Alumni

Dr. Cassian Behlau
Topic: Implementing Circular Economy on the Firm Level – Antecedents and Enablers to Promote Environmentally Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Sustainable production through circular value creation
In the context of climate change, circular economy offers solutions to the growing business risks for manufacturing companies to decouple economic growth from the consumption of natural resources and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Against this background, this research project investigates the organizational prerequisites for the development of circular value creation practices as well as their impact on customer relations and the innovative strength of companies.

Dr. Oliver Burger
Topic: Customer involvement in new product development: Performance mechanisms and success factors

Involving customers in product development
Against a background of growing customer expectations and rising development costs, companies are increasingly involving their customers in the development of new products and services. In many cases, however, the sometimes very complex involvement of customers does not bring the desired success. This research project therefore examines the organizational success factors for the involvement of customers in product development and analyzes their influence on product success. Here, factors on team as well as organizational level are explored across different industries and organizations.

Dr. Martin Ruth
Topic: Entrepreneurial passion – A multi-sample investigation of antecedents, mechanisms, and venture-level outcomes along the entrepreneurial process

(Negative) personality of entrepreneurs and its effects.
Personality research of decision makers and founders is an interface topic between management and psychology research. While research on managerial personality is more advanced, that on founder personality is still in its infancy. To advance this research strand, the research project investigates the influence of the so-called Dark Triad of personality (narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy) on the behavior and business success of founders. A particular focus is on investigating whether these traits, which have negative connotations, can also have positive effects in a certain context. In addition, the goal is to close the research gap that calls for further insights into mechanisms and interactions of the Dark Triad. To achieve this goal, effects of the Dark Triad on entrepreneurial passion as well as the founder's start-up approach are investigated.

Dr. Jana Schulz
Topic: Human Capital and Hybrid Entrepreneurship

Hybrid Entrepreneurship
Hybrid entrepreneurship describes business start-ups that the founder carries out in parallel with another employment relationship. Although this type of entrepreneurship is widespread, it has only recently attracted academic attention. Therefore, the aim of this research project is to investigate how hybrid entrepreneurs differ from so-called pure entrepreneurs. In addition to differences between entrepreneurs as individuals, we examine differences between the companies founded by hybrid and pure entrepreneurs.