Stöbich Entrepreneurship PhD Award
Award for doctoral theses in the field of entrepreneurship research
In cooperation with Stöbich Holding GmbH & Co. KG, the Entrepreneurship Hub of Braunschweig University of Technology and Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences will award the Stöbich Entrepreneurship PhD Award for outstanding dissertations in the field of entrepreneurship research starting in 2021.
Awards will be given for outstanding scientific work that develops innovative approaches to strengthening the entrepreneurship ecosystem. The aim of the award is to encourage and promote scientists to contribute to more innovative entrepreneurship in society. Dissertations that have been awarded at least “magna cum laude” and include a letter of recommendation from the primary reviewer will be evaluated. The winner will be selected by a committee consisting of a representative of Stöbich Holding GmbH & Co. KG, the head of the Entrepreneurship Hub, other professors and representatives from the business community.
Applications for the Stöbich Entrepreneurship PhD Award 2023 are open from
Feb. 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023.
Application period 2023.
Applications for 2023 can be submitted from 01.02.2023 until 30.06.2023.
Award: 7.500 Euro
Requirements
- Thematic focus is in the area of entrepreneurship research (Entrepreneurial-Mindset, Business Model, Entrepreneurial University, Entrepreneurship Governance, Green & Social Entrepreneurship, Lean Startup,...).
- Date of completion of the dissertation is not more than two years ago.
- Dissertation received at least excellent with the grade "magna cum laude".
- Appraisal of the first and second appraiser.
- Letter of recommendation from the first reviewer.
- Five-page summary of the thesis.
- Letter of motivation stating the extent to which the dissertation will contribute to achieving the goals of the Stöbich Entrepreneurship Doctoral Award.
- A short video describing the motivation for the application
Further information on the call for entries and the application can be downloaded here:
The Process
1. Application
Applications for 2023 can be submitted digitally from 01.02.2023 to 30.06.2023.
2. Selection Process
A jury with representatives from science and industry assesses the submitted dissertation according to defined criteria.
3. Awarding
The award ceremony for the Stöbich Entrepreneurship PhD Award 2023 will take place on 02.11.2023 in Braunschweig at the Haus der Wissenschaft.
Our Mission
Young people who are willing to go the extra mile to push themselves to the limits commands respect and recognition, which we are very happy to support. In addition, we get to know aspiring young entrepreneurs whom we would like to integrate into our network. We live by this principle in the Stöbich Group.
The Jury
Prof. Dr. Reza Asghari
- Prof. Dr. Reza Asghari holds the professorship for High-Tech Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the TU Braunschweig and is head of the Entrepreneurship Hub located at both universities
- Head of the EXIST-IV (2012-2017) and EXIST-V project (strand: International convince, since 2020) at both universities.
- From 2000 to 2009 he held the professorship for business administration, internet economics and e-business at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences
Professor Dr. Reza Asghari has held the professorship for Entrepreneurship at the TU Braunschweig and Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences since March 1, 2009, and in this capacity is also head of the Entrepreneurship Hub based at both universities. The business information scientist earned his doctorate in 1997 on the topic of growth economics at the Institute of Economics at the TU Braunschweig and subsequently worked as an e-business consultant in the IT industry, most recently at Oracle Germany. From 2000 to 2009, he held the professorship for business administration, internet economics and e-business at Ostfalia University. Professor Asghari is not only the author of numerous publications in the field of e-business and e-government, but also an entrepreneur himself. With his “Institute for E-Business”, founded in 2001, he develops practice-oriented software solutions for municipalities, public authorities and medium-sized companies.
Wolfgang van Pels
Mr. Wolfgang van Pels has been a member of the Stöbich management since 2018 and is responsible for production in the core business, the international area as well as the producing participations.
He holds a degree in electrical engineering.
His professional career led him to the Stöbich Group via the companies Thyssen-Krupp AG and Wagner Group GmbH.
Mr. van Pels gained most of his professional experience in the international field, with a focus on Asia and the Middle East.
Prof. Em. Dr. Günter Faltin
- Prof. em. Dr. Günter Faltin was professor at the Free University of Berlin for business education and entrepreneurship
- In 1985 he founded the company Projektwerkstatt GmbH, in 1985, with the idea of the “tea campaign”, market leader in the retail of tea in Germany (since 1995)
- Prof. em. Dr. Günter Faltin established the “Stiftung Entrepreneurship” in 2001
Prof. Dr. Lothar Hagebölling
- Prof. Dr. Lothar Hagebölling is Honorary Professor at the Department of Economics and Honorary Senator of the TU Braunschweig
Prof. Dr. – Ing. Christoph Herrmann
- Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Herrmann is University Professor for Sustainable Production and Life Cycle Engineering and Head of the Institute for Machine Tools and Manufacturing Technology (IWF) at the Technical University of Braunschweig and, since November 2018, Institute Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST.
Prof. Dr. Winfried Huck
- Prof. Dr. Winfried Huck is Cambridge Fellow and Professor at the Brunswick European Law School (BELS) of the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences.
Prof. Dr. Winfried Huck studied law at the University of Bonn. After the first state examination, he completed his legal clerkship, among others at the Higher Regional Court of Cologne, and the second state examination in Düsseldorf. He received his doctorate from the University of Bonn in 1991. In 1997, he was called to the University of Applied Sciences Braunschweig / Wolfenbüttel, where he holds a professorship for business law at the Brunswick European Law School (BELS), specializing in international business law and EU business law. He is also a doctoral supervisor of the Faculty of Law at the Brunswick/Wolfenbüttel University of Applied Sciences.
He is also
- Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG), University of Cambridge
- Professor at the Chinese-German University College (CDHK), Tongji University, Shanghai
- Visiting Fellow, Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law (LCIL), University of Cambridge
- Miembro corresponsal de la Sociedad Cubana de Derecho Constitucional y Administrativo de la Unión Nacional de Juristas de Cuba, Havana
Prof. Dr. Harald von Korflesch
- Prof. Dr. Harald von Korflesch has been Professor of Information Management and Organization in the Institute of Management of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Koblenz Campus, since the beginning of 2007.
- From 2016 to 2019, he was Vice President of the University of Koblenz-Landau responsible for research, transfer, internationalization and digitization.
Born in 1962, he received a call to the professorship for Information Management and Organization in the Institute of Management of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Koblenz-Landau at the Koblenz Campus at the beginning of 2007, which he had previously represented on a term since 2003.
From 2016 to 2019, he served as Vice President of the University of Koblenz-Landau, responsible for research, transfer, internationalization and digitalization.
Prior to his time at the University of Koblenz-Landau, he was a research assistant at the University of Kassel, a visiting researcher and project leader of the Business Research Group Innovative Technologies and Entrepreneurship at the University of Cologne, Academic Director of the Euro Business College in Bonn, lecturer at the Kassel International Management School (KIMS), and managing co-partner of InterScience GmbH from 2001 to 2008.
He has been the founder and sole shareholder of VonKor GmbH since 2006. He is also the founder and academic director of the School of Entrepreneurial Design Thinking® (ED-School; www.ed-school.com) and the Central Institute for Scientific Entrepreneurship & International Transfer (ZIFET; www.zifet.de) at the University of Koblenz-Landau.
Under his leadership, the University of Koblenz-Landau was the only university in Rhineland-Palatinate to be awarded the excellence title “Gründeruniversität” (University of Entrepreneurship) by the BMWi.
His current project on entrepreneurship seeks to build a bridge of start-up support between Germany and Rwanda (see www.starfrica.de).
After studying business administration at the University of Cologne, he completed his doctorate in 1993 as a research assistant and assistant professor at the Chair of General Business Administration and Organization Studies at the University of Cologne on the topic of “Computer Supported Organization Design”. In the meantime, he worked as a freelancer and consultant for the Business Administration Institute for Organization and Automation (BIFOA) at the University of Cologne. Following his doctorate, he spent a postdoctoral year at the Sloan School of Management of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), Cambridge, USA. This was followed by various project management positions at the Chair of Information Systems at the University of Kassel, funded by the DFG, the Hessian Ministry of Economics, and the BMBF, among others. As a freelancer, he began consulting medium-sized and large companies such as the RWE Group in 1997. In the same year, he was invited as a visiting researcher to the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), School of Knowledge Science, in Tokyo, Japan. From August 1999 to January 2000, he was a fellow of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation to conduct a study on “Knowledge Communication in the New Media Industry in New York City” as a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Information Systems, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University.
Prof. Dr. Ingo Liefner
- Prof. Dr. Ingo Liefner is Professor of Economic Geography at Leibniz Universität Hannover. Previously, he worked in the same position at Justus Liebig University Giessen.
- His research areas include theoretical and applied economic geography as well as innovation and sustainability in emerging markets, especially China.
Ingo Liefner is Professor of Economic Geography at Leibniz Universität Hannover.
Previously, he held the same position at Justus Liebig University in Giessen.
His research areas include theoretical and applied economic geography as well as innovation and sustainability in emerging markets, especially China. He has led numerous research projects on these topics, usually funded by the DFG or other third-party funders such as the Volkswagen Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, DAAD, Stifterverband, or federal and state ministries.
His relevant publications include thematic issues, books and book chapters as well as journal publications, e.g. in Research Policy, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, Technovation, Science and Public Policy, Technology in Society, Scientometrics, Regional Studies, Growth & Change, EPA or Journal of Informetrics.
In addition, Ingo Liefner has organized numerous conferences and technical meetings and participates as a reviewer, expert or consultant in a wide range of research activities, research institutions and scientific management organizations.
Dr. Volker Müller
- Dr. Volker Müller has been Chief Executive of the Lower Saxony Business Associations e.V. since 2000. (UVN) and Managing Director of the Institut der Norddeutschen Wirtschaft e.V. (INW)
- He has also been Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Hanover since 2006.
- Born 1955
- Studied law, Universities of Saarbrücken and Tübingen Studied sociology, Saarland University; 1985 Doctorate, Dr. phil.
- 1982 German-Mexican Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Mexico
- 1983 German-English Chamber of Industry and Commerce, BDI Country Office, London
- since 2000 Chief Executive Officer of the Entrepreneurial Associations of Lower Saxony e.V. (UVN), and Managing Director of the Institut der Norddeutschen Wirtschaft e.V. (INW)
- Since 2006 Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Hanover
- Other:
- Chairman of the Advisory Board of NBank
- Member of the Government Commission of Lower Saxony Member of the NDR Board of Directors
- Managing Director of the ZVEI Regional Office Lower Saxony-Bremen Member of the Administrative Board of Techniker Krankenkasse
- Member of the Senate of the Zuse Association Chairman of the Board of the University Society
- Member of the Advisory Board of the Lower Saxony/Bremen Regional Office
- Member of the Supervisory Board of the Deutsche Management Akademie Niedersachsen Chairman of the Board of Directors of Verein Wirtschaft Metropolregion
- Managing Director of the Exhibitors’ Advisory Board of Hannover Messe Member of the Supervisory Board of IdeenEXPO
Prof. Dr. Susanne Robra-Bissantz
- Prof. Dr. Susanne Robra-Bissantz has headed the Institute of Information Systems at the Technical University of Braunschweig since 2007.
- Her research area is digital services, with a focus on personal services.
Prof. Dr. Susanne Robra-Bissantz studied business informatics at the Friedrich Alexander University in Nuremberg, where she also completed her doctorate and habilitation.
Since 2007, she has headed the Institute for Information Systems at the Technical University of Braunschweig.
With her team, she conducts research in the area of digital services, with a focus on person-centered services, whose value creation, interactions, and ecosystems she explicates and digital designs on the basis of service logic. For this purpose, special methods in service (ecosystem) design emerge. In this environment, Susanne Robra-Bissantz is interested in how collaboration between interacting actors (e.g., between customers and companies or in interest groups) arises and how it is digitally promoted.
The institute regularly brings its findings into practice, whether in lectures, continuing education courses or in cooperation with companies as well as in projects, for example of the BmBF. It presents its research results at national and international conferences (e.g. ECIS, ICIS, AMCIS, GeNeMe, DESRIST). Robra-Bissantz is editor of HMD – Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik.
Prof. Dr. Jelena Spanjol
- Dr. Jelena Spanjol is the head of the Institute for Innovation Management (IIM) at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU).
- Prof. Dr. Jelena Spanjol’s research interests involve different perspectives and levels of innovation. Central research theses concern innovation motivations, capabilities and behaviors.
Prof. Dr. Jelena Spanjol, PhD, is head of the Institute for Innovation Management (IIM) at the Munich School of Management, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, Germany. She is also co-founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of the LMU Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (IEC). Prior to joining LMU, she held faculty positions at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Texas A&M University. She received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Jelena’s research examines innovation dynamics across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. Her current projects explore, among others, the holistic value management principles in innovation, customer co-development for responsible innovation, and entrepreneurial narratives around impact strategies. In addition, her research examines consumer journeys and resulting innovation opportunities in healthcare services. Her work has been published in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Marketing Letters, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Health Psychology, Information & Management and in various book chapters. She currently serves as Editor-in-Chief (with Charles Noble) of the Journal of Product Innovation Management, the leading academic journal for innovation management and New Product Development issues.
Award winner
Award winner 2022: Aishwarya Kakatkar
- Aishwarya Kakatkar from the Entrepreneurship Research Institute at the Technical University of Munich.
- Title of the dissertation: Entrepreneurial Cognition and Well-Being in Early-Stage Ventures
- Special field of the dissertation: Entrepreneurial Management
Dr. Kakatkar’s research specifically examined how entrepreneurial ideas and the relationships in founding teams develop. An important aspect of the research included how founders develop persistent and extreme exhaustion and how they recover from this exhaustion.
The structural understanding gained about how knowledge and insights are organized and distributed in teams has a major impact on how the team approaches problem solving and decision making. This then determines, for example, the strategy with which the startup enters the market and the growth strategy it chooses, i.e. ultimately the company’s success.
Dr. Kakatkar has presented her research results at important international academic conferences on entrepreneurship and management. One of her conference papers was published as a best paper in the Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings 2021.
The results of her research have practical relevance for the startup ecosystem. Founders, but also supporters along the start-up process, will be shown how development and decision-making processes work in a team and how a possible “founder exhaustion” can be prevented.
Award winner 2021: Torben Antretter
- Torben Antretter from the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St. Gallen.
- Title of the dissertation: Investment Decisions and Outcomes of Early Stage Investors.
- Special field of the dissertation: Entrepreneurial Finance
Dr. Antretter’s research project is characterized by innovative AI approaches and the successful transfer of scientific findings into an economically relevant application.
His research focuses on developing ways to predict the likelihood of survival of startups after their founding. He placed a particular focus on evaluating the appearance of startups in social media, especially Twitter.
As a result, he was able to show that artificial intelligence could generate better investment returns than humans, although experienced investors still often achieved higher returns. For less experienced investors, however, the algorithms developed could serve as good guidance.
The commercial use of Dr. Antretter’s research has the potential to lower the barrier to entry in potential startup investments. This could make it easier for innovative start-ups to close the critical capital gap that exists today in terms of start-up financing.
About the award’s namesake
Stöbich Brandschutz GmbH develops, manufactures and installs individual and series solutions in the field of structural fire protection worldwide and is one of the most innovative and globally leading companies in the industry.
The Goslar-based family business has its origins back in 1978, when a major fire in a Bahlsen factory caused millions of euros worth of damage because the fire was transferred to several parts of the factory through wall openings via conveyor systems.
It was precisely for these openings in walls and ceilings that Dr.-Ing. Jochen Stöbich designed the first fire protection closures for continuous conveyor systems – the impetus for the founding of Stöbich Brandschutz and the basis of its success story to this day.
Stöbich sells worldwide through its own branches (four national branches in Goslar, Bopfingen, Unna, Halle/Queis), 10 foreign branches as well as through more than 50 international sales locations/distributors.
To build a business, you first need the courage to overcome your fear of failure. Later success requires perseverance, remaining true to one's goals even in the face of setbacks, and above all, tireless commitment.
The creation of innovative startups from universities is very important for our economy and society. I myself once started as a startup. Today, my company is the global market leader in our industry. I hope that this award will help entrepreneurship research in Germany to gain more importance and that young academics will found more technology companies.
In 1979, Dr. Ing. Jochen Stöbich had the “sparking” idea: In a major fire at the Hanover-based cookie manufacturer Bahlsen, the damage would have been 6 million DM less if the fire had not spread to other areas of the hall via the conveyor systems.
As the inventor of the fire protection closure for conveyor-bound systems, he founded the company Stöbich Brandschutz in 1980 and started production in a small workshop in Goslar.
In the meantime, the company has become the global innovation leader in preventive fire protection thanks to numerous new developments and over 200 patent applications. The company has now developed 11 world firsts in this field and successfully launched them on the international market.
Today, the group of companies has 1,030 employees and generates a sales volume of around €100 million.
Four Stöbich Brandschutz GmbH branches in Germany and
Ten Stöbich foreign companies as well as eleven other companies in “related” industries belong to the Stöbich Group.
Contact
More topics:
Entrepreneurship
Promotion Award
Entrepreneurship
Promotion Award
