Research
The main research focus of the chair is theory-based, quantitative-empirical and interdisciplinary. In particular, our focus is on theory creation and development especially at the interface of the fields strategic and international management, management of SMEs and entrepreneurship as well as on a primarily empirical analysis of different research questions of the interdisciplinary management field.
Exemplary third-party funded research projects:
GRF-Project: Strategic Planning and Sucess of SMEs: The moderating effect of national culture and organizational conditions (ongoing)
Despite considerable research empirical findings on the relationship between strategic planning and performance of SMEs remain inconclusive. The inconclusive findings obtained from different nations suggest that the relationship between strategic planning and performance is, amongst others, dependent on the national context in which the focal relationship is examined. The overall aim of the present project is to reconcile opposing arguments on strategic planning’s role for the performance of SMEs by contextualizing the relationship. To this end, we seek to introduce the national cultural setting in which the SME operates as well as the organizational boundary factors of national culture’s role.
We seek to empirically validate our theoretical predictions by means of (partly dyadic) survey data from SMEs in at least twelve nations representing different national cultures and development stages of countries (Australia, Austria, Chile, China, Germany, India, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, UK, US). Our research project seeks to contribute to extant literature in three major ways. First, we contribute to the literature on the relationship between strategic planning and firm performance in SMEs by beginning to reconcile extant contradictory arguments and findings. Second, we advance the literature by theoretically deriving arguments and empirically validating under which organizational circumstances the impact of national culture is strongest. Third, the proposed research contributes to methodological issues in cross-cultural management and accommodates some important and widespread weaknesses of existing cross-cultural studies limiting their robustness.
GRF-Project: Disentangling the Effect of Prior International Experience on the Foreign Market Entry Mode Choice of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (completed)
Firms venturing into foreign markets can choose between equity (e.g. wholly-owned subsidiaries) and non-equity (e.g. exports) based entry modes. Prior research with a primary focus on large multinational enterprises yielded inconclusive findings regarding the impact of prior international experience on firms` foreign market entry mode choice. The aim of the present research proposal is to enhance knowledge of small- and medium-sized enterprises` (SMEs`) foreign market entry mode choice by disentangling the effect of prior international experience on foreign market entry mode choice. First and on an organizational level, we investigate how (which mode types has an SME used in prior international engagements), where (in which locations has an SME collected prior international experiences), and when (how temporally close/distant are prior internationalization events to a new internationalization event) the SME collected prior international experience. Second and on an individual level, we seek to examine the impact of prior international experience of the firm`s major decision maker (e.g. CEO) on SMEs´ foreign market entry mode choice. Third, we focus on the interaction between organizational and individual experience and how it jointly impacts SMEs´ foreign market entry mode choice. We seek to test these questions on a sample of German SMEs. Although our research is specifically tailored to the SME context, we envisage our research findings to have research and practical implications for large multinational enterprises and policy makers.
Jackstädt Fellowship on „A differentiated view about individual founding intentions considering alternative career opportunities“ (ongoing)
The research project’s main goal is to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the determinants of different types of individual founding intentions. This is specifically provided by the consideration of heterogeneity on both sides of the Individual-Opportunity-Nexus (i.e. various characteristics of individuals on the one hand and various ways of founding intentions on the other hand).This way a differentiated and better integrated understanding of the founding process as the Individual-Opportunity-Nexus should be generated. The established theory of the planned behavior serves as a theoretical basis to connect individual characteristics with various types of founding intentions (i.e. specific opportunities) so that theoretically founded, empirically testable relationships can be concluded. The relationship shall be validated by primary data collected among students and multivariate analysis methods to gain a differentiated, evidence-based understanding of the various influence factors effecting diverse types of individual founding intentions.
BMBF Verbundprojekt: „Pragmatische Lösungen für die Implementation von Maßnahmen zur Stressprävention in Kleinst- und Kleinbetrieben (PragmatiKK); Teilprojekt: Entwicklung einer Zugangs- und Kommunikationsstrategie zur Aktivierung von KKU“ (laufend)
Durch die Arbeit bedingter Stress ist ein häufiges Phänomen in der modernen Arbeitswelt, das na-türlich auch in Kleinst- und Kleinunternehmen (KKU) auftritt. Entsprechende Präventionsmaßnah-men zur Vermeidung von Arbeitsstress und seinen gesundheitlichen Folgen sind zwar prinzipiell vorhanden, sie finden aber in KKU kaum Anwendung. Aussagekräftige Forschung zu Aspekten der Implementation von Stressprävention im Betrieb fehlt weitgehend. Um dies zu ändern, müssen zu-nächst die wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen geschaffen und darauf aufbauende Strategien zur praktischen Implementation von Maßnahmen der Stressprävention in KKU entwickelt werden.
Der Verbund hat das Ziel, auf Basis eines umfassenden interdisziplinären Forschungsansatzes die Gründe für die fehlende Implementierung von Maßnahmen zur Stressprävention in KKU transparent zu machen und praktische Strategien zu entwickeln, wie KKU sowohl bei der Initiierung als auch bei der Durchführung von Maßnahmen zur Prävention von Arbeitsstress unterstützt werden können.
Ziel des Arbeitspaketes, das durch den Projektpartner Universität zu Köln geleitet wird, ist die Ge-winnung belastbarer Erkenntnisse über die Voraussetzungen und Rahmenbedingungen für eine erfolgreiche Aktivierung von KKU. Es soll ein umfassendes Bild davon gezeichnet werden, welche Unternehmer/innen aus KKU unter verschiedenen Rahmenbedingungen eine vollständige Stressprävention in ihre Unternehmen einzuführen bereit sind und wie eine Kommunikations- und Zugangsstrategie aussieht, die diese Bereitschaft erzeugt. Dies ist eine eigenständige Forschungs- und Entwicklungsfrage, aber gleichzeitig auch eine entscheidende Vorarbeit für die nachfolgenden Arbeitspakete.
Dieses Forschungs- und Entwicklungsprojekt wird durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) im Programm „Innovationen für die Produktion, Dienstleistung und Arbeit von morgen“ gefördert und vom Projektträger Karlsruhe (PTKA) betreut. Die Verantwortung für den Inhalt dieser Veröffentlichung liegt bei der Autorin / beim Autor.