Dr. Thorsten Busch

Work at ZHAW

Position

Senior Lecturer

Focus

digital business ethics, technology ethics, AI ethics, digital games, digital marketing ethics, digital sustainability

Teaching

Before joining ZHAW, Thorsten Busch taught digital business ethics, responsible innovation, digital games, and digital marketing ethics at the University of St. Gallen (CH), Trinity Business School (IE), and HEC Montréal (CA).

Experience

In recent years, Thorsten Busch has been teaching digital business ethics, responsible innovation, digital games, and digital marketing ethics at the University of St. Gallen (CH), Trinity Business School (IE), and HEC Montréal (CA). His research on a wide range of issues in digital ethics has been published in outlets such as the Journal of Business Ethics, Ethics & Information Technology, and Convergence, and it has been presented at leading international institutions, including MIT (US), University of Oxford (UK), and McGill University (CA). Among other positions, Thorsten was a Postdoctoral Fellow in game studies at Concordia University in Montréal (CA), a Visiting Assistant Professor in corporate social responsibility at the University of Konstanz (DE), and a Senior Research Fellow in data ethics at the University of St. Gallen (CH).
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2007 - today

Education and Continuing education

Education

M.A./Ph.D.
Thorsten Busch holds an M.A. in political science, economics, and management from the University of Oldenburg (DE) and a Ph.D. in organizational studies and cultural theory from the University of St. Gallen (CH). In 2010, he took part in the Oxford Internet Institute’s Summer Doctoral Programme and was a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
2007 - 2013

Network

Social media

www.twitter.com/DigitalEthics

Projects

• How Do Companies Engage in Democracy? / Team member / ongoing
• Making citizen science sustainable: Proposing an ethical business model for the Play Science platform / Project leader / completed

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

• Busch, T. and Lorch, A. (2024) 'Ökonomischer und technologischer Determinismus sind zwei Seiten derselben Medaille : Technik-Ethik aus der Perspektive der integrativen Wirtschaftsethik', Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik, 25(3), pp. 429–450. doi: 10.5771/1439-880X-2024-3-429.
• Consalvo, M., Busch, T. and Jong, C. (2016) 'Playing a better me : how players rehearse their ethos via moral choices', Games and Culture, 14(3), pp. 216–235. doi: 10.1177/1555412016677449.

Book chapters, peer-reviewed

• Busch, T., Chee, F. and Sihvonen, T. (2025) 'Together we stand, divided we fall : how can game developers navigate the economic, social, and environmental sustainability challenges of the game industry?', in Prax, P., Whittle, C., and York, T. (eds) The Game Needs to Change. Towards Sustainable Game Design. CRC Press. doi: 10.1201/9781003512400-8.
• Busch, T. and Chee, F. (2025) 'Critical AI literacies as a driver of ethics education', in Hoffmann, C. H. and Bansal, D. (eds) AI ethics in practice : navigating academic insight, managerial expertise, and philosophical inquiry. Cham: Springer, pp. 41–55. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-87023-1_4.
• Leicht-Deobald, U. et al. (2022) 'The challenges of algorithm-based HR decision-making for personal integrity', in Martin, K., Shilton, K., and Smith, J. (eds) Business and the Ethical Implications of Technology. Cham: Springer, pp. 71–86. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-18794-0_5.

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

• Busch, T. and Roth, F. (2025) 'Does CSR make organizations more resilient? Conceptualizing the relationship between CSR and organizational resilience of "woke" football clubs in high-risk, scandal-ridden contexts', in Paper Development Workshop in Organization Studies and Theory, Winterthur, Switzerland, 1-3 October 2025.
• Busch, T. et al. (2025) 'Social sustainability in esports teams : how practices, policies, and governance structures play a role', in International Conference for an Inclusive Digital Society (IDS), Leuven, Belgium, 15-16 September 2025.
• Frau, D., Grammenou, A. and Busch, T. (2025) 'Implementation of inclusive gender identity practices : empirical evidence from Swiss organizations', in Gender, Work & Organizations Conference, Nantes, France, 21-23 July 2025.
• Busch, T., Sihvonen, T. and Chee, F. (2025) 'At the crossroads of game studies and business ethics : what are the sustainability obligations of stakeholders in the game industry?', in Abstract Proceedings of DiGRA 2025: Games at the Crossroads. Tampere: Digital Games Research Association. doi: 10.26503/dl.v2025i3.2527.
• Busch, T. et al. (2025) 'Cultivating responsible practices as entrepreneurship educators', in 3E Conference, Munich, Germany, 21-23 May 2025.
• Voegtlin, C., Busch, T. and Roth, F. (2025) 'Pro-democracy corporate sociopolitical activism : investigating the consequences of companies' engagement against the rise of anti-democratic populism in Europe', in 36th Annual Conference of the International Association For Business & Society (IABS), Maastricht, The Netherlands, 4-6 April 2025.
• Busch, T. and Roth, F. (2025) 'Does C$R make organizations more resilient? Conceptualizing the relationship between CSR and organizational resilience of "woke" football clubs', in 36th Annual Conference of the International Association For Business & Society (IABS), Maastricht, The Netherlands, 4-6 April 2025.
• Busch, T. and Roth, F. (2024) 'Does CSR make organizations more resilient? Conceptualizing the relationship between CSR and organizational resilience of "woke" football clubs in high-risk, scandal-ridden contexts', in European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) Research Conference, Lugano, Switzerland, 10-11 October 2024.
• Vögtlin, C., Roth, F. and Busch, T. (2024) 'Corporate political activism and democracy : why should business leaders engage in public debates?', in European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) Research Conference, Lugano, Switzerland, 10-11 October 2024.
• Busch, T., Chee, F. and Sihvonen, T. (2024) 'Sustainability challenges in the games industry', in 2024 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG). IEEE. doi: 10.1109/CoG60054.2024.10645534.
• Busch, T., Chee, F. and Sihvonen, T. (2024) 'Sustenance for whom, and how? : sustainability challenges in the games industry', in Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) Annual Conference, Montréal, Canada, 15-18 June 2024.
• Busch, T. and Lorch, A. (2024) 'Das System wird's schon richten? Integrative Wirtschaftsethik als zeitloses Antidot gegen blinde Markt- und Technologie-Gläubigkeit', in Workshop "Integrative Wirtschaftsethik – Rückblick und Ausblick", St.Gallen, Schweiz, 1.-2. Februar 2024.

Other publications

• Busch, T., Chee, F. and Sihvonen, T. (2024) 'Sustaining the future of the games industry : a call to action', in Canadian Communication Association (CCA) Conference, Montréal, Canada, 17-21 June 2024.
• Busch, T., Roth, F. and Clemente, M. (2023) 'Why do football clubs commit to CSR, and how does that commitment impact their organizational resilience? : the case of "progressive" football clubs in Germany, Switzerland and the UK', in 39th EGOS Colloquium, Cagliari, Italy, 5-9 July 2023.
• Busch, T. (2020) Data science and the ethics of nudging : lecture at University of St.Gallen, 2020.
• Ebert, I., Busch, T. and Wettstein, F. (2020) Business and human rights in the data economy : a mapping and research study. Berlin: German Institute for Human Rights. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-26910.
• Busch, T. (2019) Introduction to data ethics : lecture at University of St.Gallen, 2019.
• Leicht-Deobald, U. et al. (2019) 'The challenges of algorithm-based HR decision-making for personal integrity', Journal of Business Ethics, 160(2), pp. 377–392. doi: 10.1007/s10551-019-04204-w.

Oral conference contributions and abstracts

• Voegtlin, C. et al. (2025) 'Pro-democracy corporate activism : exploring business's role in safeguarding democratic values', in Academy of Management Proceedings. Academy of Management. doi: 10.5465/amproc.2025.10782symposium.
• Busch, T., Chee, F. and Sihvonen, T. (2024) 'The games industry has never been sustainable : a call to action', in ACM Ethical Games Conference, online, 11-12 January 2024.

Publications before appointment at the ZHAW

Thorsten Busch’s research on a wide range of issues in digital ethics has been published in outlets such as the Journal of Business Ethics, Ethics & Information Technology, and Convergence, and it has been presented at leading international institutions, including MIT (US), University of Oxford (UK), and McGill University (CA). Among other positions, Thorsten was a Postdoctoral Fellow in game studies at Concordia University in Montréal (CA), a Visiting Assistant Professor in corporate social responsibility at the University of Konstanz (DE), and a Senior Research Fellow in data ethics at the University of St. Gallen (CH).

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