Main research areas

We see ourselves as a scientific department that deals with the analysis and solution of complex problems in the organization of economic transactions. Building on the economic approaches of institutional economics, we take an interdisciplinary approach to issues that are the subject of (primarily long-term) management decisions and develop decision and implementation models for them, using game theory and information economics approaches as well as simulation methods to derive solutions.

We try to derive design recommendations with the help of economic models. The Department is integrated into the scientific community as follows:

• Memberships of staff in scientific organizations: e.g. German Economic Association of Business Administration (GEABA), Verein für Socialpolitik and its committees
• Editorial boards of international journals: e.g. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Review of Managerial Science
• Publication activities: e.g. Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy
• Participation and (co-)organization of scientific conferences and workshops

In addition, academic exchange is promoted through visiting professorships (e.g. Calabria, Auckland, Tokyo, Sydney). Due to this close cooperation with other universities in Germany and abroad, we can also boast international research activities, in particular with Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Principles and aims of teaching:
The Department's mission statement is 'research-led teaching', i.e. the expansion and communication of scientific knowledge in the research and teaching areas represented by the Institute. The focus of teaching activities lies in the teaching of approaches to strategic corporate management and includes concepts for the analysis and evaluation of corporate strategies as well as approaches to strategy implementation and organizational design. Examples include topics such as the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate performance, organizational forms and their impact on competition and the evaluation of insourcing or outsourcing strategies. We offer courses at all levels of business studies:

• Bachelor:
  In the Bachelor's programme, the focus is on teaching the fundamentals of management and the methods and techniques of organizational design.
• Master's degree:
  In the Master's degree course, particular attention is paid to the special field of business administration 'Organization and Institutional Economics'. Here, solution principles for strategic management decisions are derived with the help of agency theory and industrial economics approaches. This provides students with an optimal basis for later work in the management or consulting sector of companies. As part of the Master's thesis, students can deal with specific issues scientifically and thus sharpen their qualification profile.
• Doctorate:
  In the doctoral program, we place particular emphasis on teaching scientific methods and supervising doctoral students at the highest scientific level, with the aim of publishing in international journals. As a matter of course, the Institute also participates in the Doctoral Program for Accounting, Reporting, and Taxation, which is financed by the Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research and organized by the University of Graz in cooperation with the University of Vienna and the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration