DIGITALIZATION - DATAFICATION - DECABONIZATION

"Every company is a digital tech company, no matter what product or service it provides." Companies that embrace this are the ones that shape markets and industries today and in the future. Our research deals with the question of how the economic potential of digital technologies can be exploited beneficially.

Our Research Strategy

Our research deals with scientifically sound and practice-oriented solutions for important problems and issues arising from the use of digital technologies in an increasing number of business areas and industries, analyzes interrelationships, and identifies options for action.

Prof. Kranz and his team deal with both the opportunities of digitalization and the diverse challenges for the management and organization of companies that arise from digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and ecosystems, blockchain (NFTs, Web3, token economy), cloud computing, digital twins, or the metaverse. Our research concentrates on the two areas "Management of Digital Innovation" and "Digital Sustainability and Responsibility".

We focus on issues at the intersection between digital technologies, management, and organization. Our particular focus is on industries and companies that do not originate from the digital age, but need to build, expand, and establish digital skills, competencies, and mindsets. Our aim is to create relevant and new knowledge that helps decision-makers use digital technologies successfully and responsibly and understand the complex implications at the individual, organizational, industrial, and societal level.

We publish our research in leading journals, conference proceedings, and national media outlets. We take pride in actively ensuring the transfer and exchange of knowledge within academia and beyond. This includes articles in high-reach media (e.g., Handelsblatt, BrandEins, ARD), research and consulting projects with companies and ministries, activities in associations and clubs (e.g. Internet Business Cluster, Münchner Kreis), as well as lectures at events aimed at various target groups.

Since the development of relevant knowledge in increasingly complex socio-economic systems requires interdisciplinary perspectives, we work with eclectic theoretical approaches (especially new institutional economics) and cooperate with scientists from different disciplines.

Our range of methods includes empirical and design-oriented research approaches that are both qualitative (especially case studies, expert interviews, Delphi studies) and quantitative in nature (especially experiments, surveys, secondary data analyses), in which we use various methods such as structural equation modeling (SEM), regression analyses, qualitative comparatives Analyze Analysis (QCA), Response Surface Analysis, Conjoint Analysis. Therefore, our research includes both inductive and deductive research designs.

Our goal is to create relevant knowledge that supports current and future leaders and improve their understandings of the potential of digital technologies, so that they may...

(1) use and design them successfully and responsibly,

(2) understand and evaluate the complex opportunities and risks they bear,

(3) manage and organize them effectively and efficiently.

Management of Digital Innovation

In this area, the main focus is on two aspects.

(1) We deal with digital innovation practices in companies and the impact of disruptive digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Digital Platforms and Ecosystems, Blockchain (NFTs, Web3, Token Economy), Cloud Computing, Digital Twins, or the Metaverse on companies and the economy. The key question in this area is how organizational structures, processes, and governance models influence the success of digital innovation management and how these should be designed.

(2) We analyze the effects of increasing market concentration in important digital markets on innovation, competition, and data protection. In this context, we deal with new technical, economic, and regulatory approaches, particularly with regard to the relevant digital market and data regulations of the European Union: Data Governance Act, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), AI Act, and Digital Markets and Services Acts (DMA, DSA).

Current Topics:

  • Governance and Capabilities for Digital Innovation
  • Digital Business Models and Platforms
  • Digital Transformation in SMEs
  • Privacy and Digital Markets
  • Token Economy and Web 3.0
  • Data Ecosystems and Governance
  • Strategic Management of Digital Technology

Digital Sustainability and Responsibility

In the area of digital sustainability, we deal with the effects of the use of digital technologies on environmental sustainability and the solutions they bring, without neglecting the economic and social sustainability components, of course.

In addition to significant increases in efficiency through the virtualization, optimization, and dematerialization of business processes, digital technologies also have the potential to enable new service-centric, sustainable business models. Digital technologies can also make an important contribution to establishing sustainable methods and behaviors, for example by creating transparency and new insights. Last but not least, digital technologies are an important component in increasing the resilience of companies and society.

We deal with these potentials, but also with the unintended effects, in order to provide decision-makers with insights, solutions, and tools to symbiotically exploit the potential of digital technologies from an economic, ecological and social perspective.

Current topics:

  • Circular Economy
  • Managing ESG Goals
  • Digital Twins
  • Digital Resilience
  • Corporate Digital Responsibility
  • Social and Digital Entrepreneurship