The 27.09.2022 was a great day for the chair: Two doctoral students successfully defended their doctoral project and thus completed it!

Dr. Andreas Damm received his doctorate on the topic of "The role of complexity and judgment in enacting Financial Accounting Organizational responses and managerial perceptions around the implementation of IFRS 16". In his doctoral thesis he focused on the organizational consequences of the implementation of a new accounting standard. As part of his work, Dr. Andreas Damm was able to demonstrate the extent to which accounting standards not only reflect the reality in the company, but actually influence it very actively.

Dr. Ulrich Müller received his doctorate on the topic of "The role of top executives in the choice of management forecast characteristics: An empirical investigation of the human imprint on financial disclosure decisions". Based on a self-constructed and globally unique data set, Dr. Ulrich Müller researched the influence of different top management characteristics on the design of the forecast report. His results demonstrate, for example, how diversity of the top management team affects the disaggregation of the forecast report. At this point, the entire chair team would like to thank Prof. Guido Möllering for taking over the second opinions for the two doctoral theses.

Erik Strauß & Martin Quinn (Eds.) (2022). The Routledge Handbook of Accounting Information Systems (2nd ed.). Routledge. doi.org/10.4324/9781003132943
The Routledge Handbook of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) is a prestige reference work offering a comprehensive overview of the state of current knowledge and emerging scholarship in the discipline of AIS.

The pace of techno­logical-driven change is rapid, and this revi­sed edition provides a deeper focus on the technical underpin­nings and organisa­tional consequences of accounting infor­mation systems. It has been updated to capture the changes in technology since the previous edition. It now includes chap­ters and scholarly thought on artificial intelligence, predicti­ve analytics and data visualisation among others.

Contributions from an international cast of authors provide a balanced overview of established and developing themes, iden­tifying issues and discussing relevant deba­tes. The chapters are analytical and engaging. Many chapters include cases or examples, and some provide additional resources for readers. The chapters also provide a reflection on whe­re the research agenda is likely to advance in the future.

This is a complete and indispensable guide for students and rese­archers in accounting and accounting infor­mation systems, aca­demics and students seeking convenient access to an unfamili­ar area, as well as es­tablished researchers seeking a single repo­sitory on the current debates and literature in the field.

Also in the winter semester 2022/23 we were pleased to welcome Gereon Sperling (KPMG) as a guest speaker. Together with his colleague Christoph Sommer, he reported on various cases of fraud and how KPMG uncovered them. It became particularly clear to the students how important solid financial accounting knowledge is as a basis for detecting complex fraud cases. It was once again an exciting and instructive insight into the challenging work of auditing.

Also in summer semester we were pleased to welcome Hendrik Koch, partner at KPMG and alumnus of UW/H, for a guest lecture. In his lecture during the seminar "External Accounting" he provided exciting insights into the three concepts "Sustainability, Cybercrime and WireCard" and their relation to each other. All three concepts represent essential complexes of topics within the daily work of auditors.

What is the importance of internal accounting still today from the point of view of business practice? In his guest lecture on 29.06.2022, Stefan Tobias explained the current relevance of controlling in practice as part of the course "Internal Accounting". Mr. Tobias is a partner at Horváth, an internationally active, independent management consultancy headquartered in Stuttgart. Mr. Tobias presented the control model and the general archetypes of control approaches from the perspective of corporate practice. He also explained operational management to the students using the example of sales and plant management. The topic was very well received by the students, who asked many questions about the subject.

In seiner neuen A-Publikation (nach VHB-Ranking) im European Accounting Review untersucht Prof. Erik Strauß, wie die gemeinsame Erstellung von Controlling-Instrumenten im Rahmen des Entwicklungsprozesses von neuen Produkten die Zusammenarbeit über fachliche Grenzen hinweg fördert und als kreative Ressource agieren kann. Strauß ist Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Controlling und Unternehmenssteuerung sowie Dekan der Fakultät für Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft an der UW/H.

Dafür nutzt er die Visualisierung unterschiedlicher Gedankenwelten durch Controlling-Instrumente. Sie versetzen die Akteur:innen in die Lage, einander besser zu verstehen und so gemeinschaftlich eine These darüber zu bilden, was ein neues Produkt sein soll. Gleichzeitig fördert das gegenseitige Verständnis aber auch das Aufkommen von Antithesen. Beispielsweise kann es dazu führen, dass das neue Produkt anders aussehen sollte und es erfordert eine Anstrengung aller Akteur:innen zu einer neuen Synthese zu gelangen - also zu einem neuen, gemeinschaftlichen Verständnis vom finalen Produkt zu gelangen. Auf diese Weise kann die Entwicklung von Produkten durch konkrete Maßnahmen vorangetrieben werden, was Unsicherheiten minimiert und kreativen Raum eröffnet.

Aufbauend auf diesen Ergebnissen liefert der Beitrag von Prof. Strauß wichtige Einsichten in die kreative Rolle des Controllings. „Während anfänglich Controlling als innovationshemmend wahrgenommen wurde, können wir mit unseren Resultaten klar zeigen, dass Controlling als Treiber von Innovationen dienen kann. Damit leisten wir einen Beitrag zur Rolle des Controllings in unternehmerischen und kreativen Bereichen“, so Strauß zur neuen Publikation.

Der Artikel ist open access und kann hier abgerufen werden: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09638180.2022.2082994

Sollten Sie Rückfragen haben oder mehr Informationen wünschen, wenden Sie sich gerne an:

Prof. Dr. Erik Strauß unter erik.strauss@uni-wh.de oder 02302 / 926-567.

On April 29, Dr. Karl Echtermeyer gave the presentation "Designing the Aircraft for Networks of Tomorrow." Dr. Echtermeyer worked for more than 30 years at Lufthansa in the area of fleet management and was responsible, among other things, for fleet strategy. With his many years of professional experience and expertise, and as a passionate glider pilot, he offered the audience exciting insights into challenges facing the aviation industry.

The idea for the lecture was developed by the students in the master's course Accounting and Controlling as part of the Students' Term. Lasse Junius, Master's student, organized this lecture in coordination with Dr. Nadine Gerhardt. The lecture took place online via Zoom - due to the COVID-19 pandemic - and was very popular among the almost 30 listeners. After the exciting lecture by Dr. Echtermeyer, all participants discussed in detail the various topics related to fleet management and the aviation industry.

In his presentation, Dr. Echtermeyer explained various challenges and gave an insight into the current pandemic-related situation in the aviation industry. About 75% of all aircraft worldwide are currently not in operation. For airlines, this means major revenue losses but also savings of up to 75% of the operating costs of these aircraft on the ground.

Dr. Echtermeyer then used many examples to illustrate the factors that influence the airlines' business. Among other things, he also addressed the global competitive situation, the design and development of route networks and the design of each airline's aircraft fleet. As an example of the competitive situation, Dr. Echtermeyer pointed to developments in the Middle East. In the United Arab Emirates, aviation passenger traffic had doubled from 2006 to 2012. Accordingly, the Emirates airline has invested in a massive expansion of its aircraft fleet in recent years.

As an airline, the development of route networks is a key factor in strategic (fleet) management. The route networks map the flight routes of all airlines worldwide, including the flight routes of low-cost carriers (no-frills carriers) and network carriers (network airlines, such as Lufthansa). The business models of the airlines also differ in the management of different routes in the route network. Low-cost carriers focus on short-haul routes, while network carriers also offer long-haul flights.

Decisions on the design of the aircraft fleet are based on information on the state of the art, current and future customer demand, financial and sustainability aspects, among other factors. Fleet management plans the fleet several years in advance and therefore faces the challenge of anticipating the airline for future needs. Dr. Echtermeyer sees a simulation-based approach as an appropriate basis for information here, in which all relevant factors and their interactions can be taken into account in the simulation.

A new study shows that metrics-based management during the coronavirus pandemic optimizes hospital capacity to deliver better health care.

During the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, hospitals were confronted for the first time with the situation of adjusting their infrastructure to maintain existing health care delivery while hospitalization rates increased. A key indicator - the number of COVID-19 beds - quickly became established in resource planning. The goal: standard operating procedures and the physical layout of hospital operations should remain manageable under crisis conditions. At the height of the first wave, this indicator was differentiated into several "bed indicators" to build supply capacity, drive workforce planning, and provide early solutions for material procurement.

Dr. Nadine Gerhardt of Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H) and her co-authors then addressed the question of how indicator-based management in German hospitals has helped to plan capacity and ensure sustainable care provision since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. Their research has recently been published in the study  „Organizing care during the COVID-19 pandemic:The role of accounting in German hospitals“.

Metrics-based capacity optimization

"We found that a central set of metrics around the number of beds for COVID-19 patients has become prevalent in hospital management since the outbreak of the pandemic. With the help of these indicators, hospital management was able to problematize existing care capacities, reorganize them and make them plannable in order to ensure the treatment of all patients in the long term," says study author Dr. Nadine Gerhardt, summarizing the results of the observations. In the final months of the first wave, she says, these bed indicators were then used to virtualize new emergency configurations, facilitating a gradual return to "normalcy" in the hospital's daily routine while preserving capacity to prepare for future COVID-19 waves. Control-relevant metrics would have been instrumental in deriving predictable actions from a completely ambiguous situation and providing a basis for decision-making.

Theory & Method

Previous studies have focused on the allocative function of accounting in crisis situations, i.e., the allocation of resources - such as the money a hospital receives from various sources to cover costs. "In our study, we use a new indicator-based approach to answer the question of how accounting specifically contributes to keeping structures and processes predictable in the COVID-19 crisis," says Dr. Nadine Gerhardt, explaining the theoretical context of the study.

To this end, the team of authors researched decision-making processes in five hospitals that are part of the same corporate group and geographically distributed across five different federal states in Germany. During the study period from March to August 2020, the authors conducted numerous interviews with physicians and hospital managers.

Lukas Crepaz, Commercial Director of the Salzburg Festival gave a lecture on "Culture in Corona Times" on January 26. The online lecture took place within the master seminar Accounting and Controlling.

The Salzburg Festival is the largest festival operator for classical music and drama in Europe. In 2020, the Festival celebrated its 100th anniversary and planned 300 events for it. But then came Corona and with it the uncertainty of how the cultural operations would run in 2020. Everything was questioned and creatively rethought. Since the Salzburg Festival had already had to make do with a lack of resources in the founding period after the First World War, Corona was now taken on as an incentive and project to find creative solutions for this. In the form of a project organization, various scenarios and, at an early stage, a comprehensive hygiene concept were developed. These scenarios were all underpinned by profitability and financing calculations.

Lukas Crepaz worked out these challenges and solution approaches of the Salzburg Festival together and interactively with the students within his lecture. After the lecture, the students gave very positive feedback and praised in particular the practical relevance and the interactive development of the topics.

Taking the emergence of the controller profession as an example, Prof. Erik Strauß together with Associate Prof. Lukas Goretzki (Stockholm School of Economics), Assist. Prof. Lukas Löhlein, Prof. Utz Schäffer and Dr. Alexander Schmidt (all WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management), which strategies were used by controllers at the beginning of the emergence of their profession to generate their own image.

Building on interviews with contemporary witnesses and an in-depth analysis of articles in the initial practice magazines, the team of authors demonstrates the role that metaphors in particular played in influencing public discourse. Through figurative language, the actors involved were able to construct a social identity that was inclusive, but at the same time made it possible to connect the controller to both relevant issues in contemporary history and the specific experiences of the individuals. Through the strategic use of metaphors, it was possible to articulate a professional mission that helped the actors of the time envision a community, even though their specific work contexts were very different.

The paper described above has been accepted for publication at "European Accounting Review" (VHB: A) and can be found under the following identifier:

Exploring the role of metaphors in social-identity construction: the case of the German controller;
DOI: 10.1080/09638180.2021.1882318

On January 11, Dr. Hans-Joachim Grabow, Senior Advisor, together with consultant Dr. Aaron Hemmerich (both Struktur Management Partner GmbH) designed an interactive lecture on "Relevance and Approaches of Integrated Cash Management in the Context of the COVID-19 Crisis" in the course External Accounting at the University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H). Dr. Grabow is an author, experienced management consultant and expert on the topic of "Turnaround Management in Practice". Dr. Hemmerich has also been working as a consultant at SMP since 2020. The lecture took place - due to the COVID-19 pandemic - online via Zoom.

The COVID-19 pandemic led in many companies to sales slumps, changes in the working environment and often within a short time to a liquidity crisis. Accordingly, these companies focused on securing liquidity in the first phase. SMP uses tools such as scenario calculations, management cockpits and resilience tests to integrate cash management into the companies' holistic crisis management. The holistic crisis management further integrates the topics of work organization, stakeholder communication, strategy adjustments and many more in order to restore the companies' performance.

Dr. Grabow and Dr. Hemmerich used two case studies to analyze the causes of a strained liquidity situation together with the students and to develop recommendations for action. In a liquidity planning session, the students themselves created base and stress cases, questioned planning assumptions and developed measures to maintain liquidity.  

After the presentation, the students gave very positive feedback on the lecture by Dr. Grabow and Dr. Hemmerich and praised in particular the practical relevance and the interactive elaboration of the topics in the case studies.
Struktur Management Partner GmbH (SMP) is a management consultancy specializing in turnaround, restructuring and growth. SMP advises medium-sized companies in various industries. For its work, the SMP team has been awarded several times as TOP Consultant, best management consultancy or for the outstanding restructuring performance in Germany. SMP was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Cologne.

Prof. Dr. Erik Strauß (38) will become dean of the newly founded Faculty of Business & Society at Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H). The Faculty Council elected the holder of the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Endowed Chair for Controlling and Corporate Management this week to succeed Prof. Dr. Marcel Tyrell, who led the faculty as dean during the previous term of office.

"I am very pleased to actively support and advance the development and expansion of the new Faculty of Business and Society (i.G.) in this role. It is my goal to work with all stakeholders in and around the faculty to develop innovative concepts in research and teaching that promote sustainable societal development," said Prof. Dr. Strauß.

"We are pleased that Prof. Dr. Strauß was elected dean without a dissenting vote - in other words, with a strong tailwind. This is a generational change and another important milestone in the further development of the social and socio-scientific part of our university," says UW/H President Prof. Dr. Martin Butzlaff. "The realignment of the faculty is highly relevant for the university and its mission to contribute to society. We warmly congratulate the new dean and wish him - together with an academic leadership team yet to be elected and the commercial director - much joy, good success and sustainable success in this academic as well as entrepreneurial leadership task."

Butzlaff also thanked the now former dean, Prof. Dr. Marcel Tyrell. "His tenure was marked by the goal point of a now newly founded Faculty of Business & Society: a development phase full of excitement, creativity and complexity. During this time, Marcel Tyrell has exercised leadership responsibility with an open eye for the development potential of UW/H and the core concerns of the faculty. We would also like to express our sincere thanks for his dedicated personal commitment in this leadership role!"

On July 8, Dr. Axel Walther, Manager at Deloitte, gave a lecture in the lecture External Accounting at the University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H). Dr. Walther is an alumni of UW/H and was pleased to give the students an insight into "Compliance and Risk Management - What the Auditor (Doesn't) See". The lecture took place online via Zoom - due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The work of auditors is clearly regulated in scope and content. As part of audit-related consulting services, Deloitte, among others, advises companies on the design of compliance and risk management systems. Compliance describes the observance of legal regulations and internal company guidelines. Dr. Walther used various examples to illustrate what needs to be taken into account in the design of these systems and how risks can be managed, e.g. through management instruments for prevention (e.g. code of conduct, training) and detection (whistleblower systems). In doing so, he emphasized the importance of corporate culture: "The best whistleblower system won't help you much if your team doesn't use it with confidence and give the rules weight through action."

After the lecture, the students gave consistently positive feedback about the insights into practice. When asked what students took away from the lecture, one student mentioned that he particularly liked Dr. Walther's closing statement about the importance of corporate culture in risk and compliance management.

Deloitte provides auditing, risk advisory, tax advisory, financial advisory and consulting services to companies and institutions in all sectors of the economy; legal services are provided in Germany by Deloitte legal. With a global network of member firms in more than 150 countries, Deloitte combines outstanding expertise with first-class services to help clients solve their complex business challenges. Making an impact that matters - for around 286,000 Deloitte employees, this is both a common guiding principle and an individual aspiration.

On June 17, Fabian Limmeroth, commercial manager of SIM Automation GmbH, gave a lecture in the lecture Internal Accounting at the University of Witten/Herdecke. He gave the students an insight into the order flow process of SIM Automation GmbH from a cost accounting perspective. The lecture took place - due to the COVID-19 pandemic - online via Zoom.

The order processing at SIM Automation GmbH is clearly structured and standardized. In the phases of order planning, execution and completion, cost accounting information is essential for control. Together with the students, Fabian Limmeroth worked out what cost accounting information is needed for in these phases. With the help of many examples from his everyday work, Limmeroth explained how bid prices are calculated for orders, accompanied by IT-supported project controlling and recalculated after order completion.

SIM Automation GmbH produces customer-specific automation solutions for companies in the automotive, aviation and medical/pharmaceutical industries. Fabian Limmeroth showed dialysis filters and airbag gas generators that are produced fully automatically on SIM Automation GmbH machines.

After the presentation, the students gave consistently positive feedback. Among other things, the insight into the IT system in controlling and "how financial planning works in reality" (UW/H student) was particularly positive.

The Dr. Werner Jackstädt Endowed Chair of Controlling is awarding new exciting bachelor and master thesis topics for students.

The proposed topics for the theses are available for download here.

If you are interested, please send us an e-mail.

On January 22, 2020, the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Endowed Chair of Controlling visited the headquarters of "Malzers Backstube" in Gelsenkirchen as part of the "Internal Accounting" event. .

Christian Scherpel, a member of the management team, began by introducing the history, positioning and cost accounting of the long-established family business. After a subsequent tour of the production facilities, the excursion participants enjoyed an extensive tasting of the baked goods portfolio.

As part of the "External Accounting" event, the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Endowed Chair of Controlling welcomed Gideon Sperling (auditor, tax consultant) and Claudia Fielenbach (auditor, tax consultant) from KPMG on January 22. The senior partner and the partner from the KPMG Audit division gave the students a comprehensive insight into "Fraud in auditing" in their presentation.

Gideon Sperling and Claudia Fielenbach illustrated the facets of fraud using various examples and actively involved the students. The Fraud Triangle presented by the lecturers at the beginning illustrated how complex the topic is in practice. Crises present the management of many companies with challenges that could hardly be greater. Tougher competitive practices, more difficult market penetration, profit slumps and utopian return targets can be ingredients in a treacherous cocktail. But personal financial problems can also drive employees into a corner. Using different fraud cases, both speakers illustrated how these were uncovered and used them to show very clearly how important theoretical accounting knowledge is and how exciting it is to work with clients.

On January 21, 2020, the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Endowed Chair of Controlling and Corporate Management welcomed Dr. Matthias Nowicki, Commercial Director of the Schauspielhaus Bochum, for a guest lecture.

Dr. Nowicki explained how the Bochum Schauspielhaus is nevertheless managed economically as a non-profit enterprise. This is a great challenge when you consider that for every employee you meet during a visit to the Schauspielhaus, there are 15 others working behind the scenes.

The holder of the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Endowed Chair of Controlling and Management Control at UW/H receives the honor of the renowned Journal of Management Control.

Prof. Dr. Erik Strauß was named Best Reviewer 2017 by the Journal of Management Control, honoring him for his many years of professional support. "I am very pleased about the award and the appreciation of my colleagues that it expresses. Critical discourse in the context of publication processes is an essential component for high-quality research, which is why this work has a special meaning for me," comments Prof. Strauß on his award.

The Journal of Management Control is one of the most renowned international journals in the field of management accounting & control. The Journal of Management Control was founded in 1990 as a German journal (Zeitschrift für Planung) and enjoys an outstanding reputation as a scientific journal in equal measure for research and practice.

The aim of the journal is to continuously develop the concepts and tools of controlling and management control in order to make a positive contribution to management decision making.

Prof. Erik Strauß takes over the scientific leadership of one of the oldest and most renowned working groups of the Schmalenbach Society. The working group "Integrated Corporate Planning" was founded in 1971 and sees itself as a platform for the exchange between business management practice and research in the field of corporate planning. The working group meets twice a year, in spring and fall. Within this framework, selected key topics and current challenges, especially in the field of strategy development and implementation, are discussed. The structured personal exchange of experience and professional discourse are the focus of the meetings, which provide members with very valuable impetus and suggestions on relevant topics. In addition, pragmatic approaches to solutions are developed jointly and the possible applications of scientific findings and new methods are discussed.

Current topics of the working group are new, digitalized business models and technologies and their influence on corporate planning.

The members of the working group include, for example, representatives of the following companies:

•    BASF SE
•    Bayer AG
•    BMW AG
•    BP Europa SE
•    Daimler AG
•    DB Mobility Logistics AG
•    DB Vertrieb GmbH
•    Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH
•    IBM Deutschland Research & Development GmbH
•    KION GROUP AG
•    Miele & Cie. KG
•    Norma Group SE
•    Robert Bosch GmbH
•    Siemens AG
•    TRUMPF GmbH + Co. KG
•    Uniper SE
•    Zwiesel Kristallglas AG

More information about the working group is available  here.

Controlling systems are generally regarded as a simple, operational means for the purpose of managing existing corporate processes. At the same time, the introduction of new global controlling systems presents companies with massive challenges, as these systems have an impact on virtually every local area of a company. Accordingly, the successful development and implementation of global controlling systems depends to a not inconsiderable degree on balancing global and local interests. The role of locally developed, already existing controlling systems (so-called vernacular accounting systems; VAS for short) in the development of global controlling systems is the focus of the newly published study by Prof. Erik Strauß together with Assistant Professor Dr. Lukas Goretzki (University of Innsbruck) and Assistant Professor Dr. Leona Wiegmann (WHU Vallendar), published by Contemporary Accounting Research (online first, Wiley).

The results of the study reveal that VAS can play three essential roles in the development process of new, global controlling systems. They serve as a reference point for local actors to assess the advantageousness of the new, global system and thus influence the future local application of the new system. VAS support local actors in bringing their local knowledge into the global systems by acting as a vehicle for knowledge transfer. In addition, VAS strengthen the position of local actors in the negotiation process with global system developers, as local actors can "threaten" to continue using their systems. Against this background, the study results shed a completely new light on the relevance and influence of local systems on the development of global controlling systems.

Martin Quinn and Erik Strauss publish a chapter entitled “The Cloud and Management Accounting and Control” in the Routledge Companion to Performance Management and Control / Elaine Harris. They suggest that cloud technologies offer many advantages to businesses at present but there are of course disadvantages, centred mainly on security issues.

However, they argue that it is reasonable to suggest that advantages such as reduced costs, scalable systems, portability and increased processing capability outweigh the security issues. From the Management Accounting Systems’ and Management Control Systems’ view, it would seem without doubt that cloud technologies improve both by, for example, allowing firms take advantage of processing or systems capabilities previously unaffordable or by increasing the pervasiveness of management control throughout an organization.

Lukas Goretzki, Erik Strauss and Leona Wiegmann publish article in Contemporary Accounting Research (VHB: A)

Erik Strauss and his co-authors published the paper “Exploring the roles of vernacular accounting systems in the development of “enabling” global accounting and control systems” in Contemporary Accounting Research. Their study sheds light on how self-developed local accounting and control systems (so-called vernacular accounting systems; VAS) can influence knowledge integration in development processes of enabling global accounting and control systems.

They focus on accounting and control systems as devices that enable local actors to build on codified knowledge to create “new” knowledge that can facilitate local problem-solving. They argue that local actors would evaluate a proposed global system as enabling or coercive depending on both their ability to manipulate the knowledge codified within as well as the consequences that the codified knowledge has for their authority in the local knowledge creation process. Based on a case study of the development process of a global accounting and control system, they demonstrate that VAS can play a crucial role in both local actors’ evaluation of a proposed system (as points of reference) and their influence on knowledge integration (as knowledge transformation devices).

Furthermore, local actors may continue to rely on their VAS if they realize that the proposed global system does not fit their needs. Local actors can thus use their VAS (as negotiation devices) to strengthen their position in the development process as counterparts to the global system designers because the “threat” of continuing to use the VAS may prompt system designers to integrate local knowledge into the proposed global system. They thus also suggest that, if made visible to others and actively mobilized, VAS may foster productive debates that facilitate the migration of local knowledge into global systems.

Prof. Dr. Erik Strauß, holder of the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Endowed Chair for Controlling & Corporate Management at UW/H, together with Assistant Prof. Dr. Lukas Goretzki, analyzes the role of the controller around the world, taking global trends into account.

The role of the controller has received much attention in both research and practice since the emergence of the profession in the 1960s. In the numerous articles and books, it has always been written about "the controller", regardless of the country, culture or social background from which the subject of the study came.

In order to examine the homogeneity of the controller that is assumed as a result, Prof. Dr. Erik Strauß and Assistant Professor Dr. Lukas Goretzki have asked experts on controlling in the respective countries around the world to have their say in their new book "The Management Accountant - Local Variations and Global Influences". The resulting book not only brings together for the first time information from all major industrialized and developing countries about the controller, but also addresses global trends (such as outsourcing, IT systems, etc.) that may have an impact on the future development of the controller role.

The book is published by Routledge and is available on their website and in bookstores.

For further information, please visit the  website of Routledge Publishing. If you have any questions, please contact Prof. Dr. Erik Strauß (erik.strauss@uni-wh.de, +49 (0) 2302 / 926-567).

Lukas Goretzki & Erik Strauß (Eds.).
The Role of the Management Accountant - Local Variations and Global Influences. Routledge Publishers 2017
ISBN 9781138941359

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

As part of the talent program, on July 17, 2017, we visited MeisterSinger GmbH & Co. KG. Mr. Manfred Brassler (Founder and Managing Director) and Mr. Stefan Loges (Head of Marketing + PR) welcomed the participants of the Talent Program in Münster.

Mr. Brassler shared his visions and ideas, which led to the foundation of MeisterSinger. The lecture was complemented by the presentation of the marketing and communication strategy, which was presented by Mr. Loges. After the two presentations, all participants got the chance to try on MeisterSinger's latest products.

It was a great excursion, which made clear how much passion is needed to successfully start a new watch brand and establish it in such a competitive market. On behalf of the entire Talent Program, we would like to thank Mr. Brassler and Mr. Loges for this extraordinary excursion!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

On 12.07.2017, Dr. Hans-Joachim Grabow (Partner) and Mr. Dominic Kürten (Team Manager) from Struktur Management Partner GmbH shared their experiences with the course "External Accounting".

The lecture "Commercial Management in Medium-Sized Businesses: Myths and Realities of Commercial Management - An Interactive Lecture" provided interesting insights into the application of external accounting in practice.

We would like to thank Dr. Grabow as well as Mr. Kürten for the interesting and instructive lecture!

On July 10 and 12, 2017, Ms. Britta Kristin Beyer was a guest at Witten/Herdecke University.
As part of our talent program, she gave a workshop on "The power of the right body language".

During the two days, the students received answers to the questions, among others:

How do I use my body language for:

1. a confident appearance?

2. good self-management - to avoid stress?

3. my optimal potential?

On behalf of the entire talent program, we would like to thank Ms. Beyer for the extremely interesting and very helpful workshop!

Herr Oliver Mölls (Leiter Planung, Bilanzen, Finanzen und Steuern) von der Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH hielt am 05.07.2017 im Rahmen der Lehrveranstaltung „Internes Rechnungswesen“ einen Vortrag zum Thema „Internes Rechnungswesen bei Karstadt – Nicht bloß Theorie, sondern ein wichtiges Instrument der Steuerung“.

Wir bedanken uns bei Herrn Mölls für den interessanten und lehrreichen Vortrag!

The 11th conference of the European Network for Research in Organisational and Accounting (ENROAC) took place from 29 - 30 June 2017 in Naples (Italy) hosted by the University of Naple “Federico II”.

Erik Strauss presented a paper about “Governing day-to-day interactions in interfirm collaborations: The role and mode of control of informal controls” (joint work with Stefan Grunwald-Delitz and Jürgen Weber, WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management). Moreover, Marjo Väisänen (Oulu Business School) presented the paper “Overcoming the dualism of enabling and coercive controls”, which is a first result of cooperation between Janne Järvinen (Oulu Business School), Sophie Tessier (HEC Montréal) and Erik Strauss.

The next ENROAC conference will be hosted by the University of Roehampton in London from 26th to 28th of June 2019.

We are pleased to welcome Mr. Andreas Damm as a research assistant at our chair.

Mr. Damm has earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degree at the Ruhr-University Bochum and has already supported the team in the past as an external lecturer for the introductory block of the course "External Accounting".

The article "Paradigm Shift in Controlling" by Leona Wiegmann (WHU) and Erik Strauß (Witten/Herdecke University) is part of this year's CeBIT Sub-Theme Reader "Digital Transformation".

More information about the CeBIT sub-theme "Digital Transformation" is available here: www.cebit.de/de/news/acht-problemfelder-in-der-digitalen-transformation.xhtml

Thanks to financial support from Lexware (www.lexware.de), a provider of innovative and user-friendly software solutions for all areas of business administration, the Chair will be able to continue to intensively study the influence of technological developments on controlling.