Will Self-regulating Consumption Ethics Lead to New Business Paradigms

It is becoming increasingly clear that our global ecosystem is under serious threat. Despite all warning signals, the general outlook remains gloomy. The leading economic paradigms are growth-oriented and do not support any shift towards sustainability. The underlying ideology is handing over the responsibility to the individual. Much hope has been placed on ethical consumption, but a change in consumption behaviour on a large scale has not occurred. Recent studies show that without a change in our belief systems and the corresponding deep frames no substantial change will happen. This calls for new, more sophisticated and more radical change strategies as well as new business paradigms, which are both laid out in this article. Furthermore, a brief assessment is given of whether and how business schools can actively contribute to this shift.