SEEMIS - Milestones and Measures
One challenge within the further development of the related master programmes at the partner universities is the integration and adaptation of modules from the existing study programmes in "Sustainability Economics and Management" and "Environmental Management Information Systems".
Major objective of SEEMIS in the field of teaching is the further development of a master programmes and related course offers in the field of Sustainable Enterprise and Environmental Management Information Systems at partner universities and in the South-South collaboration. These are intended to contribute to the joint PhD programme planned for a later development stage of the project. The following main activities are realized every year.
- Visits of the partner country academic staff to Oldenburg and Oldenburg academics to partner countries: knowledge transfer, capacity building, networking
- Production of educational materials
- Student exchange and “Master-Tandems”, e.g. Master student from two partner universities collaborate and research together on two thematic topics which are closely links and profit from each other.
- Teacher mobility within teach-the-teacher activities and qualification
- Co-Supervision of Master and doctoral theses
- Setup of alumni-network (2013)
- Dissemination that will be achieved through the project web-site, informative sessions in each project year, and peer reviews in order to inform the academic community and the non-consortium policymakers about the project progress, as well as the quality control of the project results.
Sustainable Enterprise and Environmental Management Information Systems (SEEMIS)
Through production processes, companies exert serious stresses to ecosystems and to the world’s natural resources. Transnational corporations often seek to exploit advantages in developing countries, sometimes by pressurising weak national governments or by means of corruption (Levy & Newell 2005). Examples amount where transactional companies exploit natural resources such as fish stocks, metals or fossil fuels with disastrous effects on the regional ecosystems and for the socio-economic system.
At the same time, companies play important roles in improving people’s living conditions and in promoting the well-being of communities, also in developing regions. Local businesses on small and decentralised scales have shown their strength in bringing prosperity to individuals and communities. Small and medium-sized companies are thus a prime focus for development efforts.
Business processes at all levels, however, need to be organised in such a way that other development goals, especially the effectiveness of ecosystems, are not put under jeopardy (Möller 2000, Sroufe & Sarkis 2007). The field of Sustainable Enterprise and Environmental Management Information Systems (SEEMIS) develops information technology solutions on monitoring and designing value chains in and between companies in economically and ecologically efficient ways (Isenmann & Marx Gómez 2008). For this purpose, computer-based data processing systems geared towards environmental problems and comprising all functional units of an enterprise need to be developed further. Activities within the SEEMIS focus theme focus on practical solutions for effective decision-support systems as well as their managerial framework conditions in the context of developing countries.