Research

The UAS Aalen is one of the strongest in research in Baden-Württemberg. This is mostly owed to the individual commitment of faculty professors and the staff of the individual programmes.

The groundwork for high-quality research at the Business Engineering faculty is laid by interdisciplinary collaboration with the Faculty of Business Sciences, the Institut für angewandte Forschung (IAF) , the Institut für angewandte betriebliche Forschung (IBF) and the Institut für angewandte Systemdynamik (IAS).

Research topics

In addition to being taught by our professors, students will pursue individual research projects, concisely presented in the following.

Field of expertise: Company organisation, processes and HR management

The research topics of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Beck mainly cover the following subject areas:

  • Strategical management (strategy and organisational development with implementing and controlling)
  • Integrated business process management (identification, analysis, modelling, optimisation and design)
  • HR management (especially potential analysis and development, individual coaching)

Area of expertise: Marketing & statistics with a focus on business-to-business marketing

Prof. Dr. Ingmar Geiger currently works on research questions in business-to-business marketing, price management, negotiation, and decision making in startup companies. His research approaches always follow the specific research question in focus and encompass qualitative studies (Geiger, 2017), experiments (e.g., Geiger et al., 2015) and survey-based quantitative studies (e.g., Geiger et al., 2016). He collaborates regularly with colleagues nationwide and around the world. Currently, he works on the following yet unpublished projects:

  • Situational strategic versus personal influences on negotiation medium choice: Media Synchronicity Theory and Affect for Communication Channel (joint work with Christoph Laubert, Freie Universität Berlin)
  • Determinants of effectual and causal decision logics in online and high tech startup firms (joint work with Tobias Frese, McKinsey & Company, and Florian Dost, European University Viadrina)
  • ‘The more the merrier’ or ‘less is more’? Number of issues and their effect on dyadic economic negotiation outcomes (joint work with Joachim Hüffmeier, Technische Universität Dortmund)
  • Issue packaging strategies in complex multi-issue negotiations (joint work with Hong Zhang and Roman Trötschel, Leuphana University Lüneburg)
  • Does investor influence foster innovation in new ventures? The mediating role of effectual and causal decision logics (joint work with Tobias Frese, McKinsey & Company, and Florian Dost, European University Viadrina)


His latest published works include:

  • Geiger, I. (2017): A Model of Negotiation Issue-Based Tactics in Business-to-Business Sales Negotiations, Industrial Marketing Management, published online February 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2017.02.003
  • Dost, F., Geiger, I. (2017): Value-based pricing in competitive situations with the help of multi-product price-response maps, Journal of Business Research, published online January 11 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.01.004
  • Geiger, I., Kluckert, M., Kleinaltenkamp, M. (2016): Customer Acceptance of Tradable Service Contracts, Journal of Business Economics, published online March 31 2016, doi: 10.1007/s11573-016-0817-5
  • Geiger, I., Dost, F., Schönhoff, A.M., Kleinaltenkamp, M. (2015): Which types of multistage marketing increase direct customers’ willingness-to-pay? Evidence from a scenario-based experiment in a B2B setting, Industrial Marketing Management, 47(3), 175-189. doi: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2015.02.042.
  • Parlamis, J. D., & Geiger, I. (2015). Mind the Medium: A Qualitative Analysis of Email Negotiation. Group Decision and Negotiation, 24(2), 359-381. doi: 10.1007/s10726-014-9393-7
  • Lügger, K., Geiger, I., Neun, H., & Backhaus, K. (2015). When East meets West at the bargaining table: adaptation, behavior and outcomes in intra- and intercultural German–Chinese business negotiations. Journal of Business Economics, 85 (1), 15-43. doi: 10.1007/s11573-013-0703-3


Prof. Geiger is a member of the editorial board of Industrial Marketing Management, the world’s primary outlet for research in business-to-business marketing. As an ad-hoc reviewer he has lately contributed to the following journals:

  • Computers & Education,
  • European Journal of Marketing
  • Group Decision & Negotiation
  • Industrial Marketing Management
  • International Journal of Information Management
  • Journal für Betriebswirtschaft
  • Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing
  • Journal of International Consumer Marketing
  • Negotiation and Conflict Management Research

Field of expertise: sustained development and quantitative methods

The research of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Holzbaur mainly cover the following subject areas (a selection of his research projects):

  • Sustained event management and practical orientation for training in sustained development
    • BNE KiTa: Research project on orientation in experience and space for training in sustained development (promoted by Landesstiftung BW and Heidehof-Stiftung)
  • Real labs and sustained development
  • Project and planning game methodology (university didactics)
    • ESPRESSO: IQF research project for applying the project method at UAS Aalen (promoted by MWK BW as part of the 'Welcome to science' programme)
    • VAL-U: Planning game on entrepreneurship in newly industrializing countries (promoted by the MWK BW as part of the 'Global learning' programme)
  • Mathematical modelling

Field of expertise: Corporate finances and national economy

Research aims at the following areas:

  • Economic cycles: periodically recurring crises
  • Planned obsolescence: Incentive structures for companies to shorten the planned service life of products
  • Influencing control of university research by industrial enterprises
  • Social effects of advertising


Field of expertise: Applied system dynamics

Research of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Löffler mostly covers the application of methods of applied system dynamics in analysis, synthesis and improvement of the learning progress of first-semester students:

  • Statistical analysis of the extensive records on the learning progress in quantitative subjects of the first semesters (such as engineering and business mathematics)
    • How to develop dynamic models of the learning progress of students with regard to the subjects of general or specific preparatory programmes, mathematical preliminary programmes, seminars and/or socio-bibliographical factors.
  • How to measure the learning motivation concerning associated activities like preliminary courses and/or seminars for students.

In cooperation with the Basics Centre of UAS Aalen, students may contribute to these research projects. This way, students acquire capacities in applied system dynamics which enable them to solve demanding tasks by using special modelling methods. This structured approach is a very good precondition for further professional development.

Field of expertise: Factory automation, electrical engineering and embedded systems

Research topics:

  • Information and communication technology in manufacturing plants
  • Networking embedded systems
  • Data safety in the industrial sphere
  • Ethernet-based sensors for data safety
  • Neural networks and detecting anomalies in data transport