholder Theory Perspective
    Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Author) , Caspar Jacob Hörisch (Author) , R. Edward Freeman (Author) , 01.09.2019 , in: Organization & Environment, 32, 3 , p. 191-212 , 22 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  9. Structural ambidexterity, transition processes, and integration trade‐offs: a longitudinal study of failed exploration
    Erik Gunnar Hansen (Author) , Samuel Wicki (Author) , Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Author) , 01.09.2019 , in: R&D Management, 49, 4 , p. 484-508 , 25 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  10. Stakeholder expectations on sustainability performance measurement and assessment: A systematic literature review
    Samanthi Luisa Silva (Author) , Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Author) , Anne-Katrin Nuzum (Author) , 20.04.2019 , in: Journal of Cleaner Production, 217 , p. 204-215 , 12 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Scientific review articles › Research

  11. Social assessment and management of conflict minerals: A systematic literature review
    Samanthi Luisa Silva (Author) , Stefan Claude Schaltegger (Author) , 08.03.2019 , in: Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 10, 1 , p. 157-182 , 26 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

View all publications

Teaching