In the current issue (1/2024) of the Journal of Corporate Law (GesRZ), the article “The Influence of Sustainability Aspects on the Decision-Making of the Management Body of a Public Limited Company” by Marco Lettenbichler was published. The article examines whether the management board of a public limited company is required to take sustainability aspects (in particular the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) into account when making decisions.

After an introduction to the topic, the paper first examines the normative guidelines for managing a public limited company. Special attention is given to the related conflicts of objectives between integrating sustainability aspects and maximizing profits. In addition to the existing corporate governance models of the shareholder value approach and the stakeholder value approach, the new concept of “New Corporate Governance” is also discussed. The paper then investigates whether it is feasible under corporate law to autonomously incorporate the consideration of sustainability aspects. In particular, it highlights the possibilities and limitations of making sustainability considerations mandatory within the company’s corporate purpose. On the other hand, provisions in the articles of association, the implementation of a “Say on Climate,” and any approval requirements from the supervisory board are excluded due to conflicts with mandatory corporate law provisions.

Finally, the article analyzes the indirect factors influencing the management board’s decisions. These are mechanisms that do not directly affect governance structures but exert influence through indirect channels such as executive compensation, reporting obligations, or public opinion. The indirect influences of modern remuneration policies, ESG reporting obligations, and customer interest in a better world are likely to be the greatest factors affecting management board actions in the future. Mandatory legal requirements and autonomous incorporation are only available or feasible to a limited extent.

The library of the University of Liechtenstein has joined SLSP. This means that its holdings will be searchable in swisscovery from 18 March 2024.

The University Library holds around 28,000 books, journals and non-books as well as 68,000 e-books, which will now be added to swisscovery. By participating in SLSP Courier, the library is making its physical holdings available to a wider audience in Switzerland. Jürgen Küssow, Vice Director and Head of Network Services at SLSP, is delighted about the accession: "With the library of the University of Liechtenstein, SLSP has gained its first international partner and is thus strengthening cross-border cooperation."

The integration and migration project of the University of Liechtenstein Library from Aleph to Alma started in September 2023 under the leadership of SLSP. In various project phases, the data was deduplicated, the migration was prepared, tested and carried out, the services were set up in swisscovery and the employees of the University of Liechtenstein Library were trained on Alma and swisscovery.

Ekaterina Vardanyan, Head of the University Library, sees this project as a milestone in the library's development: "Joining swisscovery and cooperating with the Swiss university libraries via the SLSP will enable us to significantly expand the media offering, modernize the most important business areas and thus increase the library's innovative strength."

With the completion of the project, swisscovery will grow to a total of approx. 23 million title recordings and approx. 41 million copies.

SLSP is a non-profit organization based in Zurich, whose sponsors are 15 universities and libraries in Switzerland. Founded in 2017, SLSP has been operating a national library platform for 500 academic libraries in Switzerland with the product swisscovery since 7 December 2020. The SLSP also includes the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries (CSAL), which centrally purchases licences for electronic resources for Swiss academic libraries and negotiates open access contracts.

Search directly in swisscovery and use other services such as SLSP Courier to have books sent to a library near you.

Based on the agreement between the government and the Swiss Federal Council on the promotion of science-based innovation of 26 January 2021 and the corresponding commitment credit approved by Parliament, the Swiss Innosuisse innovation promotion program is also available to companies and research institutions in Liechtenstein.

In this context, the University of Liechtenstein, together with the company HELGA.works in St. Gallen, successfully submitted a funding application to Innosuisse. Following approval of the project funding by the government, the support agreement was signed on March 12, 2024 by the Head of the Office of Economic Affairs, Katja Gey, the Rector of the University of Liechtenstein, Christian Frommelt, and the implementation partner Vincenzo Neidhardt, CEO of Helga AG.

Securing income for artists with artificial intelligence methods

The music industry is facing a growing challenge: unpaid royalties for copyrights are expected to soon reach almost 8 billion dollars annually, compared to the current 2.5 billion dollars. With a groundbreaking initiative to combat this unfair distribution, the Eastern Swiss start-up HELGA.works is launching an Innosuisse project together with the Department of Information Systems & Computer Science at the University of Liechtenstein.

The aim of the project is to help artists receive the royalties to which they are entitled. The main challenge is to identify the rightful recipients despite insufficient data quality. By using state-of-the-art machine learning models, such as graph neural networks, which can deal with incomplete and inaccurate data, the aim is to create a solution that is not only innovative, but also remains simple and interpretable. The aim is to develop a prediction service that estimates the risk and amount of unpaid royalties. The potential product solution has already attracted significant interest from investors and the industry, including renowned music publishers and artists. In addition to creating economic value, the proposed innovative solution will help artists, especially niche artists, to receive their rightful remuneration. The project thus also contributes to cultural and musical diversity.

The Office of Economic Affairs and the National Contact Point for Research and Innovation in the Department of Economic Affairs are available to provide further information (www.avw.llv.li; contact: Frank Heeb, T +423 236 67 45; Frank.Heeb@llv.li).

Discontinuities in the market create space for disruptive business opportunities. Companies are therefore increasingly interested in proactively identifying future competitive advantages. Researchers Marie Scheuffele, Dr. Niklas Bayrle-Kelso and Prof. Dr. Leo Brecht published their paper on Data-Driven Foresight in Digital Disruption and Transformation Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics 2024.

A data-driven foresight differs from a vision in that its predictions are based on scientific findings on technology, demographics, regulations and much more. A promising approach for companies to proactively identify future competitive advantages is Data-Driven Foresight (DDF). By using different data sources from various perspectives, DDF can derive solid statements about trend-driven developments in the future. 

As technology life cycles accelerate, industrial firms increasingly want to incorporate foresight activities into their Life Cycle Management to foster digital transformation.The researchers asked themselves: How do companies obtain their data for DDF in Life Cycle Management and what alternative data sources are recommended? Using a systematic literature review, they described the current data sources and classified them along the life cycle.

Twenty semi-structured expert interviews with practitioners from different types of companies show valid premises for data selection and for the practical implementation of DDF. Regarding this, a recognizable difference between technology leaders and followers exists, which opens another gap for future research.

The PIRANESI Award 2023 exhibition can be viewed in the foyer of the University of Liechtenstein until March 22. The Piranesi Award presents various projects of different sizes and programs that reflect a successful relationship between modern architecture and its natural, cultural, historical and social context.

The Award was created as part of the Piran Days of Architecture international conference*, and it is presented by the DESSA Gallery, the Coastal Galleries of Piran and the Piranesi International Jury. The award is named after the 18th century Italian artist and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi, whose family roots are said to be from Piran. It is presented to the best architectural realizations created in the last two years in the territory of Central European countries.

50 architectural realizations and 37 student projects compete for the Piranesi Prize 2023. The winners of the Piranesi Prize, two Piranesi Honorary Mentions and the Piranesi Honorary Mention for students will be selected by an international Piranesi jury, one of the jurors is Alberto Alessi, university lecturer for "Built Heritage & Upcycling" at the Liechtenstein School of Architecture.

Besides practicing architects, part of the exhibition for the Piranesi Award is also an international (since 2008) student exhibition in which 21 European architecture faculties participate. Each faculty can nominate two projects designed in the last two academic years.

* Piran Days of Architecture (PDA) is an international architectural conference initiated by a group of Slovene architects in 1986. The aim of the conference is to evaluate the social architectural situation and to present the most progressive and innovative ideas of contemporary architectural and spatial production which preserve cultural identity and diversity through the understanding and respect for the geographical and cultural context. Many architects have lectured at the conference, including: Amateur Studio, Bernardo Bader, Odile Decq, Enrique Miralles, Yvonne Farrell, Sverre Fehn, Kenneth Frampton, Francis Kéré, András Pálffy, Carme Pinos, Sami Rintala, Armando Ruinelli, Alvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Studio Mumbai, Heinz Tesar, Gino Valle, Peter Zumthor.

Prof. Dr. Michael Hanke, together with Prof. Nicole Branger (University of Münster) and Prof. Alex Weissensteiner (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano), published the paper "The information content of wheat derivatives regarding the Ukrainian war" in the Journal of Futures Markets in February.

Prices on financial markets reflect the expectations of market participants. These expectations can be extracted from the prices using financial mathematical methods.

In the case of the Ukrainian conflict, futures on grain, especially wheat futures, are of particular interest, as both Russia and Ukraine are major global exporters of wheat. In this paper, the authors show how the prices of wheat futures can be used to determine the changing market expectations regarding the likely duration of the conflict over time.

With the conclusion of the UN grain agreement, the information content of wheat futures prices shifted away from market expectations regarding the further course of the war and towards market expectations regarding the durability of the grain agreement. The approach used can easily be adapted for future, similar cases.

Branger, N., Hanke, M., & Weissensteiner, A. (2024). The information content of wheat derivatives regarding the Ukrainian war. Journal of Futures Markets, 44(3), 420-431. (ABDC_2022: A)

Online at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fut.22475