Research Groups

Prof. Dr. Carolin Bock

The Chair of Entrepreneurship focuses its research and teaching on the specifics of startups and digital businesses. In particular, the research projects cover the two subject areas of startups and start-up financing, which are analyzed using different quantitative and qualitative empirical methods. These subject areas have the following focus areas:

• Academic spin-offs / university spin-offs
• Entrepreneurship in crisis situations
• Decision-making behaviour of investors in startups
• Value creation through investors in startups

In addition to the “Grundlagen des Entrepreneurship” course for bachelor students, the research group also offers the modules “Entrepreneurial Strategy, Management, and Finance” and “Venture Valuation” for master students. Further details on courses and seminars can be found on the research group's webpage.

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Prof. Dr. Andreas Pfnür

The Real Estate research group deals with the central business issues of the real estate industry.

Teaching is divided into the areas of real estate management, project management, and construction management, in which both basic and in-depth knowledge is imparted. Cooperation with numerous corporates as well as the public sector in the form of guest lectures, seminar partnerships, study / graduation theses and dissertations complete the range of courses for students.

In their research, the research group considers real estate from the following perspectives:

• User perspective: Use of the property as a resource in a company's value creation process
• Owner perspective: Owning real estate with the aim of maximising value over the long-term
• Performance perspective: Real estate companies whose core business is the planning, construction, and operation of real estate

The current research focus is on real estate investment management, corporate real estate management, and public private partnership. In addition, questions related to the housing industry will increasingly shape the research activities of the group in the future. The group maintains numerous research collaborations with real estate companies, associations, and public institutions.

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Prof. Dr. Alexander Benlian

The Information Systems & Electronic Services research group has set the following topics and research priorities within the field of business information systems:

Digital Transformation & IT Entrepreneurship

• Digital Business Models
• Agile & Bi-Modal IT
• Crowdfunding

Algorithmic Management

• Algorithmic Coordination & Control
• Multi-sided Platforms
• Future of (Digital) Work

Human-Computer Interaction

• AI-based Information Systems
• Digital Nudging
• Usable Privacy & Security

The course offerings include “E-Markets: Digital Business & Platforms”, “E-Commerce: Digital Products & Services”, “Digital Analytics”, “Business Process and Company Modelling”, “Enterprise Architecture Management” and “IT-based Business Models.”

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Prof. Dr. Felix Weidinger

The chair of Management Science/Operations Research deals with complex business decision problems using mathematical modeling and optimization as well as machine learning methodologies. The focus is on strongly formal and mathematically based research as well as on the practical applicability of the study results. Thematic areas of the research include

• warehousing,
• delivery logistics,
• mobility concepts and
• sharing economy.

The department offers basic courses (e.g. “Operations Research”) and advanced courses (e.g. “Warehousing and Delivery Logistics”). In addition, seminars and theses on current topics are offered.

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Prof. Dr. Dr. Ruth Stock-Homburg

The research group Marketing & Human Resource Management combines two areas of business administration that are central to corporate success.

As part of the teaching, basic lectures are offered in the field of marketing and human resource management. In master's courses, specializations range from digital marketing and innovation management to leadership of employees and teams to the future of work.

In research, the interdisciplinary team of the research group has a particular focus on the following topics:

• Digital services marketing and human-robot interaction at the customer interface
• Innovation management and user innovations
• Leadership, teams and social robots@work
• Future of work
• Work life balance, stress and boreout

The research group is engaged in international research and cooperates with numerous scientists in the USA (especially MIT Cambridge), Europe and Asia. Numerous research projects have been funded by the German Federal Government, the State of Hesse and the German Research Foundation. In addition, the research group maintains long-standing cooperations with medium-sized and large companies in Germany and abroad. Thus, a high scientific level can be combined with practical relevance.

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Prof. Dr. Christoph Glock

The Institute of Production and Supply Chain Management investigates the planning and control of value creation processes in industrial companies. We interpret production holistically, and also study the sourcing of production factors and the distribution of products in addition to the actual production process.

Further topics our institute works on are cross-company value creation processes, the design of interfaces between different stages of the value chain and the management of the associated logistics processes. For these and other problem areas, we develop and solve mathematical models that support managerial decision making in practice.

In addition to improving the efficiency of production and logistics activities, our interdisciplinary research also takes social and ecological objectives into account. One focus is on human factors and the implications of digital transformation on the future of work in production and logistics.

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Prof. Dr. Reiner Quick

The teaching and research activities of the institute RCW focus on financial accounting, managerial accounting, and auditing.

Next to fundamental accounting courses, the institute offers a wide variety of advanced courses for students specializing in accounting and auditing. The teaching activities also encompass supervisions of Bachelor’s and Master’s theses.

The institute’s research covers a broad spectrum, including developing treatment of complex accounting issues; developing requirements for and evaluating the quality of non-financial corporate disclosures; analyzing corporate sustainability management; and, as part of the competence center “management support systems”, tracking developments of digitalization in accounting. Fundamental questions in auditing are at the heart of the research activities, including the following current focal areas:

• Auditor independence
• Effectiveness and efficiency of audit methodology
• Audit reporting
• Corporate crime, the auditor’s role, and forensic services

The institute cooperates with several practitioners. This includes regular guest lectures about topical practice issues, lecture series with practicing auditors, and workshops with large accounting firms. Moreover, the institute collaborates with practice in offering internships and academic theses.

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Prof. Dr. Peter Buxmann

The research group Information Systems | Software & Digital Business examines the impact of digitalisation on the economy and society. The specific focus of our research is to determine to what extent the use of innovative digital technologies leads to changes in companies.

Our research can be categorized into the following topics and research priorities within information systems:

• Artificial Intelligence

We analyse how machine learning algorithms are used in companies. Our research not only focuses on the increasing economic importance of artificial intelligence, but also examines ethical issues.

• Digital business models

This topic covers the development of new digital business models. One focus is the analysis of the potential of data-based business models. Our research group also supports the establishment of digital start-ups.

• Value of data for business and society

This is essentially about the tension between data usage and the protection of privacy. We analyse how companies can benefit from data without violating the privacy of the individual. Also, we look at how data can be used to optimise value creation processes.

The range of courses in the research group is based on the focus areas described. In addition to modules on the basics of information systems, we offer lectures such as “Artificial Intelligence 1 + 2”, “Software & Internet Economics”, and “IT Project Management”.

In the research group we work empirically, while at the same time developing prototypical solutions, for example in the area of deep learning. Our bachelor and master students can expect an interesting mix of scientific and practical teaching in the field of “Software & Digital Business”.

Further details on courses and seminars can be found on the research group's webpage.

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Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock

The department of Technology and Innovation Management deals with central issues related to the emergence, promotion, and dissemination of innovations. In research, the department has set the following main topics:

• Management of innovative project landscapes and innovation portfolios
• Organizational design of the front end of innovation processes
• Management of radical innovations and highly innovative product development projects
• Management of innovation cooperation

In teaching, the department offers the basic course “Introduction to Innovation Management” as well as the master in-depth modules “Technology and Innovation Management”, “Advanced Technology and Innovation Management”, “Project Management” and “Project in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management”.

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Prof. Dr. Dirk Schiereck

Financing of established companies and start-ups is of fundamental importance in the context of value-oriented corporate management and is typically characterised by asymmetric information structures. Against this background, the Corporate Finance research group provides the essential knowledge and methodologies to value capital market-oriented information in generally and to assess financing decisions and financial instruments in particular. Based on formal quantitative methods of modern capital market and finance theory as well as established statistical methods regularly applied in financial econometrics, the courses offered by the research group cover the central topics in corporate finance, behavioural finance and sustainable finance as well as investment and financing theory. Moreover, current topics in capital market research and financing are offered through advanced courses and seminars.

The research activities of the corporate finance research group likewise focus on empirical corporate finance and capital market research. Here, we are particularly interested in the interplay between sustainability and the risk-adjusted cost of capital of capital market-oriented companies in an international setting. In this context, the image of the financial decision-makers in companies and capital markets is not assumed to be bound by the strict rationality proposed by the expected utility theory, but also takes concepts of behavioural finance into account.

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Prof. Dr. Ralf Elbert

Our research focuses on method-based and instrumentally-applicable support of planning and analysis of transport and logistics systems.

With the emphasis on intermodal transportation, we see the opportunity to adequately combine the specific technological strengths of different modes of transport, corresponding loading units, and transshipment technologies. What is adequate in this context can be determined by employing modeling, simulation, and optimization. Specifically, we investigate how the productivity and efficiency of intermodal transport can be increased. Furthermore, we consider society's view of achieving climate goals and reducing other external effects (realized via traffic avoidance, traffic reduction, and traffic shift to environmentally friendly modes of transport).

The focus of the department is on the three economically and socially relevant research fields of intermodal transport chains, urban logistics and digital transport platforms.

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Prof. Dr. Janine Wendt, geb. Oelkers

The research focus of the Civil Law and Corporate Law research groups lies in German and European company law, financial market law and the law of autonomous digital systems.

In corporate law, a focus of interest is on the keywords “compliance” and “regulation”. The research group also deals with sustainability in corporate law, which includes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Among other things, the question of whether companies can become “good corporate citizens” through incentivisation will be investigated. The remuneration policy of the management and supervisory boards is also scrutinised.

In financial market law, the main interest is the regulatory objective of investor protection. The focus here is on questions relating to the relationship between investor and consumer protection and their corresponding guiding principles. The currently prevailing information model needs to be questioned critically. Technologically advanced financial innovations, which lead to financial instruments, services or intermediaries (FinTech), are also examined from a legal perspective.

In the law of autonomous digital systems, the legal handling of artificial intelligence is the focus of the research: Self-learning systems end the human monopoly on rational decisions made under uncertain conditions. Technical products and systems that adapt to changed environmental conditions without human intervention will lead to a redistribution of the liability burdens between manufacturer and user, possibly with the addition of new responsible parties for liability law. We additionally explore the conditions under which a self-learning system can definitively be qualified as faulty. This research focus is currently being investigated in two interdisciplinary joint projects.

These also include the responsible design of human-robot interaction with anthropomorphic service robots.

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Prof. Dr. Viola Schmid LL.M. (Harvard)

Our ambition is to outline a statutory framework for legal design in an increasingly technology-based world (Legal Design Framework). Electrisation, digitalisation, automation and autonomisation are preparing for an environment of natural (including human) and artificial intelligences. The chair of the research group, who is authorised to teach public law, European law, and energy law, seeks to develop a “research reserve” within her team which will allow (future) selection decisions. Defining here is the triad of economics, law, and technology (in alphabetical order) – as a result of being a law chair serving an economics department at a university of technology in the German public education system.

The aim is to create legal (scientific) “experience capital” given a new dimension of being – cyberspace. Cyberspace is characterised by constant and omnipresent technological networking and global competition. The right to distribute opportunities, rights and obligations in cyberspace – and consequently in the real world – is referred to here as “cyberlaw”.

The public law professorship has been developing scientific perspectives such as the fundamentals of this technology-based world since 2002. Traditionally, the focus is on cyber governance – not “just” cyber law, but also on the inclusion of compliance in order to increase governance opportunities. Effective and efficient governance requires the inclusion of the limits of the law (regulating) as well as the factuality/technicality of “non-compliance”. In particular, with the (European) legal task of perpetuating the rule of law/the “legal union” (author’s terminology) in an “Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven world”, didactic challenges arise that require the unity of research and teaching (here referred to as the “academic value chain”). The POP principle can be applied to this value chain – the process of (lifelong) learning in the organisation (of the research group) creates “products”. These “products” are then fed back into the process in an iterative cycle. Since 2020, the chair has been addressing a community with translinguistic publications and courses ((Europäisches) KI-Recht & (European) AI law) that is designed to integrate artificial intelligence/“artificial rationalities” with human intelligence. The chair follows the ambition of the commission for a ”Trustworthy AI for Europe“ – epitomised by a circle of 52 high-ranking experts in an ”AI-Driven World“. In 2021, Viola Schmid will in addition begin to prepare legally/scientifically for a ”quantum world".

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Prof. Dr. Jens Krüger

The focus of the group is on applied empirical economic research with modern micro- and macroeconometric methods. Main fields of application are productivity measurement as well as empirical business cycle, growth and financial market research.

Teaching

In the bachelor program teaching comprises the basic education in statistics and econometrics. In the master program these basics will be broadened and deepened in more advanced courses in the elective area econometrics (e.g. microeconometrics, time series analysis, productivity and efficiency analysis).

Research

The research of the group is focused on the application and development of methods for productivity and efficiency measurement. The focus lies on deterministic and stochastic nonparametric methods. This also includes undesirable outputs (greenhouse gas emissions) which arise in environmental economics analyses. A further research area is the statistical evaluation of forecasts of business cycle and financial market aspects.

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Prof. Dr. Volker Nitsch

The earth is flat – at least if you believe the title of a long-time world bestseller. Accordingly, distances no longer play a role; one's own location is irrelevant; every point in the world is easily accessible. The International Economics research group primarily deals with questions of economic integration. This includes the analysis of trade barriers, the investigation of the effects of currency unions, or the consideration of the motives for a spatial concentration of economic activity. The range of courses includes seminars on international economic relations, corporate structure, and urban and regional economics. The commonality of the various research activities in the group is their practical relevance and a strong European focus.

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