Welcome to the Chair of Managerial Economics!

On this homepage you will find all the information about our team, our research areas and the courses we offer. In addition, we also offer information on applications for and writing theses.

News

17.06.2024

Werde Teil des Teams als SHK/WHB im ad­min­is­trat­iven Bereich!

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04.06.2024

SEAM: Stefan Napel "Vot­ing Rules and Vot­ing Suc­cess in Weighted Com­mit­tees and Share­hold­er Meet­ings"

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19.02.2024

Save the Date: Find­ing-Week 23.09. - 27.09.2024

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More news

Our teaching

We can benefit from each other by entering into dialogue. To do this effectively, we regularly integrate interactive elements into our teaching. Together with the students, we ask questions and actively search for answers. It is always important to us what consequences our answers have for the world.

We place particular emphasis on three aspects in our teaching: Applying economic models to real-world problems, interacting with students during lectures, and promoting and stimulating research.

Teach­ing pro­gramme

 

Bachelor

Module name Semester ECTS Language Contact person
M.184.1103 - Introduction to Economics WS 5 DEU EiWiWi Coaches: eiwiwi@mail.uni-paderborn.de
M.184.2176 - Finding and Developing your Research Project WS/SS 5 DEU/ ENG Eva Klein: finding@mail.uni-paderborn.de
M.184.2171 - Managerial Economics SS 10 DEU Wendelin Schnedler

 

Master

Module name Semester ECTS Language Contact person
M.184.4176 - Finding and Developing your Research Project WS/SS 5 DEU/ ENG Eva Klein: finding@mail.uni-paderborn.de
M.184.5158 - Behavioural Economics for Managerial Decision Making: Theory and Application WS 5 ENG Dilan Okcuoglu Celik
M.184.5170 - The theory and practice of entrepreneurship WS if applicable 5 ENG Wendelin Schnedler
M.184.2178 - Behavioural economics in your everyday life SS 5 DEU Julia Kramer
M.184.5157 - Marketing & Management Challenge WS 5 DEU Wendelin Schnedler & Julia Kramer
M.184.4173 Economics of Strategy SS 10 ENG Dilan Okcuoglu Celik

 

Final theses with us

We take part in the centralised allocation procedure for theses. The procedure distributes the students who wish to write a thesis fairly among the professorships. All information on the centralised allocation procedure.

 

What makes us special is that, unlike many other professorships, we do not specify any fixed topics. With us, students have the opportunity to write their theses in many different fields on the topic of "human behaviour".

 

Procedure

 

We place particular emphasis on practical research and provide students with targeted support as part of our compulsory module "Finding and Developing your Research Project". The module is designed to support students in developing their own research project at the beginning of the processing phase of their thesis. The resulting project then forms the core content of the thesis. We thus actively support the process of developing research projects and assist our students throughout the planning and realisation phase. The thesis can be written in German or English.

Our 'Finding' course is open to all students, including those who are not writing their thesis with us. However, due to limited capacity, students who are writing their thesis with us will be given priority in the allocation of course places. If you are interested, please contact us at finding@mail.uni-paderborn.de.

 

Our aim is to prepare students for the challenges of research in the best possible way and to strengthen their skills in independent scientific work. Join us in discovering the many opportunities to organise your own research project. We look forward to fostering your interest in research.

Examples of previous theses

How effective is empathic communication?
An experimental analysis regarding the effect of empathic communication on the willingness to wear a mask

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the wearing of face masks was mandatory on public transport, in supermarkets and in public places. Despite this, some people did not wear a mask, putting themselves and others at risk. In her bachelor's thesis, Antonia investigated the effectiveness of encouraging people to wear face masks in public spaces. She investigated whether expressing empathy and personal dislike of masks influences compliance. Antonia conducted her study in buses and train stations and randomly approached people with and without an empathetic approach. She then observed and documented the participants' reactions. The results showed that empathic communication did not increase the willingness to wear a face mask.

 

 

The Impact of Ice Breaking Games on Trust and Reciprocity:
A Lab in the Field Experiment

 

In environments with frequent staff turnover, such as schools or dynamic workplaces, building mutual trust is crucial for group engagement and productivity. The key question here is how this essential trust can be developed more quickly, especially when teams suffer from constant turnover of members. Jennifer addressed this issue in her master's thesis and investigated the effectiveness of ice breaker games as a tool to accelerate the development of trust and reciprocity. The study was conducted with students in their first semester at Paderborn University and the results show that the Ice Breaker game did not have a significant impact on trust and mutual cooperation. However, significantly more people actively participated when the game was not played.

A field experiment on sustainable consumption in tourism
Can nudging influence hotel guests to reuse their towel more often?

 

Water scarcity due to tourism is a major problem, especially on islands. Laura carried out a field experiment in a hotel in Mauritius as part of her master's thesis. She investigated the effectiveness of signs in hotel rooms to encourage guests to reuse towels and save water. The signs emphasised the harmful effects of excessive water wastage and the resulting water shortages for people in Africa. The result: up to two fewer towels per room and stay need to be washed when guests are reminded that their choices can prevent water shortages.

Can flyers help people reduce their recyclable waste?

 

Single-use plastic is a major burden on the environment and climate protection. Marie and Laura conducted a field experiment in their bachelor's thesis to investigate how waste in the yellow bins can be reduced in people's everyday lives. The result: the households with the flyers on waste separation reduced their plastic waste by an average of 350 grams. The yellow bins of the households with the information about their neighbours' waste consumption weighed 1340 grams less.

Do you look away now, even if you face the consequences on others, later?
An online (lab) experiment

 

A potentially harmful decision can easily be excused by a lack of knowledge about the consequences of that decision. In his bachelor's thesis, Laurenz investigated whether individuals show less ignorant and more pro-social behaviour when they know in advance that they will definitely experience the consequences of their decisions afterwards. It turned out that this is not the case.

Can greenwashing mislead consumers in their purchasing decision?
An experimental study

 

Greenwashing refers to the misleading practice of marketing a conventional product as environmentally friendly. This prompted Kathrin to investigate the effectiveness of ingredient transparency in detecting such practices in her bachelor's thesis. She investigated consumers' decisions between a greenwashed hand cream advertised as "organic" and a conventional one, based on access to information about the ingredients. In a field experiment, 100 participants were divided into two groups - one was exposed to the greenwashing practice, while the other was given transparent lists of ingredients. The results indicated that the latter group, who were informed about the ingredients, were less likely to choose the product advertised as 'greenwashed'.

"I would like to use this email to thank you - for an outstanding course and ideas that are still useful to me today. Just recently I had to think about some of the content of the course again and I'm delighted to have taken so much away with me."

S. K. , participant in the "Managerial Economics" module

 

Our research

The broken chain

People are not as bad at dealing with their frustrations as previously thought. You can find out more about this topic in the scientific article by Prof Wendelin Schnedler.

Don't Pat­ron­ise me! Re­ject­ing a good solu­tion just be­cause it comes from someone else.

The slogan "Take back Control" is said to have inspired many Britons to vote in favour of leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum, even though they are likely to suffer economically as a result. Silvia Lübbeck and Prof Wendelin Schnedler have written an academic paper on this topic.

Against All Odds: Tent­at­ive Steps To­ward Ef­fi­cient In­form­a­tion Shar­ing in Groups

When groups face difficult problems, the voice of the experts may be drowned out by the noise of others' contributions. In this setting, we investigate the change in behaviour before and after people can talk to their neighbours. Darius Schlangenotto, Wendelin Schneller and Vadovic Radovan have been working on this topic.

 

Seminar of Economics and Management (SEAM)

Our professorship participates in the Seminar of Economics and Management in order to promote an exchange of knowledge.

 

 

Our team

Prof. Dr. Wendelin Schnedler

More about the person

Dr. Dilan Okcuoglu Celik

More about the person

Simon Leon Müller

More about the person

Tobias Niederprüm

More about the person

Janine Thenhausen

More about the person

"Working at the chair has had a lasting positive impact on my definition of colleagues and teamwork. There is always an open ear, understanding, support and respect. The numerous social events, from joint lunches to team days, promote friendly interaction and thus the special cohesion of the chair team. I look back on this time with fondness!"

- Pia Pöhlker, former research assistant in the administrative field

Kon­takt

Managerial Economics

Faculty of Business Administration and Economics - Department 1: Management

Paderborn University
Warburger Str. 100
33098 Paderborn
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Alumni

Dr. Xinyu Li

Dr. Silvia Onuchukwu (geb. Lübbecke)

Dr. Nina Stephan

Dr. Fabian Bopp