Research

"Big Data," "Digital Transformation," and "Industry 4.0" are terms commonly used in business, science, and politics to describe the fundamental changes that integrated information processing brings to our lives and society. Two aspects characterize this development: On the one hand, the amount of data available in digital form for machine processing is increasing considerably. Based on this, the development and application of methods for automated data analysis enable more accurate predictions and better decisions, as well as analyses with a high degree of customization, which, for example, make it possible to create highly personalized products and services. On the other hand, the technical integration of processes supports more complex, faster, and more closely interlinked workflows among many participants in value chains and also allows for a greater spatial distribution of the actors. Overall, digitization will influence companies, their business models, and their value-adding processes, as well as the working world as a whole. These are complex interactions between technical, economic, and social aspects that can only be understood by considering all three spheres simultaneously.

With the research focus "Digitization and Business Analytics," the Department of Economics and Management addresses these developments and contributes to the described changes both analytically and practically. On the one hand, theories, concepts, and methods are developed and applied to better understand and support the digital transformation of organizations and to design integrated business processes based on digital services. On the other hand, the new possibilities resulting from digitization are considered by developing and applying concepts and methods for intelligent data analysis and decision support across all functional areas of business.

An effective and efficient fulfillment of public tasks—such as energy supply, waste management, health, and education—is essential for our society. Ongoing challenges, including financial constraints on public budgets, demographic changes brought about by migration and an aging population, digitization, and, not least, social, ecological, and economic sustainability, present new hurdles for the management of these public tasks.

The research focus "Management of Public Tasks" therefore examines the framework conditions, characteristics, and current (management) challenges of organizations entrusted with public tasks. This includes:

• Public organizations (public administrations and public companies)
• Nonprofit organizations (e.g., Caritas, Greenpeace, UNICEF)
• Cross-sector cooperation (between public organizations, private-sector enterprises, nonprofit organizations, and civil society)

Depending on the functional orientation of the participating professorships, current management challenges in the areas of procurement, controlling, personnel management, motivation and leadership, organization, and process and knowledge management form the basis of conceptual or theory-based empirical research that is also relevant for practice. In addition, professorships in the fields of economics and public law address issues that are pertinent to the management of public tasks.

Business decisions are made under uncertainty. Therefore, from an economic perspective, recognizing, controlling of risks is a prime task for actors in institutions such as companies or supervisory authorities. From a company perspective, risks occur in all links of the value chain. The usual categorization of risks is the distinction between exogenous and endogenous risks or the differentiation according to price and volume risks for input and output factors and risks that are relevant in the context of the transformation process. Exogenous risks are for example market price risks such as currency or interest rates and political risks. Risk management covers many subtasks, such as the identification, measurement, handling and control of risks. A whole range of members of the Department of Economics and Management directly or indirectly deal with the topic of risk. The research focuses on processes and instruments of risk management, the reaction of individuals and organizations to risk, methods of risk management or decision-making under uncertainty.