On Friday, April 4, 2025, the next “Master your Future” Infoday of the School of Business & Economics will take place in the "Schloss" of the University of Münster. We invite you to find out more about our four Master's degree programs Business Administration, Business Development, Economics and Information Systems and experience highlights from our research and teaching. In addition to information stands and plenty of time for questions, we also offer a campus tour. On-site advice is available in German and English, the program will be mainly in English.

Am Freitag, 04. April 2025, wird der nächste „Master your Future“-Infotag der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät im Schloss der Universität Münster stattfinden. Nutzen Sie die Gelegenheit, mehr über unsere vier Master-Studiengänge Business Administration, Business Development, Economics und Information Systems zu erfahren, und erleben Sie Highlights unserer Forschung und Lehre. Neben Informationsständen und ausreichend Zeit für Fragen bieten wir auch eine Campus-Tour an. Die Teilnahme ist kostenlos, die Anmeldung ab sofort freigeschaltet und bis zum 21. März 2025 möglich.

On January 20, 2025, the CDC Career Dinner took place for the fourth time in the Kaisersaal of the Hotel Kaiserhof. Around 30 students met with representatives from Windmöller & Hölscher, the Nagel Group, Kraft Heinz, and Procter & Gamble to network in a relaxed atmosphere over dinner. The event provided an ideal platform for personal conversations and the establishment of lasting connections.

The project seminar ‘Retrieval Augmented Generation at the City of Krefeld’ ends with the presentation of the results of all seven students. 

The goal of the project seminar, which focused on the integration of documents from the decentralised and separate wikis and the transfer of the intranet into an AI-supported knowledge management system using the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) system, was achieved. From now on, contextualised answers will be possible and internal data sources of the city of Krefeld will be used that are not available to public GenAI models.

In the final presentation, the students explained the technical, organisational and legal challenges of the project to those present - including Mr Baumann from the City of Krefeld as well as Prof. Tobias Brandt and Niklas Korte (Chair of Digital Innovation and the Public Sector) - and presented the functioning prototype (a RAG prototype), which combines its own LLM with an efficient retrieval system. Important milestones included the implementation of a web crawler for data updating, the optimisation of retrieval and the solution of technical hurdles, such as the integration of the system into the IT infrastructure of the city administration.

The presentation was followed by a discussion on the future use of the developed prototype and possible further developments. In particular, the potential of the solution for other municipal applications was discussed.

Am 20. Januar 2025 fand zum vierten Mal das CDC Career Dinner im Kaisersaal des Hotel Kaiserhof statt. Rund 30 Studierende trafen auf Vertreter:innen von Windmöller & Hölscher, der Nagel Group, Kraft Heinz und Procter & Gamble, um bei einem Abendessen Kontakte zu knüpfen. Die lockere Atmosphäre des Career Dinners wurde von allen Teilnehmenden besonders geschätzt. Das Event bot eine ideale Plattform für persönliche Gespräche und den Aufbau nachhaltiger Kontakte. 

Over the past two weeks, 80 participants took part in this year's ski seminar, which was organised by Dr Sebastian Reiners in collaboration with the University of Koblenz (Prof. Dr Patrick Delfmann and Dennis M. Riehle) and took place at a mountain hut in Mittelberg, Austria. 

There were three seminars from Münster, which focussed on the topics “Transformers“, “Exploring Human-AI Interaction: Methodologies and Applications“ and “Decision-Making with Generative AI - Design Science Competition“.

In the master's seminar “Transformers“, which was led by Julian Kranz and Jan Stenkamp, the students focussed intensively on transformers. Transformers are highly scalable and parallelisable AI models that are successfully used not only in large language models, but also in image recognition and time series analysis. During the seminar, the complex architecture of the transformers was examined and impressive application examples were implemented, including writing lyrics in the style of a well-known rapper and predicting weather and stock data.

The aim of the Bachelor's seminar “Exploring Human-AI Interaction: Methodologies and Applications“, led by Dr Marleen Voß and Sandro Franzoi, was to give students a comprehensive insight into the dynamic research field of human-AI interaction and to familiarise them with scientific work and research methods. The participants worked independently in small groups and created exciting projects that demonstrate the diversity of issues in human-AI interaction.

In the bachelor's seminar “Decision-Making with Generative AI - Design Science Competition“ led by Dr Sebastian Reiners and Janis Elmer, the students developed a variety of innovative artefacts - from fitness apps to tools for primary school teachers that generate personalised maths problems based on completed worksheets.

The participants also took advantage of the beautiful weather and skied a lot.

On 14 January 2025, Dr. Christopher Zuber, Senior Consultant of Macroeconomics and Productivity in the scientific staff of the German Council of Economic Experts, presented the current annual report entitled “Addressing failures, investing decisively”. As part of the lecture “Fundamentals of Macroeconomics” by Prof. Dr. Martin Watzinger, key topics such as the lack of economic recovery in Germany despite an improved global economy and the need to shape public finances in a future-oriented manner were discussed.

Am 14. Januar 2025 stellte Dr. Christopher Zuber, Senior Referent Makroökonomik und Produktivität im wissenschaftlichen Stab des Sachverständigenrates Wirtschaft, das aktuelle Jahresgutachten mit dem Titel "Versäumnisse angehen, entschlossen investieren" vor. Im Rahmen der Vorlesung "Grundlagen der Makroökonomik" von Prof. Dr. Martin Watzinger wurden zentrale Themen wie die ausbleibende wirtschaftliche Erholung in Deutschland trotz verbesserter globaler Konjunktur und die Notwendigkeit, die öffentlichen Finanzen zukunftsorientiert zu gestalten, diskutiert.

Prof. Dr. Johann Nils Foege has held the Professorship for Innovation, Strategy, and Organization at the Center for Management at the University of Münster since October 1, 2024. The institute's key focus areas include digital innovation, digitalization, innovation collaborations and platforms, artificial intelligence, sustainability strategy, sustainable consumption, and top management teams. In our interview, Prof Foege reveals what he would like to focus on, what characterises good teaching for him, and why he is delighted to be returning to his alma mater in Münster.

Prof. Dr. Johann Nils Foege ist seit dem 01. Oktober 2024 Inhaber der Professur für Innovation, Strategie und Organisation am Centrum für Management. Zu den Schwerpunkten des Institutes gehören unter anderem die Bereiche digitale Innovation, Digitalisierung, Innovationskooperationen und -plattformen, Künstliche Intelligenz, Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie, nachhaltiger Konsum und Top Management Teams. Im Interview verrät Prof. Foege, welche Schwerpunkte er setzen möchte, was gute Lehre für ihn auszeichnet, und warum es ihm eine große Freude ist, an seine Alma Mater in Münster zurückzukehren.

Das Europäische Forschungszentrum ERCIS der Universität Münster hat gestern eine wegweisende Kooperationsvereinbarung mit dem Sparkassenverband Westfalen-Lippe und weiteren Partnern unterzeichnet und damit die Gründung eines gemeinsamen Labs für Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) besiegelt. Die Einrichtung mit dem Namen „Flow Factory“ widmet sich der Erforschung von KI mit Blick auf die Transformation und Innovation von Prozessen in der Finanzwirtschaft und wird ihre Arbeit sofort aufnehmen.

At the end of 2024, the Department of Information Systems was well represented at ICIS 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand by numerous PhD students, postdocs, and professors. ICIS – The International Conference on Information Systems – is one of the world’s leading conferences for information systems, bringing together researchers from around the globe to discuss the latest research findings.

During the conference, many of our researchers had the opportunity to present their work in workshops, paper sessions, and teaching cases:

- Dr. Lea Püchel participated in a paper development workshop, attended the SIG Grounded Theory Method and presented the teaching case ‘Developing Digital Sustainability Skills through the Grunenfeld Microgrid Project?’ in a paper session, on which she worked with Prof. Tobias Brandt and Tao Yue (https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2024/learnandiscurricula/learnandiscurricul...).

- Matthias Werner presented the paper ‘Riding Two Horses at The Same Time: Paradox Responses for Navigating Exploration and Exploitation in Small and Medium-Sized IT Consulting Firms’, which was co-athored by Dr. Jan Stockhinger, Prof. Stefan Klein and Prof. Dragos Vieru (https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2024/general_is/general_is/13/)

- Dr. Sebastian Reiners presented the DSR Academy (https://dsr-academy.org) in a TREO Talk with his team (Dr. Michael Gau, Gregor Kipping, Fabian Tingelhoff, Prof. Jan vom Brocke, Prof. Tuure Tuunanen, Prof. Jan Marco Leimeister).

- Shariga Sivanthan presented her current research at the pre-ICIS workshops and was Docoral Student Co-Chair at the ICIS 2024.

- Gregor Kipping presented the paper ‘Towards a Reference Model for Designing Micro-Credentials in Higher Education’ as part of the session ‘Methods and Techniques for Impacting Learning Outcomes’ (https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2024/learnandiscurricula/learnandiscurricula/8/). Together with Dr. Michael Gau and Prof. Jan vom Brocke, Gregor explored ways to support higher education organisations in the adoption, design, and communication of just and inclusive micro-credentials.

- Miriam Möllers presented the two papers co-authored with Prof. Benedikt Berger: ‘Machine Learning as a Second Opinion: Understanding Cross-Departmental Differences Through Technological Frames’ and ‘Seeking Augmentation of Knowledge Work through Machine Learning: A Case Study in the Field of Financial Planning’ (https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2024/digtech_fow/digtech_fow/24/).

- Prof. Benedikt Berger participated as a mentor in a Faculty Roundtable of the Doctoral Student Corner.

Die Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät sowie ihr Ehemaligenverein, AlumniUM, präsentieren die „Alumni Stories“ – eine Interviewreihe, in der Absolventinnen und Absolventen der Fakultät ihre Karrierewege und Erlebnisse an der Universität Münster teilen. In Teil 12 der Alumni Stories gibt uns Christian Osterhold, Referent im Bundesministerium der Finanzen in Berlin, spannende Einblicke in seine Arbeit im Bereich der europäischen Finanz- und Wirtschaftspolitik. Dabei erfahren wir auch, welche internationalen Erlebnisse Herrn Osterhold besonders in Erinnerung geblieben sind und wir erhalten seine Einschätzung zur aktuellen Diskussion über die Zukunft des Wirtschaftsstandorts Deutschland.

The Department of Information Systems has elected Prof. Jan vom Brocke as its new Managing Director effective 1 January 2025. He succeeds Prof. Jörg Becker, who served as Managing Director for 30 years until now. In June 2023 Jan vom Brocke was appointed Professor and Chair of Information Systems and Business Process Management. He studied Information Systems at the University of Münster and is recognised internationally as a highly respected researcher in the field of Information Systems.

Das Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik hat Prof. Jan vom Brocke mit Wirkung zum 01. Januar 2025 zum neuen geschäftsführenden Direktor des Instituts gewählt. Er folgt auf Prof. Jörg Becker, der das Institut über 30 Jahre mit großem Engagement geleitet hat. Jan vom Brocke ist seit 2023 Professor und Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Wirtschaftsinformatik und Geschäftsprozessmanagement und hat selbst Wirtschaftsinformatik an der Universität Münster studiert. Er gilt als einer der führenden Wissenschaftler:innen auf dem Gebiet der Wirtschaftsinformatik.

The Department of Information Systems has elected Prof. Jan vom Brocke as its new Managing Director effective 1 January 2025. He succeeds Prof. Jörg Becker, who served as Managing Director for 30 years until now.

In June 2023 Jan vom Brocke was appointed Professor and Chair of Information Systems and Business Process Management.

He studied Information Systems at the University of Münster and completed his doctorate under Prof. Dr. Heinz Lothar Grob. Following his habilitation at the School of Business and Economics, he held the Hilti Chair of Business Process Management and was Director of the Institute of Information Systems at the University of Liechtenstein. During this time, he and his team were also associated partners in the ERCIS network, contributing to numerous collaborative research projects, publications, teaching events and conferences. Today, he is Director at the ERCIS - European Research Center for Information System.

He is also recognised internationally as a highly respected researcher in the field of Information Systems, particularly in the area of Business Process Management. He regularly publishes in leading journals at A and A+ level as well as in outlets of the Financial Times Top 50 Journal List and independent international rankings consistently place Jan vom Brocke in top positions in both Information Systems and Economics. Additionally, he brings valuable teaching experience from prestigious international business schools.

We warmly welcome Prof. Jan vom Brocke to his new role and look forward to the continued success of our department under his leadership. At the same time, we would like to thank Prof. Jörg Becker most sincerely for his outstanding achievements and successful leadership of the department over the past three decades.

The School of Business & Economics and its alumni association, AlumniUM, present the "Alumni Stories" – an interview series where graduates of the School share their career paths and experiences at the University of Münster. In part 12 of the Alumni Stories, Christian Osterhold, Economist at the German Federal Ministry of Finance in Berlin, provides fascinating insights into his work in European financial and economic policy. He also shares memorable experiences from his international career and offers his perspective on the current debate surrounding the future of Germany as a business location.