Community News & Press

Maynooth University (MU) has launched the Distinguished International Collaborator program, aiming to attract globally renowned scientists, scholars, writers, artists, and intellectuals to enrich the University’s academic landscape. This initiative seeks to strengthen MU’s global ties and elevate its intellectual environment. It is open to individuals of distinguished stature, either holding a professorial standing or having attained eminence and leadership in their respective fields. The overarching objective is to proactively and strategically engage with leading researchers worldwide, fostering enduring research partnerships that address significant global challenges. Participating visiting professors play a pivotal role in contributing to the university community. They lead or participate in various activities such as events, seminars, workshops, or lectures designed for faculty and graduate students. Under this program, two distinguished academics have been appointed, earning the esteemed title of Distinguished Professor. One of the appointees is DS:E Fellow Professor Jan vom Brocke (Chair of Information Systems & Business Process Management at the University of Münster and serves as the Director of the European Research Center for Information Systems - ERCIS).

Interested in Doing a PhD at the Intersection of Design Science, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability? ESCP Business School invites applications for a PhD fellow position with a focus on design science, sustainability impacts and entrepreneurship starting in September 2024. The PhD candidate receives a full scholarship for 4 years, including a tuition waiver. Here is a snapshot of the position: - Close supervision by three professors: Gorgi Krlev, Professor of Sustainability (ESCP Paris), Christoph Seckler, Professor of Entrepreneurial Strategy (ESCP Berlin) and Alisa Sydow, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ESCP London/Turin). - A well-structured, full-time PhD program with courses that will make you an expert in your field and in various research methods. - A strong international working environment. You will be admitted to the Paris PhD program at ESCP Business School and will spend your first year there. Afterwards, you are free to choose between the ESCP campuses in Paris, Berlin or London. - A constructive and friendly atmosphere with regular research seminars for a fast and successful PhD completion. - You will be part of a large research community that includes 6 European campuses with many professors and other PhD students. Interested? Here you find more information: https://escp.eu/programmes/doctoral-programmes/paris

We would like to congratulate Peter Borchers, Affiliate Professor at the ESCP Business School, Founder & Managing Partner of pbo.vc and Practice Fellow here at DS:E, for winning the Best Teacher Award for his outstanding teaching performance in the Master in Sustainability Entrepreneurship & Innovation (M.Sc.) program. This award is given to the lecturer who demonstrates exemplary commitment to teaching and receives the best student evaluation in a given academic year. This award was given to Peter Borchers for the academic year 2022/23 of the above mentioned M.Sc. program.

Asif is Professor of Data & Digital Ecosystems and Head of Software Engineering at the School of Computer Science, UTS. He is also the Director of the DigiSAS Lab, a founding director of the start-up Infoagility, and a Fellow of our DS:E community. After being an Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney, he has now been promoted to Professor at the same institution. We celebrate his success and wish him all the best for the future.

Christine Legner was honored as an AIS (Association for Information Systems) Distinguished Member - Cum Laude. The award is based on the continuous role and commitment to the AIS membership. Congratulations to her for this great honor!

Warum ist Design Science für die Forschung wichtig? Was ist überhaupt ein Fehler und was bedeutet Fehlermanagement? Und warum sollte es nicht Fehlerkultur, sondern Fehler-Management-Kultur heißen? Mit all’ diesen Fragen und noch vielen mehr beschäftigen sich Sascha und Prof. Dr. Christoph Seckler diese Woche. Sie sprechen darüber, wie man einen bewussten Umgang mit Fehlern im Unternehmen schaffen kann und warum es von Vorteil für Unternehmen sein kann sich mit der eigenen Fehlerkultur auseinander zu setzen um profitabler zu werden.

So kann gestaltungsorientierte Managementforschung ein Teil der Lösung werden! Oder: Der Market-of-Makers in Aktion. Vor dem Capital 40unter40 Event hatten Jenny von Zepelin und Christoph Seckler sich gefragt, wie das geballte Wissen und die Tatkraft der 40unter40 in den Bereichen Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft, Politik und Unternehmertum nutzen könnten, um konkrete Initiativen für Deutschland zu starten. Wie kommen wir vom Reden ins Tun? Die Antwort darauf fanden sie in dem genialen Format des DS:E Kollegen René Mauer: Der Market-of-Makers.

Jan vom Brocke was honored as an AIS (Association for Information Systems) Distinguished Member - Cum Laude. The award is based on the continuous role and commitment to the AIS membership. Congratulations to him for this great honor!

Mona Ghazi was honored by Capital magazine as one of the Top 40 under 40. What an achievement, each of these 40 outstanding talents under the age of 40 have already achieved remarkable things in politics, business, management and society and are expected to have a great career ahead of them. Mona is the second 40 under 40 in our network after Christoph Seckler.

Den Status quo zu erklären, reicht nicht. Betriebswirtschaft sollte helfen, die Zukunft zu gestalten.

The professor of sustainability was invited to an international expert committee to advise the Ministry of Education and Research on the implementation and further development of social innovations. Germany’s Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has convened an international Advisory Board for Social Innovations, which began its work in November 2023. “With the new international advisory board, we bring together the brightest minds from all over the world to inspire social innovations in Germany,” said Zarah Bruhn, who is the Commissioner for Social Innovations as well as the chairwoman of the advisory board. “Social innovations are of course part of a modern, sustainable innovation country like Germany,” added Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger. “Creative and entrepreneurial solutions are essential to overcoming major societal challenges.”

Angesichts enormer digitaler Herausforderungen wäre eine praxisorientierte BWL-Forschung enorm wichtig, doch statt zur Lösung realer Probleme beizutragen, werde ein zu starker Fokus auf erklärende Forschung gelegt.

Management research should be at the forefront of helping society design a better future.

Prof. Dr. Jan vom Brocke will hold the Chair of Information Systems and Business Process Management at the Institute of Information Systems. He will also become the new director at ERCIS - European Research Center for Information System and in this role will be strongly committed to the internationalisation strategy of the faculty.

In a noteworthy development for scholars in design science, the recent editorial in the Academy of Management Journal (AMJ) advocates for a paradigm shift towards research methodologies that emphasize a forward-looking orientation. Entitled "BEYOND EXPLAINING THE PAST: RESEARCHING FORWARD," the editorial underscores the imperative for management scholars to move away from a predominant retrospective lens and concentrate on generating solutions for future challenges. The authors draw attention to a conspicuous disparity between management scholars and their counterparts in fields such as engineering and medicine. Unlike professionals in these disciplines, management scholars demonstrate a greater proclivity for retrospective analysis and theoretical exploration of historical events, rather than actively contributing to prospective problem-solving. Recent issues of the AMJ have echoed calls for management research to address contemporary social issues, framed as "grand challenges" or as active participation in "societal conversations." The editorial posits a pivotal inquiry: How can management scholars methodologically align themselves with a forward-looking stance, acknowledging the perpetual nature of living in the present and moving into the future? The authors emphasize the necessity for scholars to engage more robustly with the dynamic and forward-oriented perspective embraced by both practitioners and themselves. This call for a methodological shift holds particular resonance for design science scholars, who have long grappled with these considerations. The AMJ's appeal for a departure from historical predilections suggests a growing acknowledgment of the value inherent in design science methodologies for addressing the contemporary challenges faced by management and society at large. As design science gains traction in the AMJ, scholars are poised to explore innovative avenues that promise to yield solutions to the evolving landscape of management research.

Sarasvathy is awarded for her pathbreaking research on entrepreneurial decision-making and the entrepreneurial process. The Global Award is the foremost international award in entrepreneurship research with a prize sum of € 100,000. Saras D. Sarasvathy’s research has fundamentally changed and invigorated the conversation in the domain of entrepreneurship research. Her work on effectuation emphasizes how entrepreneurs operate based on available resources, think in terms of affordable loss rather than profit maximization, leverage trustworthy partnerships, and treat unforeseen contingencies as opportunities rather than problems. It has led and inspired a new generation of researchers in the quest for a better understanding of how entrepreneurs make their decisions and the unfolding of the entrepreneurial process.

Die Management-Forschung wird immer weniger re­levant für Unternehmen und ihre Lenker. Diese Problematik ist erkannt und wird auch diskutiert. Doch es braucht bessere Antworten