Faculty of Business and Economics

2016 Year in Review


Diverse research

In 2016, faculty members successfully secured numerous external project funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG), federal and state ministries, as well as other external funders. Faculty members also presented their research contributions at international conferences and published their research with high-ranking field-specific journals. The following select research projects are presented below to provide an illustration of the diverse research projects of the Faculty.

Department of Business Administration

  • The economic effects of adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): the role of selection effects and delisting/downlisting
    Funder: German Research Foundation (DFG), 2017-2019. Prof. Dr. Jörg-Markus Hitz, Chair of Accounting and Auditing.
  • The effect of market friction on options prices
    Funder: German Research Foundation (DFG), 2016-2019. Prof. Dr. Olaf Korn, Chair of Finance, and Prof. Dr. Marliese Uhrig-Homburg, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
  • Non-monetary income of further education - civil society participation (NEWz-UG), subproject of the Chair of Business and Human Resource Education: the examination of cooperation between general and vocational education, as well as work contexts and political participation
    Funder: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of the funding bid, "Non-monetary revenue of education", from 2016-2019. Prof. Dr. Susan Seeber, Chair of Business and Human Resource Education; Coordinators: Prof. Dr. Josef Schrader and Prof. Dr. Esther Winther, the German Institute for Adult Education - Leibniz Center for Lifelong Learning, Bonn.


In the business information systems discipline, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) has funded a doctoral programme in designing mobile information systems as part of digital transformation, until 2020. The programme is offered jointly by the Braunschweig University of Technology, the Leibniz University of Hannover, and the Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts. The programme focuses on the design of IT-based solutions in the areas of mobile financial services, sustainability, and mobility. A total of nine Lichtenberg scholarships and additional costs were awarded. The head of the programme is Prof. Dr. Jan Muntermann, Chair of Electronic Finance and Digital Markets.

In the current research ranking of the international association, Association for Information Systems (AIS), the University of Göttingen Chair of Business Information Systems was ranked 22 (region: Europe, Africa, the Middle East) and 105 (Region: worldwide). The ranking is based on the so-called AIS Senior Scholars' Basket of Journals and includes publications between 2013-2015.

Department of Economics

  • The DFG-Graduate Programme GRK 1723 Globalization and Development (GLAD)
    The German Research Foundation (DFG) extended its financing of the graduate programme (GRK) 1723 Globalization and Development. This is a joint programme with the Leibniz University of Hannover. The head of the project is Prof. Stephan Klasen, PhD, Chair of Development Economics, and Prof. Dr. Andreas Wagener, University of Hannover Institute for Social Policy. Members investigate the influence of globalization on developing countries. To date, there have been around 40 doctoral participants, of which 17 have completed their dissertations. The DFG will fund the programme for another 4.5 years with around 4 million EURs.
  • Experts in forecasting? Market research as the foundation for corporate expectations in Germany and the United States after 1945
    Funder: the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the framework of the programme Erfahrung und Erwartung. Historische Grundlagen ökonomischen Handelns (Experience and expectations. Historical foundations of economic activity), 2016-2018. PD Dr. Ingo Köhler, Institute for Economic and Social History.
  • Municipal development funds
    Funder: The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), as part of the funding bid: innovative municipalities, 2016-2019. Prof. Dr. Kilian Bizer, Chair of Economic Policy and SME Research.


Faculty researchers organize workshops and conferences

In February, the International Economic Relations workshop took place for the 18th time, with around 60 participants who conduct research on areas such as international financial interdependencies, strategic multinational businesses, problems of European integration, and global reduction of protectionist behaviour. The workshop takes place every year. The organizers are Prof. Dr. Gerhard Rübel (Chair of International and Monetary Economics) and Prof. Dr. Carsten Eckel (Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich).

Nearly 700 researchers gathered for "Statistik unter einem Dach" (Statistics Under One Roof) at the University of Göttingen for the fourth joint meeting of the German Consortium in Statistics (DAGStat). DAGStat is an umbrella organization for a total of 14 academic associations or organizations that deal with statistics in both a narrow and wider sense. Discussions focused on cross-application issues, as well as areas that apply to individual societies; for example, statistical methods in biometrics, econometrics of finance, marketing, or bioinformatics. The event was organized by the University of Göttingen Centre for Statistics, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Thomas Kneib (Chair of Statistics).

In April, Prof. Dr. Claudia Keser (Chair of Microeconomics and head of committee) organized the annual conference of the social sciences committee of the German Economic Association ("Verein für Socialpolitik"). Prof. Dr. Olaf Korn (Chair of Finance) organized the Göttingen Finance Workshop.