Prof. Dr. Markus Beckmann

Research and Academic Profile

Markus Beckmann has held the Chair of Corporate Sustainability Management at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) since 2012. His research examines the role businesses can and should play in addressing societal sustainability challenges and how sustainability can be strategically and organizationally embedded in companies.

His research interests include corporate sustainability management and sustainability strategy, business ethics, business and human rights, sustainable value chains and supply chains, corporate purpose, and social entrepreneurship. He is particularly interested in the interplay between corporate action, institutional frameworks, and broader processes of societal transformation, as well as in how systems thinking can contribute to a better understanding of complex sustainability challenges.

His research combines conceptual and empirical approaches and is often interdisciplinary and practice-oriented. He collaborates with researchers from different disciplines as well as with businesses, civil society organizations, and other practice partners. His work aims both to advance the academic understanding of sustainability transformations and to contribute to the development of effective approaches to sustainable business.

Academic and Professional Background

Markus Beckmann has held the Chair of Corporate Sustainability Management at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg since November 2012. From 2017 to 2020, he served as Vice Dean of Research at the School of Business, Economics and Society.

From 2009 to 2012, he was Assistant Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at Leuphana University Lüneburg. He received his doctorate (Dr. rer. pol.) from the Chair of Economic Ethics at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in 2009. From 2003 to 2005, he worked at the Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics, with which he subsequently remained involved in research and doctoral education.

Markus Beckmann studied Languages, Business and Cultural Studies at the University of Passau, Universidad de Málaga, and the University of Washington in Seattle, graduating with a Diplom-Kulturwirt degree from the University of Passau.

Teaching

Markus Beckmann teaches sustainability management and business ethics at the bachelor’s and master’s levels. His teaching places particular emphasis on interdisciplinary and practice-oriented formats that connect academic concepts with concrete societal and corporate sustainability challenges.