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17. December 2020

Online PhD Workshop on Meta-Analysis

The SME Management School has successfully concluded a 2-day online workshop (15 – 16.12.2020.) on Meta-Analysis (offered by Prof. Dr. Nina Rosenbusch of the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Canada).

12. December 2020

Online PhD Workshop on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)

The SME Management School has successfully concluded a 2-day online workshop (09 – 11.12.2020.) on QCA: Qualitative Comparative Analysis (offered by Prof. Dr. Peer Fiss of the University of Southern California, USA).

The workshop provided a ground-up introduction to QCA and fuzzy sets to participants of diverse research backgrounds. It consisted of a combination of interactive lectures and hands-on sessions that offered an introduction to working with the fsQCA software package.

About the Instructor:

Peer Fiss is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Management and Organization at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. Before joining USC, he taught at Queen’s University, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and a Master’s Degree from the University of Hamburg. Peer is broadly interested in how meaning structures shape organizational actions and in configurational theory and set-theoretic methods such as fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Peer’s work has been published in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, American Sociological Review, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, and the Strategic Management Journal, among others. His recent book with Charles Ragin, entitled Intersectional Inequality: Race, Class, Test Scores, and Poverty (University of Chicago Press) uses a set-analytic approach to examine the different ways in which advantages versus disadvantages combine to affect social inequality.

14. September 2020

Online PhD Seminar at the SME Graduate School by Prof. Dr. Alex Vossen: “Navigating the perils of publishing: How to address and incorporate reviewer feedback?

SME Graduate School
Online Doctoral Research Seminar Series, Summer Semester 2020

Topic: NAVIGATING THE PERILS OF PUBLISHING: HOW TO ADDRESS AND INCORPORATE REVIEWER FEEDBACK?
Description: This afternoon long seminar is intended to provide Ph.D. students an overview on the publication process in top management journals and to illustrate how to address and incorporate reviewer feedback. As an actual example, I will utilize a recently accepted publication in the Financial Times 50 ranked Journal of Business Venturing and illustrate how the paper evolved before submission along feedback from two international conferences and particularly during the publication process along 2 rounds of reviews that took about 13 months. All manuscript versions, reviewer comments, and replies to the reviewers along the several steps will be provided and discussed in detail. The goal of this seminar is to give students a first-hand experience demonstrating incorporating critical feedback that helps them in their own publication process. The seminar will be held online via Zoom.


Lecturer Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alexander Vossen
Date: Thursday 24.09.2020
Time: 1300 – 1500 hrs.
Location: Online (ZOOM)


Registration: Please send a short email to the coordinator of the SME Graduate School (sohaib.hassan@uni-siegen.de) with the following information (name, current status, affiliation/chair and email) until 20.09.2020. All the participants shall be provided with a zoom conference link before the commencement of the seminar.

3. September 2020

Marvin Kraft wins IHK Award for his master thesis

Marvin Kraft, a member of the SME GradSchool, received the 35th IHK award for his remarkable master thesis with the title „Einfluss mittelständischer Unternehmen auf die Steuergesetzgebung in Deutschland – Eine empirische Analyse“. In his thesis, Marvin has empirically examined the influence of medium-sized companies on tax legislation in Germany – a subject area that has been scarcely researched so far. Due to the current COVID-19 situation, the prize was handed over to Marvin in a small ceremony by IHK president Felix G. Hensel and IHK managing director Klaus Gräbener.

18. August 2020

Jonas Janisch and Alexander Vossen have been nominated for the HKUST Best Paper Award in Global Strategy at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting (2020)

The SME Graduate School congratulates Jonas Janisch and Alexander Vossen for their nomination for the “HKUST Best Paper Award in Global Strategy” of the IM Division at this year’s Academy of Management Annual Meeting (AOM). The AOM is the world’s largest scientific conference for management, with regularly more than 6,000 visitors. Find further information about this year’s Best Papers in the Newsletter of the IM Division.

25. June 2020

Marc-André Kaufhold defends his doctoral dissertation

Associate member of the SME Graduate School, Marc-André Kaufhold, has successfully defended his PhD dissertation on the topic of “Information Refinement Technologies for Crisis Informatics: User Expectations and Design Implications for Social Media and Mobile Apps in Crisis”. Congratulations Marc!

3. June 2020

Christine Weigel defends her doctoral dissertation

Member of the SME Graduate School, Christine Weigel, has successfully defended her PhD dissertation on the topic of “Essays on the Role and Impact of Accountants in Mittelstand Firms”

Congratulations Christine!

27. December 2019

4-Day Seminar: “Econometric using STATA” by Prof. Dr. Simon Parker

The SME Management School has successfully concluded a 4-day workshop (December 16-20, 2019) on “Econometric using STATA” by Prof. Dr. Simon C. Parker (Professor of Entrepreneurship) Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario, Canada.

The workshop constituted session on the topics of 1) Introduction, Data Analysis and Simple Regression, 2) Endogeneity and Instrumental Variables; Sample Selection, 3) Panel Data; Experimental Methods and 4) Survival Analysis using STATA.

About the Instructor:

Originally from the UK, Dr. Parker is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Ivey Business School, and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labour, IZA, in Bonn, Germany. He is a Field Editor at the Journal of Business Venturing and a Co-Editor at the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles in economics, entrepreneurship and management journals, and is the author of The Economics of Entrepreneurship (Cambridge University Press, 2009). He was as advisor to the OECD on entrepreneurship and SME public policy in Italy in 2013 and Canada in 2015, and is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences and workshops. He also regularly leads doctoral training seminars at universities in the US, UK and Europe.

Dr. Parker writes cases on entrepreneurship, with a particular interest in the challenges and strategies associated with Internet-based start-ups, including their use of social media. His recent cases include a crowdfunded venture, Devium’s Dash; a corporate venture, Luminar; intrapreneurship at Alcatel-Lucent; and a new sustainable environmental start-up, Ten Tree International.

11. September 2019

ANNUAL SME WORKSHOP 2019


Dates: 1-2.10.2019

Venue: SME Graduate School, University of Siegen


Guest Professors:


Prof. Dr. Roy Thurik

Prof. Dr. Rui Baptista

Prof. Dr. Mike Wright

Prof. Dr. David Audretsch

14. May 2019

4-Day Course: Applied Regression Analysis Using STATA Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kohler of University of Potsdam

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kohler (https://www.uni-potsdam.de/soziologie-methoden/kohler.html) had offered a 4-day STATA course to the members of the SME Graduate School in April and May, 2019.

4. April 2019

One Day Seminar: “Phenomenally good or fundamentally wrong? A phenomenon-based approach to research project development” by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alexander Vossen

This Wednesday 27.03.2019 one of our advising professors, Alexander Vossen, held a lecture about phenomenon-based research and highlighted the differences between phenomenon-based and theory-based research. He further introduced one of his phenomenon-based research papers and multiple data analysis methods used in the paper. 

We all want to thank Alexander Vossen for his valuable lecture and looking forward for his upcoming research seminar.

5. March 2019

Official Opening of the Graduate School (January 2019) РUni Siegen er̦ffnet Graduiertenschule

wirsiegen.de

Uni Siegen eröffnet Graduiertenschule

(wS/red) Siegen 13.02.2019 | An der Universität Siegen ist jetzt die „SME Graduate School“ feierlich eröffnet worden. NachwuchswissenschaftlerInnen, die sich mit den Themen „Mittelstand“ und „Unternehmertum“ beschäftigen, werden dort besonders gefördert.

Die Erforschung mittelständischer Unternehmen ist schon seit einigen Jahren ein Schwerpunktthema an der Universität Siegen. Nun wird die Mittelstandsforschung an der Fakultät III (Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht) noch weiter gestärkt: Im Rahmen des ersten Siegener „SME Research Forum“, einer internationalen Fachtagung, hat die Fakultät ihre neue „Graduiertenschule Mittelstand nachhaltiges & verantwortungsvolles Wirtschaften“ (SME Graduate School) eröffnet. Talentierte junge WissenschaftlerInnen werden dort auf ihrem Weg zur Doktorarbeit und während der Dissertation begleitet. Ein Team aus ProfessorInnen der Uni Siegen und internationalen GastwissenschaftlerInnen betreut die Studierenden bei ihren Forschungsaktivitäten. Bei der SME Graduate School handelt es sich um eine Initiative der Fakultät III, gefördert durch das Rektorat der Uni Siegen. An der Universität sind dadurch bereits 16 zusätzliche Doktorandenstellen entstanden.

Mehr…

2. March 2019

One Day Seminar: “Phenomenally good or fundamentally wrong? A phenomenon-based approach to research project development” by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alexander Vossen

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alexander Vossen (Entrepreneurship in Context Research Group & SME Graduate School) is offering a one day seminar on the following topic 

“Phenomenally good or fundamentally wrong? A phenomenon-based approach to research project development”

On March 27th at 12:00-14:30 in US-F104

Please refer to the attached announcement for more details.

If you want to participate, please register in advance per e-mail with the coordinator of the graduate school (sohaib.hassan@uni-siegen.de).

24. February 2019

Matthias Sehr delivers a guest lecture at the University of Applied Sciences Aschaffenburg

On 17th November,  3rd/4th December and 18th December Matthias Sehr, member of SME GradSchool, was a guest lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Aschaffenburg, the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Mosbach and the University of Applied Sciences Münster. The focus was on practical instruction in macroeconomic contexts. The simulation game “MACRO”, which simulates the essential components of an economy, was conducted. The participants assume the roles of the sectors private households, businesses, state and central bank. The simulation game makes it possible to experience target harmonies and conflicts in the sectors mentioned and to try out economic policy theories. In addition, strategic skills are trained.
The business game “MACRO” was developed by the Aktionsgemeinschaft Soziale Marktwirtschaft e.V. (http://www.asm-ev.de/index.php) and the Ministry for Culture, Youth and Sport in Baden-Württemberg. Supervisor of the SMEGradSchool Prof. Dr. Nils Goldschmidt is chairman of the board of the Aktionsgemeinschaft.
26. September 2018

Christian Reintjes presents his research at the International Conference on Operations Research

In September 2018, Christian Reintjes, scholar of the SME Graduate School, presented his research results on the topic „Design and Optimization for Additive Manufacturing of Cellular Structures using Linear Optimization“ within the session Operations Research in Engineering. Furthermore his research paper (together with his co-authors Michael Hartisch and Ulf Lorenz) is submitted for the Operations Research Proceedings 2018, selected Papers of the International Conference on Operations Research.

The annual conference of the German Operations Research Society (GOR) was co-organized this year with the Belgien Research Society (ORBEL) with support of Université libre de Bruxelles. Practitioners and academics from mathematics, computer science, economics, engineering, and related fields participated at the International Conference on Operations Research at the MCE Conference and Business Centre in Brussels.

The rapid development of Additive Manufacturing (AM) enables a high geometrical freedom for the production of lightweight cellular structures. Through the newly gained possibilities in individualization and complexity in the areas of design and construction, optimization and generation of the initial design becomes even more important. Christian Reintjes presented a mixed-integer linear program (MIP) to generate a three-dimensional construction of cellular structures for a static case of loading. Additionally, based on the optimized structures, an automated construction in a CAD system allowing a numerically simulation of nonlinear material behaviour was presented.

Contact:

Christian Reintjes M.Sc.
Universität Siegen SME Graduate School – Fast-Track PhD
christian.reintjes@uni-siegen.de

 

15. May 2018

Open Positions at the Graduate School

We offer 6-8 Fast-Track positions as student research assistants for students who have finished their Bachelor degree and are in the early stages of their Master studies.

Wir bieten 6 bis 8 Fast-Track wissenschaftliche Hilfskraftstellen (WHB) für Studierende an, die einen Bachelorabschluss besitzen und sich in der initialen Phase ihres Masterstudiums befinden.

 

Fakultät III: 6 bis 8 Fast-Track wissenschaftliche Hilfskraftstellen (WHB) für Studierende, die einen Bachelorabschluss besitzen und sich in der initialen Phase ihres Masterstudiums befinden

Die Universität Siegen ist mit knapp 20.000 Studierenden, ca. 1.300 Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern sowie 700 Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern in Technik und Verwaltung eine innovative und interdisziplinär ausgerichtete Universität. Sie bietet mit einem breiten Fächerspektrum von den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften über die Wirtschaftswissenschaften bis zu den Natur- und Ingenieurwissenschaften ein hervorragendes Lehr- und Forschungsumfeld mit zahlreichen inter- und transdisziplinären Forschungsprojekten. Die Universität Siegen bietet vielfältige Möglichkeiten, Beruf und Familie zu vereinbaren. Sie ist deswegen seit 2006 als familiengerechte Hochschule zertifiziert und bietet einen Dual Career Service an.

Die SME Graduate School der Fakultät III Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht, mit dem Schwerpunkt kleine und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU/Mittelstand) und nachhaltiges KMU-Management und Familienunternehmen lädt hervorragende Kandidatinnen und Kandidaten der Disziplinen Betriebswirtschaftslehre, Volkswirtschaftslehre, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht ein, sich für das innovative Fast-Track Master-/Doktorandenprogramm zu bewerben.

Wir bieten 6 bis 8 Fast-Track wissenschaftliche Hilfskraftstellen (WHB) für Studierende an, die einen Bachelorabschluss besitzen und sich in der initialen Phase ihres Masterstudiums befinden.

Erfolgreiche Bewerberinnen und Bewerber des Fast-Track Master-/Doktorandenprogramms werden zunächst als wissenschaftliche Hilfskräfte (WHB) eingestellt, um ihre Forschungstätigkeit bereits während des Masterprogramms zu beginnen (maximal 8 Wochenstunden). Sofern sie erfolgreich den Masterabschluss erreicht haben und die Evaluation des Doktorandenkomitees positiv ausgefallen ist, besteht die Option der Übernahme in eine wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterstelle (TV-L 13) für die Dauer von 3 Jahren mit der Hälfte der regelmäßigen Arbeitszeit.

Das Fast-Track Master-/Doktorandenprogramm ist für begabte und motivierte Studierende bestimmt, die bereits einen Bachelorabschluss besitzen und die Arbeit in einer kollaborativen, teamorientierten Umgebung schätzen. Das Programm ist weiterhin für Studierende konzipiert, welche tiefgründig und aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven das Rückgrat der meisten Volkswirtschaften untersuchen möchten sowie internationale Vergleiche zu kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen, Startups und Familienunternehmen durchführen wollen.

Das Programm besteht aus zwei Phasen: (1) der „Masterphase“, welche zwischen zwei und maximal vier Semestern umfasst und (2) der „Doktorandenphase“, welche i.d.R. drei Jahre umfasst. Kombinierte Master- und Doktorandenkurse wurden konzipiert, um Studierende für erfolgreiche, forschungsorientierte Karrieren vorzubereiten. Das Ergebnis besteht aus einem Masterabschluss sowie einem Doktorgrad. Weitere Details finden Sie unter http://www.wiwi.uni-siegen.de/sme-gradschool/.

Die Universität Siegen strebt eine Erhöhung des Anteils von Frauen in Forschung und Lehre an. Entsprechend qualifizierte Frauen werden um ihre Bewerbung gebeten. Bewerbungen geeigneter Schwerbehinderter sind erwünscht.

Für Rückfragen steht die Direktorin der SME Graduate School zur Verfügung: Frau Prof. Dr. Petra Moog (petra.moog@uni-siegen.de) oder Dr. Sohaib S. Hassan (sohaib.hassan@uni-siegen.de).

Bitte fügen Sie Ihrer Bewerbung neben den üblichen Unterlagen noch folgende Anlagen bei: (1) ein Motivationsschreiben und (2) mindestens ein Empfehlungsschreiben einer/eines aktuellen oder ehemaligen Professorin/Professors. Darüber hinaus müssen Bewerberinnen und Bewerber Kontakt mit ihrer voraussichtlichen Betreuerin bzw. ihrem voraussichtlichen Betreuer aufnehmen, welche bzw. welcher bereit ist, ihre Bewerbung zu unterstützen. Diese Betreuer können alle Professorinnen und Professoren der Fakultät III sein.

Bitte senden Sie ihre Bewerbungsunterlagen unter Angabe der Ausschreibungskennziffer 2018/III/SME/70 bis zum 30. Mai 2018 postalisch an die Leiterin der SME Graduate School, Frau Universitätsprofessorin Dr. Petra Moog, Unteres Schloß 3, D-57068 Siegen.

Informationen über die Universität Siegen finden Sie auf unserer Homepage http://www.uni-siegen.de.

The University of Siegen is an innovative and interdisciplinary research-oriented University based in Siegen, Germany. It currently enrolls about 20.000 students and has a staff of 700 employees and 1,300 scientists. Offering a broad variety of departments, ranging from liberal arts to social and economic sciences as well as natural sciences and engineering, the University of Siegen provides an excellent research and teaching environment with a wide range of inter- and trans-disciplinary activities. In addition, Siegen University offers numerous opportunities to reconcile work and family life balance. In this sense, we provide a “Dual Career Service” and have been officially certified as “family-friendly university” since 2006.

The SME Graduate School of the School of Economic Disciplines (Faculty III) at the University of Siegen, with its focus on sustainable SME Management, Family Business and German Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (“Mittelstand”), invites outstanding candidates from the disciplines of business administration, economics, business information systems and business law to apply for its innovative Fast-Track Master-/Ph.D. program.

We offer 6-8 Fast-Track positions as student research assistants for students who have finished their Bachelor degree and are in the early stages of their Master studies.

Successful applicants for the Fast-Track Master-/Ph.D. program will have a Bachelor’s degree and will initially be employed as student research assistants to start with their research already during their master program (max. 8 hours per week); if they have successfully passed the Master’s Degree and the evaluation by the Ph.D. committee the candidates have the option to assume Ph.D. positions as research assistants (TV-L 13, fixed-term employment for 3 more years, 50 percent).

The Fast-Track Master-/Ph.D. Program is intended for gifted and motivated students already in possession of a Bachelor’s degree, and who appreciate working in a collaborative, team-oriented environment. The program is designed for students who wish to investigate, in-depth and from different perspectives, the backbone of most economies, and to draw international comparisons of small and medium-sized enterprises, start-ups and family businesses.

The program consists of two stages: 1) the “Master’s stage”, which takes between two and four semesters at the most; and 2) the “Ph.D. stage”, which is usually three years. The combined Master and Doctoral courses are designed to prepare students for successful, research-oriented careers in the field of SME Management. The outcome is a Master degree as well as a Ph.D. For more details visit http://www.wiwi.uni-siegen.de/sme-gradschool/.

The University of Siegen is an equal-opportunity employer and is committed to increasing the number of women involved in research and teaching. We encourage qualified women to apply.

In case you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the director of the SME Graduate School: Prof. Dr. Petra Moog (petra.moog@uni-siegen.de) or the Coordinator of the Graduate School Dr. Sohaib S. Hassan (sohaib.hassan@uni-siegen.de).

The application must contain (1) a detailed CV, (2) a motivation letter, (3) copies of Bachelor diploma/degree/certificates, (4) at least one recommendation letter from a current or former professor. Moreover applicants are required to establish an initial contact with their prospective Ph.D. supervisor from the faculty of the SME Graduate School who are willing to support their admission application.

Please send your application documents in writing with the code number 2018/III/SME/70 to the Director of SME Management School at the following address until 30. Mai 2018: Universitätsprofessorin Dr. Petra Moog, Unteres Schloß 3, D – 57068 Siegen.

Information on the University of Siegen is available online at http://www.uni-siegen.de.

Disclaimer: This announcement is not legally binding.

6. February 2018

New Publication by our Fellow Christine Weigel

In January 2018, an article by SME Graduate School fellow Christine Weigel (together with her co-authors Martin R. W. Hiebl and Arnd Wiedemann) was published in the Controlling & Management Review (CMR). The article, “Vom Risk Management zur Risk Governance”, outlines the new concept of Risk Governance and shows the potential roles that financial managers could play in the implementation of this concept.

27. December 2017

Jonas Janisch presented his research at the 12th Research Colloquium on “Innovation & Value Creation”

On the 2nd of December 2017, Jonas Janisch presented his research on “business model innovation in entrepreneurial ventures” at the 12th Research Colloquium on “Innovation & Value Creation in Hamburg. The Research Colloquium on “Innovation & Value Creation“ is a yearly conference in where researchers present their ongoing projects related to the research field of Innovation, e.g., Sustainability and Innovation, Innovation and Value Creation, Service Innovation or Open Innovation. The conference took place between 30.11.2017 and 02.12.2017 at the TUHH in Hamburg, Germany. Researchers from 16 different universities attended the colloquium. Keynote speakers were Senator Dr. Carsten Brosda (Behörde für Kultur und Medien, Hamburg) and Prof. Linus Dahlander (ESMT, Berlin).
Contact: 
Jonas, Janisch M.Sc.
Universität Siegen SME Graduate School – Fast-Track PhD
13. December 2017

SME Graduate School November (2017) Colloquium

On November 28th, the SME graduate school members met to discuss the latest research of SME graduate school fellow Christian Reintjes. Christian presented his latest paper on “Lattice Structure Design with Linear Optimization for Additive Manufacturing as an Initial Design in the Field of Generative Design” which he developed together with Michael Hartisch and Prof. Dr. Ulf Lorenz. The paper is already accepted for publication by the International Conference on Operation Research and will appear in its conference proceedings in 2018.

13. December 2017

Christian Reintjes presents his research at the International Conference on Operations Research and his research paper is accepted for publication in the conference proceedings.

On 7 September, Christian Reintjes, scholar of the SME Graduate School, presented his research results on the topic „Lattice Structure Design with Linear Optimization for Additive Manufacturing as an Initial Design in the Field of Generative Design“ as part of the International Conference on Operations Research in Berlin. Furthermore his research paper (together with his co-authors Michael Hartisch and Ulf Lorenz) was accepted for publication by the Operations Reserach Proceedings 2017, Selected Papers of the International Conference on Operations Research.

 

            

 

More than 800 practitioners and academics from mathematics, computer science, economics, engineering, and related fields participated at the International Conference on Operations Research at the Campus of Freie Universität Berlin.

The conference motto “Decision Analytics for the Digital Economy” takes up the trends that are currently empowering the field more than ever before, opening up new areas of applications in industry and society, and giving rise to exciting scientific challenges.

The research paper „Lattice Structure Design with Linear Optimization for Additive Manufacturing as an Initial Design in the Field of Generative Design“ and the related conference presentation provides a mixed-integer linear program to describe the static load distribution in a two-dimensional space as a first starting point to create construction proposals, with the technical background knowledge that the combination of optimization tools of any kind and additive manufacturing should be able to improve lightweight construction. Over the last decade technical optimization became increasingly important for the modern, energy-efficient and therefore material-saving construction.

The traditional approach uses construction software combined with human knowledge to produce CAD-drawings and to display all technical data. The results can be considered in succeeding analysis, e.g. numerical or nonlinear toplogy optimization. Irrespective of the quality of those methods, the initial drawing still is a product of the human intellectual capacity.

 

Our approach is to use optimization in the first instance to generate the design itself. Therefore, we want to provide optimization tools to compute the design, since it might be possible that the computer-based design outperforms the human-based design.

 

Contact:

Christian Reintjes B.Sc.
Universität Siegen SME Graduate School – Fast-Track PhD
E-Mail: christian.reintjes@student.uni-siegen.de

 

 

6. November 2017

New publication by our fellow Christine Weigel

On October 23rd, an article by SME Graduate School fellow Christine Weigel (together with her co-authors Dai Huu Nguyen and Martin R. W. Hiebl) was accepted for publication by the “Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change” (VHB Rating: B). The article, “Beyond Budget: Review and Research Agenda”, provides an overview of the available research on beyond budgeting. In particular, it compares conceptual papers that mostly stress the benefits of beyond budgeting with empirical evidence on beyond budgeting implementation and offers ideas for future research, especially regarding the scaling of beyond budgeting, organizational changes under beyond budgeting and challenges resulting from the implementation of beyond budgeting. A pre-print version of the article can be found here:

Beyond Budgeting: Review and Research Agenda

6. October 2017

PhD Workshop on “Publishing Strategy and Econometrics with STATA”

The SME Management School has successfully concluded a 3-day workshop (October 2-4, 2017) on “Publishing Strategy and Econometrics with STATA” by Prof. Dr. Simon C. Parker (Professor of Entrepreneurship) Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario, Canada.

The workshop constituted econometrics sessions and introduction to analyses in STATA software (Data Analysis, Simple Regression, Limited Dependent Variable Models, Endogeneity and Sample Selection). Moreoever, one day of the workshop was dedicated to equip the participants with techniques in journal publishing.

About the Instructor:

Originally from the UK, Dr. Parker is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Ivey Business School, and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labour, IZA, in Bonn, Germany. He is a Field Editor at the Journal of Business Venturing and a Co-Editor at the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles in economics, entrepreneurship and management journals, and is the author of The Economics of Entrepreneurship (Cambridge University Press, 2009). He was as advisor to the OECD on entrepreneurship and SME public policy in Italy in 2013 and Canada in 2015, and is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences and workshops. He also regularly leads doctoral training seminars at universities in the US, UK and Europe.

Dr. Parker writes cases on entrepreneurship, with a particular interest in the challenges and strategies associated with Internet-based start-ups, including their use of social media. His recent cases include a crowdfunded venture, Devium’s Dash; a corporate venture, Luminar; intrapreneurship at Alcatel-Lucent; and a new sustainable environmental start-up, Ten Tree International.

19. September 2017

PhD Workshop on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)

The SME Management School has successfully concluded a 3-day workshop (September 13-15, 2017) on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) by Prof. Dr. Peer Fiss of the University of Southern California (USA).

The workshop provided a ground-up introduction to QCA and fuzzy sets to participants of diverse research backgrounds. It consisted of a combination of interactive lectures and hands-on sessions that offered an introduction to working with the fsQCA software package.

About the Instructor:

Peer Fiss is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Management and Organization at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. Before joining USC, he taught at Queen’s University, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and a Master’s Degree from the University of Hamburg. Peer is broadly interested in how meaning structures shape organizational actions and in configurational theory and set-theoretic methods such as fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Peer’s work has been published in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, American Sociological Review, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, and the Strategic Management Journal, among others. His recent book with Charles Ragin, entitled Intersectional Inequality: Race, Class, Test Scores, and Poverty (University of Chicago Press) uses a set-analytic approach to examine the different ways in which advantages versus disadvantages combine to affect social inequality.

 

 

13. August 2017

Upcoming Workshops and Seminars

13th-15th September, 2017

PhD Workshop on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)

Prof. Dr. Charles C. Ragin, University of California, Irvine

Prof. Dr. Peer C. Fiss, University of Southern California

More information: SoCal QCA Workshop Call_Syllabus 2017


2nd-4th October, 2017

PhD Workshop on STATA and Panel Analysis

Simon Parker, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Ivey Business School, Canada

More information: Publishing Strategy and Econometrics with STATA

 


 

24. July 2017

Research Colloquium with Special Guest Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin Hiebl

The scholars of the SME-Graduate School met on the 19th of July for their monthly research colloquium. First, our guest, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin R.W. Hiebl presented his chair. He is head of the chair Management Accounting and Control of the University of Siegen. Next, he talked about his projectes. Univ.-Prof Hiebl presented a paper in detail that deals with the professionalization of management accounting in family firms. Professor Hiebl’s presentation sparked a vivid discussion amongst the scholars and resulted in a very informative Q&A session. We are already looking forward to read the finalized paper soon.

21. June 2017

Second Colloquium: Knowledge Management in SMEs

The research colloquium in June 2017 started with some general information about future events and both coordinators clarified questions regarding the reviews of the previous written Exposés.

After that, coordinator Dr. Sohaib Hassan introduced the audience the research field of knowledge management in SMEs and gave some general insights in knowledge management. He focused on the differences in knowledge management between bigger companies and SMEs. His presentation ended with a lively discussion in the SME group. Afterwards each scholar had to present their chosen research paper about knowledge management.

IMG_0776              IMG_0779

Michel Kusche and Florian Neitzert started with their presentation of the research paper “A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs” (Cerchione et al., 2016). Michel showed the increase of research paper published regarding knowledge management in SMEs and demonstrated how new this research area is. As Christine and Florian was excused, they will present their parts on the next SME research colloquium. Natalia, Jens and Matthias presented about “Knowledge management at SMEs: five peculiarities“ (Desouza & Awazu, 2006). As Jens is still studying abroad in Baku, he sent a video which was broadcasted during their presentation. Marc-André Kaufhold and Christian Reintjes had the same topic and as the first group presented the first two peculiarities, they presented the missing ones and linked the topic to their own research fields. The last presentation of the day was from Julian Ruf and Jonas Janisch. They presented the Paper “Knowledge Accumulation in Family Firms – Evidence from Four Case Studies” (Chirico, 2015) and explained the family-business knowledge model, which is the main outcome of the research paper.

 

26. April 2017

Christian Reintjes presents his research at Operations Research in Engineering

In March 2017, Christian Reintjes, scholar of the SME Graduate School, presented his research results on the topic „Beam structure Optimization for Additive Manufacturing“ as part of the workshop Operations Research in Engineering.

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The reserach team headed by professor Dr. Ulf Lorenz (University of Siegen, institute of technology management) organised the workshop in conjunction with the Technical University of Darmstadt (special research project 805), the university of Duisburg-Essen and the department for the cooperation with medium-sized companies („Siegener Mittelstandsinstitut“).

It is the aim of technical Operations Research to establish quantitative methods for the synthesis of technical systems in engineering sciences. Mathematical optimization is well known in economics under the name of Operations Research. Technical Operations Reserach (TOR) covers much more than using mathematical modeling and solution algorithms in order to optimize technical systems. Another important subject is the evaluation of new technologies. Therefore, technology management is playing a major role in TOR. As an interdisciplinary science, TOR bridges the gap between mechanical engineering, computer science, mathematics and business studies. As a interface between science and industry, it is the aim of the workshop to build an interdisciplinary research netowrk.

The current progress in construction industry indicates that there is a huge interest to use generative design, or in general, optimization models, for developing products with highly complex geometries. It is the desire to use computational forces in form of optimization programs and to combine them with the design experience of engineers. Using both, it is possible to generate construction proposals beyond human abilities. The problem is that the conventional manufacturing techniques, like milling, turning or casting, are just not able to produce such complex structures. Arriving at this point additive manufacturing becomes important because it enables us to manufacture these extremely complex structures including undercuts or hollow spaces, provided by the optimization program.

For this reason Christian Reintjes developed and presented a linear optimization model to describe static load cases in relation to framework strucutres. By using a graph network it will be possible to reproduce the assembly space of an additive manufacturing system. The model describes any number of transmitted forces into the framework structure which are working against the forces being exerted by the assumed bearings. The model determines independently where and which capacities are needed at a particular position within the assembly space, whereas it can choose from a given quantitiy of connecting elements (e.g truss girders). The aim of the beam structure optimization for additive manufacturing is to reduce material and improve the field of lightweight construction, with the aim of saving costs overall.

Contact:

Christian Reintjes B.Sc.
Universität Siegen SME Graduate School – Fast-Track PhD
E-Mail: christian.reintjes@student.uni-siegen.de

25. April 2017

Semester Opening Colloquium of the SME Graduate School

The first Research Colloquium of the new semester was opened by the SME Graduate School Coordinators Dr. Sohaib Hassan and Dr. Christian Reuter, who gave the SME Graduate School fellows an overview of upcoming events for the summer term. Among others, the events planned include research colloquia, ring lectures and PhD courses.

After the introduction, SME Graduate School fellow Christine Weigel gave a presentation about the research projects she is currently working on and the progress she made so far. Furthermore Christine Weigel explained the future steps she is going to make in her research and gave the audience overall insights in her research with a focus on accounting in family firms and SMEs. After a short discussion of the fellow’s presentation, the scholars of the Graduate School discussed the exposé with Dr. Sohaib Hassan and Dr. Christian Reuter. Further topics discussed were possible conferences the fellows of the Graduate School might attend and the PhD courses offered by the House of Young Talents and the University of Siegen. At the end of the Colloquium there was a brief exchange of ideas about PhD courses and which courses might be especially interesting for the members of the SME Graduate School.

28. March 2017

3,5 Stellen wiss. Mitarbeiter (m/w) in (Wirtschafts-)Informatik, Human-Computer-Interaction, Wirtschafts-, Medien- oder Sprachwissenschaften

In Kooperation mit der Graduiertenschule Mittelstand sind folgende Stellen zu besetzen:

Die in der zivilen Sicherheitsforschung angesiedelte BMBF-Forschungsgruppe KontiKat soll einem interdisziplinären Team von Doktoranden unter Anleitung des Forschungsgruppenleiters Dr. Christian Reuter die Möglichkeit geben, Forschungsthemen (z.B. qualitative und quantitative Studien, Fallstudien, Interviews, Statistik, Social Media Analyse, partizipative Konzeptentwicklung, Prototyping, Evaluationsstudien) im Kontext sicherheitskritischer Mensch-Computer-Interaktion (z.B. zivile Sicherheit, Krisenkommunikation, Selbsthilfekoordination, Katastrophenschutz, Terrorismusbekämpfung, betriebliches Kontinuitätsmanagement in KMU in der Industrie 4.0) aus verschiedenen fachlichen Perspektiven zu beleuchten.

Eine Promotion in (Wirtschafts-)Informatik, Human-Computer-Interaction, Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Medienwissenschaften oder Sprachwissenschaften wird unter der Anleitung des Nachwuchsgruppenleiters Dr. Christian Reuter bei einem der Mentoren der Nachwuchsforschergruppe (Univ.-Prof. Dr. Volkmar Pipek, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Volker Wulf, apl. Prof. Dr. Gebhard Rusch, Univ.-Prof.in Dr. Petra Moog) ermöglicht.

Was Sie mitbringen:

  • Großes Interesse an Forschung, Erarbeitung und Umsetzung innovativer Ideen
  • Engagement, Zuverlässigkeit und Eigenverantwortung, strukturiertes Arbeiten
  • Gute Deutsch- und Englischkenntnisse in Wort und Schrift
  • Ãœberdurchschnittlicher wissenschaftlicher Hochschulabschluss (Diplom, Master)
  • Interessen und Kompetenzen in einem oder mehreren der folgenden Bereiche: (Wirtschafts-) Informatik, Human-Computer-Interaction, Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Medienwissenschaften, Sprachwissenschaften, insb. Sprachtechnologie, Soziale Medien, sicherheitskritische Mensch-Computer-Interaktion (siehe oben)

Das erwartet Sie:

  • Mitarbeit in einem vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (geförderten) Forschungsprojekt
  • Motivierte, forschungsstarke und interdisziplinäre Arbeitsgruppe
  • Aktive Unterstützung für Ihr Promotionsvorhaben
  • Aktive Teilnahme an nationalen und internationalen Konferenzen
  • Vorbereitung und Mitarbeit bei Publikationen in relevanten Fachzeitschriften

Wir freuen uns auf Ihre Bewerbung!

Details entnehmen Sie bitte der Ausschreibung:

Stellenausschreibung

20. March 2017

Research Colloquium 14th March

The SME Graduate School took place on the 14th of March for the monthly research colloquium after short winter break.

At the beginning of general meeting new member of the graduate school, Jonas Janisch, joined us and introduced himself, told us about his project: “Business Model Innovation in an contextualized view of entrepreneurship”.

In 10-minute presentations, every participant presented the ideas of the project, research progress and research problem, the current situation and future steps on the nearest time. The each presentation is provided by inspiring discussion, which gave opportunity for new viewpoints. There are the following topics of the presentations which have been demonstrated:

  1. Julian Ruf: “Family business: Success through competitive advantage, Moderator of family business’ competitive advantage”.
  2. Marc-André Kaufhold: „Lightweight BCM by Socio-Technological Networking”.
  3. Florian Neitzert: “Future of SME Financing in Europe”.
  4. Matthias Sehr: “Sustainable managing entrepreneurs and social market economy in context of economic education”.
  5. Tsatsenko Natalia: “The innovative activities of SMEs in clusters and its impact on the regional economic growth”.
  6. Michel Kusche: “Determinants of business formation and location decision of companies”
  7. Christian Reintjes: “Beam Structure Optimization for Additive Manufacturing based on technical Operations Research Methods”.

We received one video presentation of Jens Bolay who is taking part on exchange studying program at the Azerbaijan State University of Economics.

After we completed first section of research colloquium, Dr. Christian Reuter and Dr. Sohaib Hassan provided us information about next meeting and deadline of expose, what lectures of House Young Talents will be possible to attend during upcoming summer semester. At the middle of April, we will have the next monthly research colloquium.

25. January 2017

Keynote Speaker David Audretsch and our third Ring Lecture

The third and final ring lecture of the winter semester 2016/17 SME took place January 25th 2017. We had the extraordinary pleasure to win Prof. Dr. David Audretsch as keynote speaker for this event.

The first presentation was held by Prof. Dr. Petra Moog, who is holding the chair for family businesses and entrepreneurship at the University of Siegen. Together with Prof. Dr. Friederike Welter, she is also in charge of the SME Graduate School. Prof. Dr. Petra Moog had the challenge, when starting at the University of Siegen to establish one of the first family business orientated chair, here in Germany. Her research focus, at first mainly focusing on human capital in family businesses did expand over time and includes now the field of business succession, financing of family businesses and strategy formulation besides others. Throughout the interactive presentation, the “working definition” of family businesses was discussed and analysed. Prof Dr. Petra Moog closed her presentation with insights to a recent research project about the gender specific performance in companies. A database of Germany, Switzerland and Austria has been used to quantitatively analyse different performance indicators of a company, either led by a male or female successor. As result, no significant differences could be found and it was therefore concluded, that women, like man can lead a company equally successful.

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The second presentation was held by keynote speaker Prof. Dr. Audretsch. Prof. Dr. Audretsch is an American Economist currently working at the University of Indiana. Besides this, he also owns his very own consultancy company and is a member to the advisory board of numerous international policy and research institutes. The University of Siegen had the pleasure to receive him here in Germany and the SME Graduate School took this opportunity to speak with one of the distinguished experts in the field of entrepreneurship and family businesses. Prof. Dr. Audretsch started off, by presenting his ideas about entrepreneurship and family businesses. Entrepreneurship as a research field has become one of the most important fields, explaining economic growths potential in countries all over the world. He used 3 dimensions to explain, what might be part of entrepreneurship and what not. First he mentioned the organizational context which is influential, whether a company is entrepreneurial or not. This dimension includes key figures like age and size of the company. Second, the behaviour of the person and or company was named. The very important questions raised in this dimensions include the recognition-, creation-, and exploitation of opportunities. Third, entrepreneurship does have something to do with performance. This does not necessarily need to be measured monetarily, but could as well be innovation, growths or social goals. Already throughout the presentation a lot of questions were raised and discussed. In the following discussion, questions like: How to measure entrepreneurship? Which empirical method is best to use in entrepreneurial research and how can we compare the German “Mittelstand” to the Silicon Valley in the United States? have been addressed and critically challenged.

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We from the SME Graduate School want to thank Prof. Dr. Audretsch hereby, for not only giving us new and valuable insights about the field of entrepreneurship and family businesses, but also showing us what it could be like, pursuing a career in the academic field. The unique personal experiences and examples used in the presentation and discussion made it a truly special event for all of us.
After a short break, Dr. Christian Soost presented a collaborative paper, dealing with “The Effect of International Assignments on Entrepreneurial Intentions among employees”. As the majority of entrepreneurs do statistically have a longer employment period in advance, the results of this question do hold valuable information for the industry. Three driving forces of entrepreneurial intention could be identified and linked to international assignments within companies. The empirical evaluation proved to be significant which implicates an effect between the international assignments and entrepreneurial intentions.

Last, Dr. Sohaib S. Hassan presented a first draft of his research about “Gender and Firm Performance: A comparative analysis.” This collaborative project deals with the fact, that mainly males do start new companies. Goal of the project is to investigate if and why women do underperform in firm performance and thus might not be the first choice in receiving money from venture capitalists, leading to the mentioned gap in company start-ups. Because this effect differs from country to country, an international approach of comparing different countries against each other will be executed.

Due to the visit of Prof. Dr. Audretsch, the last ring lecture of the winter semester 2016/17 was not only a success but a highlight, attended also by students and Ph.D. students outside the Graduate School. We are looking forward to continue these interesting and informative meetings within the next semester. Again, a big thank you to all the professors, post-docs and coordinators for making this truly unique experience possible.

19. January 2017

Announcement: Workshop on Entrepreneurship and Family Business

  • Date: Wednesday, 25th of January 2017
  • Room: USD108 (Ludwig-Wittgenstein-Haus, 1st Floor, Kohlbettstr. 15, 57072 Siegen)

09:00-9:30h

  • Entrepreneurship, Family Business, and Business Succession (Prof. Dr. Petra Moog)

09:30-11:30h

  • Entrepreneurship and Family Business – Where is it Heading? (Prof. Dr. David Audretsch)

11:30-11:45h

  • Coffee Break

11:45-13:00h

  • Gender and Firm Performance: A Comparative Analysis (Dr. Sohaib Hassan)
  • The Effect of International Assignments on Employees’ Entrepreneurial Intentions (Dr. Christian Soost)

13:00-14:00h

  • Lunch

14:00-16:00h     Luncheon (US-A 010)

  • Moderator: Prof. Dr. Friederike Welter
  • Finanzierungsstrukturen von KMU (Dr. Andre Pahnke & Dr. Christian Schröder)
  • Unternehmensnachfolge (Dr. Andre Pahnke & Dr. Susanne Schlepphorst)
  • Mittelstandspolitik im Wandel (Britta Levering & Eva May-Strobl)
18. January 2017

Second Ring Lecture

The second ring lecture of the SME Graduate School took place on January 18th 2017. The workshop speakers included Prof. Ulf Lorenz (Technology Management), Prof. Sebastian G. Kessing (Public Economics) and Jun.-Prof. Alexander Vossen (Entrepreneurship in Context). Each professor presented the current development status of a topic of his research group. In short 30-minute presentations, the current state in SME research and relevant neighbouring fields have been introduced. Each of the presentations has been followed by a 30-minute discussion.

The opening presentation that day was held by Prof. Ulf Lorenz on Technical Operations Research (hereinafter TOR). It is the aim of TOR to establish quantitative methods for the synthesis of technical systems in engineering sciences. Mathematical optimization is well known in economics under the name of Operations Research (OR). With the example “the optimal design of a booster station” he showed that TOR covers much more than using mathematical modeling and solution algorithms in order to optimize technical systems. Another important subject is the evaluation of new technologies. Therefore, technology management is playing a major role in TOR. As an interdisciplinary science, TOR bridges the gap between mechanical engineering, computer science, mathematics and business studies.

discourse Prof. Lorenz discourse Prof. Kessing

After a short break and an inspiring discussion, Prof. Sebastian G. Kessing proceeded with two topics from the field of public economics. As a first step he presented the project local corporate taxes and start-up behaviour followed by the project pass-through of local corporate taxes for consumer prices. It was shown there are severel effects of local corporate taxes on incentives to start a busniess. An extensive data set, for a period of 13 years, was presented of purchases of fast-moving consumer goods by 30.000 households. The key question being answered was who bears the burden of taxes levied on firm profits. In this context capitalists, workers and consumer are potential contributors.

discourse Prof. Vossen

The third – and last – presentation was held by Jun.-Prof. Alexander Vossen whose scientific interests are innovation and entrepreunership for creative products. He showed users favor proposals with an atypical categorical identity, however they dislike proposals that employ an atypical narrative identity, based on a dataset of 2’705 entrepreneurial product proposals by video game developers.

Once again, the event was a complete success, since very interesting discussion circles were formed, whereby representatives from a wide range of fields could present oneself and their research results. The next ring lecture will take place on January 25th 2017.

11. January 2017

First-ever Ring Lecture

New year, new ideas and a new format of exchanging information. On January 11th 2017 the first-ever Ring Lecture of the SME Graduate School took place. The lecturers are the dissertation advisors from different departments of the University of Siegen. In short 30-minute presentations, the current state in SME research and relevant neighbouring fields are being introduced. Each of the presentations is followed by a 30-minute discussion.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Nils Goldschmidt (Contextual Economics and Economic Education), Prof. Dr. Karl-Josef Koch (Economics) and Prof. Dr. Arndt Werner (Business administration) introduced a topic closely related to their current research.

Starting with Economics, Ethics and Culture by Professor Goldschmidt, an introduction to a contextual understanding of Market Economies was given. “If we want to understand economy as part of our culture, we have to have a wider look at culture, mental models, interpretation rules et cetera.” He advocated that contextual factors such as an understanding of societal and cultural conditions, adequate political acting, changes in society and the shaping of markets should be added to the research of market mechanisms in order to get a more holistic understanding of economics.

After a vivid discussion, Professor Koch continued on a microeconomic level. By introducing a mathematical model, he aimed at solving the following problem: Segregation versus Inclusion of Skills in a Framework of Team Production – A Challenge for SME’s. When it comes to building teams with workers that have highly different skillsets, should businesses aim for homogenous teams? This means that highly skilled workers are teamed up with other highly skilled workers and low-skilled workers with their low-skilled peers. Or should mixed teams be preferred, where high-skilled workers are matched with their low-skilled colleagues? One of the conclusions was that teams with mixed skillsets tend to be more efficient in general.

The final lecture of the day was held by Professor Werner, who focused on important and positive factors of influence on working conditions and recruitment success in small enterprises. Enriched with his personal experiences from the research activities of his chair he shared valuable tips on how to conduct empirical studies in the field of SME research.

The event was well received and included valuable new ideas, perspectives and approaches for all participants. The next Ring Lecture will take place on January 18th 2017.

 

Author: Jens Bolay

13. December 2016

Visitors from Azerbaijan and the Topic of Peer Reviewing

The SME Graduate School met on the 13th of December for the monthly research colloquium. At our meeting three postdoctoral researchers from the Azerbaijan State University of Economics attended. One of our guests, Ragif Gasimov (PhD in Economics), opened the colloquium with a presentation about his PhD project where he will perform research on Human Resource Management in higher education institutions of Azerbaijan. Afterwards, Dr. Christian Reuter and Dr. Sohaib Hassan gave an overall view on the conduct of peer reviews. We learned that peer reviews are a method to ensure the quality of contributions, especially papers, for scientific conferences or journals and are used in cases of funding research projects. Our coordinators also informed us about the different kinds of peer reviews. For instance, an often used type is the double-blind review, whereby neither the author nor the reviewer know each other, so that an unbiased review is the result. Other types are the single-blind and open reviews. Besides we discussed pros and cons of peer reviews and their process. So it takes several months until all reviews are written and it cannot be guaranteed that the reviewers just represent their own point of view. At the end we talked about our plans for 2017. In January, our ring lecture will start with short presentations of the supervising professors and discussions afterwards. At the end of January, we will also have a workshop with Prof. Dr. David Audretsch (Indiana University).

ragifGasimov Logo_SME_3
17. November 2016

Florian Neitzert presents his research at the McKinsey/FIRM Innovation Platform

In November 2016, Florian Neitzert, scholar of the SME Graduate School, together with Professor Michael Torben Menk of University of Siegen presented their findings on the topic “Design of Capital Floors in the light of the Basel Trinity” in relation to the current developments of the Basel Accords at the McKinsey/FIRM Innovation Platform in Frankfurt am Main.

SME_Report_McKinsey_fn_bild

The research team headed by junior professor Dr. Michael Torben Menk, a professor of business administration and associate member of the Risk Governance Research Group in Siegen, was invited to the 25th Risk Management Innovation Platform organized by the McKinsey & Company and the Frankfurt Institute for Risk Management and Regulation (FIRM) at the stately Villa Merton (Union International Club) by Dr. Gerhard Schröck, a partner of McKinsey & Company.

Primary aim of the renowned, biannual conference is to present, develop and possibly implement innovative concepts for the current issues pertaining to bank and risk management. The interdisciplinary discussion bridges the collaboration gap between the leading decision makers of the financial industry and academia. The presentation on the “Design of Capital floors in the light of the Basel Trinity“ by the researchers focused on the revision of the minimum equity capital, which is set to be adopted in 2018. An implementation of the framework “Basel IV” in general, and therefore the disproportionately strong burden of regional institutes, would lead to a massive increase in regulatory capital requirements and hence, SME Graduate scholar Neitzert added that this would be the worst case scenario for the bank-based corporate financing of small and medium sized companies.

With their contribution, the two originally Hessian researchers joined a range of highly distinguished speakers including Dirk Jäger (Managing Director of the Federal Association of German Banks) and Dr. Tom Wilson (CRO Allianz SE), the keynote speaker who described the changing tasks of a Chief Risk Officer in the past decades and deliberated on whether this position would be more strongly impacted by regulatory influences in the future. The dinner at the end of the session presented further networking opportunities. Finally, the two researchers later thanked Dr. Gerhard Schröck, representative for all those who contributed to the event, for his invitation as well as the excellent organization and await the next Innovation Platform with interest.

Contact:

Florian Neitzert B.Sc.
Universität Siegen SME Graduate School – Fast-Track PhD
E-Mail: florian.neitzert@uni-siegen.de

16. November 2016

Research Design and Research Methodology

The first part of the SME Graduate School meeting was also open to prospective and current PhD researchers of the faculty. It was co-organized by the House of Young Talents and SME Graduate School. Dr. Daniel Müller, head of the House of Young Talents, opened the third group meeting with his workshop on “Research Design and Research Methodology”. After an introduction to the general philosophy of science, Dr. Müller outlined several research approaches of different disciplines. Although the special focus was on quantitative and qualitative research and its ambivalence, he also introduced into the concept of “mixed methods”, which combines both research approaches and gave examples for application. Meanwhile and after the presentation, Dr. Müller answered many questions regarding this topic and also gave the opportunity to discuss his remarks. Subsequently, SME Graduate School member Christine Weigel defended her Master Thesis, which is about “The Role and Impact of Accountants: A Systematic Literature Review”. Besides Christine Weigel gave the SME Graduate School interesting insights in her methodological approach. With the defence of her Master Thesis, Christine Weigel obtained her Master Degree in Controlling and Risk Management.

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4. November 2016

SME GradSchool Workshop “Dos and Don’ts in PhD Research”

The SME Graduate School workshop on “Dos and Don’ts in PhD Research” took place on October 15th, 2016. The workshop started with a short get together in which the fellows had the possibility to discuss recent developments and questions with the program coordinators, Dr. Sohaib Hassan and Dr. Christian Reuter. As two SME fellows could not attend the first meeting, they presented themselves and their field of research at the beginning of the second workshop. Afterwards, Dr. Sohaib Hassan and Dr. Christian Reuter gave a presentation on the Dos and Don’ts in Ph.D. Research. The presentation provided helpful tips on the organization of research, e.g. the conduction of a literature review, but also included advices for the fellows with regard to their personal development throughout the Ph.D. process. Afterwards, SME fellow Michel Kusche gave a presentation on the role of SMEs for the German economy, especially focusing on their investment and innovation behavior. The last item of the agenda was SME fellow Marc-André Kaufhold’s defense of his Master Thesis in which he implied the concept of Flow to the process of software development. The defense was open for all members of the faculty and several members followed the invitation and joined the presentation. With the defense of his Master Thesis, Marc-André Kaufhold obtained his Master Degree in Information Systems.

SME Grad School Meeting 2 SME Grad School Meeting 1
26. October 2016

Announcement: Research Design and Research Methodology

On the 15th of November 2016, 8:15-11h, US-F104 the SME Graduate School in cooperation with the House of Young Talents (Dr. Daniel Müller) offer the following course.

Besides the members of the graduate school this course is also open for other Ph.D. students at the University of Siegen. If you want to join please sent a mail to Dr. Christian Reuter (christian.reuter@uni-siegen.de) until the 8th of November.

Research Design and Research Methodology
The short workshop is offered in cooperation with the Graduate School of Faculty III and intended as a sweeping overview over the various options for research design, with a certain focus on the social (in particular economics) and legal sciences. Beginning with a short introduction to the philosophy of science, the course will chart the ways various disciplines employ to gain secure knowledge, from largely pure reasoning (mathematics, philosophy) to hard-core empiricist methods like the experiment. The group will then concentrate on the various forms of data gathering and data analysis with a focus on the quantitative-qualitative dichotomy. This ought to present PhD students with clear choices regarding designs to answer their respective research questions. When and for which types of research is it appropriate to employ: quantitative (statistical) methods; qualitative methods;
or both (“mixed methods”)?

24. September 2016

Kick-Off Meeting of the SME Graduate School

The 23rd of September 2016 was the kick-off meeting of the Graduate School SME “Sustainable Managing Entrepreneurs” with 11 students of various fields of study at the University of Siegen. Founded in 2015 by Prof. Dr. Petra Moog and Prof. Dr. Friederike Welter, the graduate school was established to combine Master and Doctoral courses enabling highly motivated students to shorten their Ph.D. studies while maintaining the high standards and requirements necessary to achieve a doctoral title.

The first full-day workshop was used to not only introduce the students to each other and their coordinators, but also to form a team and bond together. Lead by Dr. Sohaib S. Hassan and Dr. Christian Reuter, the students were introduced to the program, opportunities and challenges which await them on their adopted career path. With 11 faculty advisors, 11 students, 2 directors, 2 coordinators and over 5 different nationalities involved, the diversity of the research fields and the variety of the combined knowledge are a promising foundation for interdisciplinary SME research. This “pool” of knowledge and the close interaction of the parties involved will also be used in the future to share information and is one of the main advantages of the program.

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Kick-Off Meeting of the SME Graduate School

 
Each student was asked to present his field of research, his intended contribution to the graduate school and the named research stream. Feedback and guidance was given by the coordinators and the other participants of the meeting. After a communal lunch and a short photo session, the workshop continued with a creative and open discussion about the needs and offers of the coordinators and students as well as the determination of regular meetings.

8. September 2016

Opening

As long as the selection of PhD./Master Students for the graduate school has been done, the official establishment of the Graduate School for all fellows will be the beginning of the winter term.