Research profile
Diverse perspectives, important future fields
With approximately 80 publications per year in top-tier international journals, the Faculty of Business and Economics holds its own very successfully in international competition. Consequently, it is currently ranked among the top 10 faculties of business and economics at state universities in Germany and ranked among the top 15 in German speaking countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) for many years (Research.com, Shangai- and Wirtschaftswoche Ranking). Among other bodies, research at the faculty is regularly sponsored by the European Union, the German Research Foundation, and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The faculty is also very successful in promoting young researchers. Around 80 professors in Germany and abroad were educated at the Faculty of Business and Economics.
The members of the Faculty of Business and Economics play an active role in shaping the constant change in the business and economics sciences and regularly tap into innovative and relevant issues. They develop new methods, apply known methods at the highest level, and present the results of the research to the worldwide scientific community and interested institutions. With its research, the faculty is helping us to understand and explain complex interrelationships, forecast future developments at micro- and macro level, and solve specific decision-making problems. It is thereby shaping the discourse in the long term concerning key future fields such as digital business & entrepreneurship, health & society as well as sustainability. More information on specific projects and publications can be found on the respective the chair's websites.
Digital Business & Entrepreneurship
Digital business models shape markets and drive innovations, business start-ups as well as economic growth. Key research fields at the Faculty of Business and Economics include digital strategies and business models, questions relating to the knowledge economy and the sources of innovative business ideas as well as the mechanisms involved in their implementation. The resulting research findings are put into practice by numerous cooperations with public and private organizations. Business start-ups are supported and initiated by the Augsburg Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE) and the initiative “Leveraging Potentials in Augsburg (PiA)” sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, which are both led by members of the Faculty of Business and Economics.
Health & Society
Considerable cost increases as a result of demographic change and medical and technical progress as well as the simultaneous shortage of skilled workers increase the scarcity of health resources and therefore the necessity for allocating resources efficiently in order to safeguard a high-performance health system. The Faculty of Business and Economics has been making important contributions in this regard for a long time in the areas of regulation, process optimization, and digitalization. Among other means, the knowledge gained is fed into the political process by way of participation in academic advisory bodies of the Federal Ministry of Finance and of the Federal Office for Social Security. It is also, however, implemented practically in clinics.
Sustainability
Bringing about progression that is sustainable globally, through decarbonization, conservation of resources, and sustainable mobility, for example, is a key challenge for industry and society. In the last few decades, the Faculty of Business and Economics has made significant research contributions relating to energy, climate, resources, and the environment which are substantial bases and drivers for the processes that will help transform us into a sustainable society. Numerous researchers at the faculty deal intensively with sustainability-relevant issues and also transfer the results of their research to practical and political bodies such as the German Advisory Council on the Environment.
The latest methods, sustainable solutions
New and complex issues require intelligent and not cursory answers. The Faculty of Business and Economics is facing up to this challenge by systematically applying the latest methods. One focal point with which the faculty has gained a strong reputation over the past decades relates to the application of quantitative methods from the areas of statistics, econometrics, and optimization. Today these methods are supplemented for example by artificial intelligence procedures, experiments in the faculty’s computer laboratory, and the targeted collection of data from markets. Using this broad range of methods, the faculty provides in-depth and comprehensible answers and elaborates sustainable solutions.
Competence Center for Global Business Management
Research activities as well as the promotion of young researchers at the faculty are bundled in the Competence Center for Global Business Management (GBM). Exploring global connections at micro- and macro level is the center’s key focus. In conjunction with the Augsburg Center for Global Economic Law and Regulation (ACELR), the Competence Center for Global Business Management (GBM) forms the cross-faculty Competence Center for Global Business and Law (GBL).
Close linking of research and practice
A key objective of the research conducted at the faculty is to cooperate with the practical world and to forward findings to the general public. Partnerships with organizations and companies as well as cross-faculty centers such as the Center for Climate Resilience, the Competence Center for Global Business and Law, the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Research, the Center for Lifelong Learning and Transfer of Knowledge, the Environmental Science Center as well as the Jakob Fugger Center establish the framework for multidisciplinary cooperation and knowledge transfer.