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Focus in Business Innovation

Based on the interest "to change the business", doctoral students in focusing on Business Innovation turn to change processes by going beyond studying, explaining and describing real-world phenomena to developing and constructing innovative artifacts. Through close industry collaboration, innovative, project-based solutions are designed and their applicability and value contribution are validated in the context of the respective research project.

 

The focus in Business Innovation in the PhD Programme in Management (PMA) is designed for PhD students who do not want to limit themselves to analyzing and explaining innovations, but who want to actively participate in the design of innovative solutions to problems, their systematic planning and control in organizations and beyond.

 

Situated between traditional, descriptive research and design-oriented practice, design-oriented research has gained strong momentum not only in practice but also in academia. While practitioners and consultants usually focus on situated innovations for situated problems, Business Innovation researchers on the one hand try to gain a systematic understanding of the respective requirement profile, elicit already existing solution components and reuse them in their recombination with research innovations. On the other hand, they can also conduct Design Science Research (DSR). This approach aims to generate prescriptive knowledge about the design of artifacts, such as software, methods, models, or concepts. This design knowledge helps researchers and practitioners to design artifacts systematically and scientifically in future projects. This design and application can in turn generate design-oriented knowledge that contributes to a DSR knowledge corpus.

 

Based on state-of-the-art theories (e.g. from computer science or the information and communication sciences), concepts, methods, products, reference models and even prototypes (e.g. information or logistics systems) are developed in the Business Innovation focus area. Since the construction of artifacts often requires an extension and adaptation of existing theories, the courses in the Business Innovation track cover not only Design Science, but also relevant aspects of Social Science Research.

 

The Business Innovation specialization is aimed at all Master's graduates who are interested in topics such as digital transformation, digital products and value creation, information management and industrial engineering, technology and innovation management, media and communication management, and logistics management, and who want to consistently develop and explain the emergence of new innovative business solutions. The focus on Business Innovation is closely linked to the research programmes of the Institutes of Information Systems (IWI-HSG), Technology Management (ITEM-HSG), Media and Communication Management (=mcminstitute) and the Chair of Logistics Management.

 

Focus-specific courses and seminars are offered in English and German.

“Join the PMA for unique research opportunities, a collaborative setting, & access to leading academics. I'm especially proud of our PMA for its close collaboration with practitioners, breaking the ivory tower, & making research relevant to the real-world.”
Prof. Dr. Jan-Marco Leimeister
Professor for Information Management

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Jan Marco Leimeister

Prof. Dr.

Full Professor of Information Management

IWI-HSG
Office 52-6020
Müller-Friedberg-Strasse 6/8
9000 St. Gallen
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IWI-HSG
Office 52-6020
Müller-Friedberg-Strasse 6/8
9000 St. Gallen
north