Focus in General Management

In the PMA subprogramme on General Management, PhD students focus on how organizations can create and sustain competitive performance in a manner that accounts for the diverse needs of their different stakeholders as well as the environment and society at large. Under this broad umbrella, the overarching aim is to address through rigorous scientific research questions that have important implications for managerial practice.

The aim of the General Management track is to provide for the participants an in-depth understanding of the factors that influence the performance and sustained success of organizations. Research in the subprogramme encompasses (but is not limited to) research areas, such as, Boards and Governance, Corporate and Competitive Strategy, Strategy Processes and Strategic Decision-Making, International Business, Family Firms and Ownership, Organizational Leadership and Behavior, and Management of Stakeholders and Sustainability.

PhD students will become familiarized with existing theories of management research and the discipline's most important research areas, as well as, on the methodological front, with quantitative and qualitative research methods and formal modelling (surveys, interviews, experiments, panel analyses, event studies, discourse analyses, machine learning, and simulations).

Since organizations are no isolated entities but dynamically interrelated with industries, economies, cultures, and other environmental influences, they cannot be analyzed in isolation. Therefore, the subprogramme is characterized by an ontologically pluralistic approach to theory and methodological diversity. Interdisciplinary concepts will help address important research questions in a sound way. This provides PhD students with the necessary and relevant knowledge to make a valuable and novel contribution to the fields of strategy and management with "disciplined imagination" and a responsible attitude.

All focus-specific courses and seminars are offered in English; passive German language skills might be helpful in the general study context.