Start-up Creation and Management: Students gain theoretical knowledge about the foundation process. Beside essential topics such as identifying business opportunities, selecting a business idea, developing a sustainable business model and writing a strategic, marketing and financial plan, students also face specialized topics as for example team building, self-reflection of one’s own abilities, competition analysis as well as legal and formal aspects for start-ups. This course is the theoretical ground for the seminar Business Creation Entrepreneurial Lab which turns theory into practice.
Business Creation Entrepreneurial Lab: Under the supervision experts from the start-up context and prof. Clauß, students develop their own strat-up concepts and business plans. This part of the module practically guides through the start-up development process starting from the development of a business idea to the creation of a business model up to its transformation into a sound and convincing business plan. Input from experts of different disciplines as well as regular reflection sessions complement and complete the work. This seminar is completely complementary to Start-up Creation and Management, as students practically deploy theoretical concepts and utilize tools such as Design Thinking, Business Model Canvas, and Value Proposition Design.

Teilmodule / module elements
Start-up Creation and Management (contact hours: 30 h, self study: 120 h): The aim of this part of the module is to give students a theoretical and conceptual overview of the preparatory stages of business creation and management. The different aspects of this topic will be systematically developed along the start-up creation process. The theoretical insights will be complemented by guest lectures from experts from the broader start-up context (e.g., founders, venture capitalists, etc.)
Business Creation Entrepreneurial Lab (contact hours: 30 h, self study: 120 h): This part of the module offers students the opportunity to develop their own start-up concepts, from the very first business idea to the development of a business model in order to finally create a business plan. Students will be provided with a current relevant industry or technology context in which they will then develop their own start-up ideas. Experts from the start-up context take part in the seminar and guide the process from the initial idea development, business model design to the development of a business plan. The seminar aims to stimulate students in creative and critical thinking and turns the theoretical input of Start-up Creation and Management into practice. The development will close with a final pitch (presentation) of the final business ideas and models in front of a specialized jury of internal and external experts (e.g., entrepreneurs, investors, academics).

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In der Veranstaltung werden gemeinsam mit Studierenden aktuelle Themen aus dem Komplex der digitalen Innovationen und des Entrepreneurships literaturwissenschaftlich erschlossen. Basierend auf einer theoretischen Einführung in die Thematik und einer anwendungsbasierten Auffrischung von Techniken zur Literaturrecherche und Strukturierung bearbeiten die Studierenden ein spezifisches aktuelles Thema in diesem Bereich von hoher wissenschaftlicher Relevanz auf theoretisch-konzeptioneller Ebene. Studierende bekommen somit die Gelegenheit, einen vertieften, selbstkritischen Einblick in ein aktuelles Thema im Themenkomplex digitaler Innovationen und Entrepreneurship zu erlangen. Das Seminar kann unmittelbar der Vorbereitung einer Bachelorarbeit im genannten Themenkomplex dienen.

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The course addresses business model innovation from the perspective of incumbent firms that want to transform their existing business model. The course outlines business model innovation from a holistic perspective and provides students with knowledge about the concept and its various dimensions. Furthermore, business model innovation will be linked to strategy and the means how managers can achieve business model innovation will be discussed. Students will learn how to analyze and improve existing business models based on real cases in group works.

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Digital transformation is an important task for many incumbent firms nowadays. New technologies such as blockchain, AI, additive manufacturing etc. provide new opportunities but also challenge traditional business concepts. Digitalization efforts align technological and managerial perspectives in order to be successfully implemented. Therefore, using a mix of managerial theory and case analysis, this course will study how the deployment of information technology and digitalization tools change interactions and processes within organizations, across organizations and within industries.

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Insbesondere im Zuge der zunehmenden Digitalisierung ist es für Unternehmen von zentraler Bedeutung, ihre bestehenden Geschäftsmodelle regelmäßig zu reflektieren und an die Erfordernisse des Marktes anzupassen. Zudem ermöglichen es neue Geschäftsmodelle, auch in reifen Märkten neue Wettbewerbsvorteile zu generieren.
Die wesentliche Herausforderung für die Entwicklung neuer Geschäftsmodelle liegt neben der Identifikation von Potenzialen, darin, diese auch intern umzusetzen und den Support des Managements zu gewährleisten. Um diesen Prozess im Unternehmen zu verankern, müssen zahlreiche Herausforderungen eines strategischen Geschäftsmodellmanagements adressiert werden. Insbesondere in Familienunternehmen werden die Herausforderungen von Geschäftsmodellinnovationen deutlich, da diese Unternehmen oft durch ein starkes Traditionsbewusstsein, eine durch die Unternehmerfamilie dominierte Führung, langfristige Ziele und ein erhebliches Bewusstsein für ihre Kernkompetenzen charakterisiert sind.
Obwohl Geschäftsmodellinnovationen in den vergangenen Jahren ein starkes wissenschaftliches Interesse erfahren haben, liegen bisher kaum Befunde zu den spezifischen Chancen und Herausforderungen von Geschäftsmodellinnovationen in Familienunternehmen vor. Es ergibt sich eine Vielzahl relevanter Fragestellungen für die wissenschaftliche Forschung und die unternehmerische Praxis, von denen wir ausgewählte in diesem Seminar adressieren möchten. Bspw.

• Welche Bedeutung messen Familienunternehmer dem Thema Geschäftsmodellinnovation bei?
• Welche Stärken und Schwächen weisen Familienunternehmen bzgl. Geschäftsmodellinnovationen auf?
• Welche Herangehensweisen verfolgen Familienunternehmer derzeit im Bezug auf neue Geschäftsmodelle?
• Welche Potenziale ergeben sich durch die Einbeziehung neuer Partner?
• Welche Kompetenzen werden zur Umsetzung/Entwicklung neuer Geschäftsmodelle benötigt?
• Welche Effekte haben Geschäftsmodellinnovationen in Familienunternehmen?

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In times of constant technological advance and disruptions, companies face the challenge to innovate and even entirely relocate their business models in order to stay profitable.
This class focuses on the topic of Corporate Entrepreneurship, which refers to ways on how to build a new business from within an organization. This includes starting new lines of business or new product units, setting up new practice areas, launching offices in new geographies, managing spin-offs, or creating new joint ventures—as well as establishing processes to ensure the successful development of new businesses. Exemplary case studies will be studied and discussed for a practical view on the theory.
The topic of Corporate Entrepreneurship is especially important for students who will face future tasks that are related to change management, digital transformation, innovation and business model innovation inside of already established companies.

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Strategieentwicklung ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil von Führung und zugleich wesentliche Voraussetzung für den Erfolg des Unternehmens. Strategien können explizit formuliert, von Experten ausgearbeitet oder aber implizit und unausgesprochen existent sein und in der Intuition des Unternehmers wurzeln. In jedem Fall geht es darum, kreativ mit Unvorhersagbarkeit umzugehen und das Unternehmen auf mögliche unterschiedliche Zukunftsszenarien hin auszurichten. Besonders in Familienunternehmen findet man eine große Bandbreite unterschiedlicher Formen der Strategieentwicklung und Strategiefindung. Über klassische Fragen der Strategie hinaus geht es dabei im Familienunternehmen darum, durch ein sorgfältiges „Grenz‐Management“ die gekoppelten Systeme Unternehmen, Familie und Eigentum zu balancieren.

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Every semester, Prof. Dr. Thomas Clauß invites various outstanding speakers and experts in their field to provide insights into specific areas of digital transformation as part of a lecture series. The selection of speakers is based in particular on the courses offered in the respective semester, as this allows students to gain valuable insights and practical knowledge for their currently running courses. 

Bachelor's theses are usually literary studies that aim to theoretically and conceptually integrate the state of research on a topic and, if necessary, to develop models.

A typical sequence of the processing of a bachelor thesis is demonstrated by the graphic. In addition to the supervision by Prof. Dr. Clauß, other members of the chair can also be consulted as contact persons and advisors.

Master's theses are usually empirical research projects in which theoretical correlations are either examined using qualitative data such as interviews or verified using quantitative data such as questionnaires.

A typical process of working on a master's thesis is demonstrated by the graphic. In addition to the supervision by Prof. Dr. Clauß, other members of the department can also be consulted as contact persons and advisors.

This Bachelor thesis is on the subject "The role of AI in academic work". The content should be an overview with best practices and use cases prepared and analyzed regarding all the new AI tools that are emerging to understand and optimize different steps in the research process. The possibility exists that these tools are clustered, ranked or evaluated, for example. The language is preferably English.

This Bachelor Thesis is aimed at exploring the curent research on the topic of technoogial frames through the means of a simple literature review. This Thesis can be done in either German or English, although English is reommended due to the languge of the scientific literature.

This master thesis should identify specific characteristics of family firms (f.e. resources allocation, level of formalization, risk behaviour, SEW ...) and should examine in which way they influence the process of digitalization within family firms by collecting and analysing quantitative-empirical data from a survey of family businesses. 

The thesis should collect and analyze quantitative-empirical data from a survey of family businesses to find out which effects different governance mechanisms such as contracts, buying shares, control vs. trust and reciprocation have. The idea is that family firms because of their desire to control may find it problematic to rely on informal mechanisms. Thus, maybe certain potentials such as knowledge transfers or joint innovation could be suppressed. 

The purpose of research is to shed light on green innovation in family businesses by employing how green innovation worths family businesses around the world. This research will systematically review the documents published on green innovation in family businesses in various database, especially scoupus and web of science.  
 

This research will assess how Socio-emotional wealth (SEW) influence the radical innovation in family firms. Furthermore, this research also uses generational in control as a moderator to understand how and in which way the generations plays role in radical innovation. This could be a quantitative study where data can be collected through a survey from various family owned firms. 

This thesis contains a challenge: The aim is to use the scientific method of "experiment" on 1-2 decision makers in companies and compare, if they rather agree to implement a new software solution if they have LESS information on what is going to happen in comparison to more information

Digital transformation is a major challenge for today’s firms (Hanelt, Bohnsack, Marz, & Antunes Marante, 2021; Menz et al., 2021). Despite the widespread belief that firms’ strategic leaders play a crucial role in strategic change (Kunisch, Bartunek, Mueller, & Huy, 2017), we still do not know much about how exactly they matter for the success of digital transformation. An important concern centers on how strategic leaders engage in cognitive and emotional framing during digital transformations. The former refers to cognitive frames, which are defined as managerial mental maps and thinking structures (Barr, Stimpert, & Huff, 1992; Hahn, Preuss, Pinkse, & Figge, 2014); the latter emotional framing is a process of feeling that provides “a felt alignment of a frame with the audience’s passions, desires, or aspirations” (Giorgi, 2017, p. 717). Yet, little is still known about the role of mental models in digital transformation, specifically strategic leaders’ cognitive and emotional framings. 

In this recently launched research project, Thomas Clauß and Jörn Block are focusing on the digital transformation of German SMEs and family businesses in particular - a highly relevant topic in economic, social and political terms. Dealing with disruptive innovations that change entire industries and are often based on digital business models is essential for the continued existence and future success of medium-sized (family) businesses in Germany. Digitization is one of the most important areas of entrepreneurial activity, and its effects will have a lasting impact on the competitiveness of companies.

Despite the enormous importance of the topic, there is still a lack of comprehensive understanding of how radical transformations and business model innovations can take place and be implemented in medium-sized (family) businesses, particularly in the context of digitization. In particular, there are few findings on the influence of family-specific characteristics and the diversity of family businesses in this regard.

Against the backdrop of this research gap, Thomas Clauß and Jörn Block address the following questions, among others: What attention does the topic of digitization of business models receive from decision-makers in medium-sized (family) businesses and where do they currently stand in terms of digitization and digital transformation? To what extent are medium-sized (family) businesses successful in implementing the digitization of specific products, services and business models? How is the "digital readiness", i.e. the degree of digitalization know-how and entrepreneurial application competence available in medium-sized (family) businesses, to be assessed? Are there differences in this respect between products, (internal and external) processes, and business models?

You can find the link to the research project here.

The research project aims to theoretically and conceptually develop the digital maturity level of the family business and the entrepreneurial family and subsequently validate it as a measurement and benchmarking tool for family businesses based on empirical data. Previous models of digital maturity (e.g. Kane et al., 2017; Berghaus et al., 2017, Schumacher et al., 2016) focus one-sidedly on the business side based on factors such as organization, strategy, culture, competencies and network.

While these models have already been able to make an important contribution to assessing the digital maturity of companies in the process of digital transformation, they fall short for family businesses for two reasons:

First, research shows that family businesses are often not directly comparable with non-family businesses due to their orientation and ownership. Therefore, previous dimensions of digital maturity need to be validated for the context of family businesses and adapted if necessary.

Second, previous models do not consider the side of the family behind the business. Thus, suitable dimensions for assessing the digital maturity of the entrepreneurial family (e.g., competencies, readiness, understanding, use of technology) must be identified and validated. Against this background, the project plans to develop a model of the digital maturity of the family business and the entrepreneurial family and to convert it into a measurement approach for family businesses.

On the one hand, this can be used for regular assessments of the digital maturity of German family businesses (e.g. Digital Family Business Maturity Monitor 2022). On the other hand, the development of a web-based self-assessment tool is planned in which family businesses can benchmark their digital maturity in both dimensions in relation to competitors.

The guide by Prof. Dr. Clauß and Marc André Scheffler shows concrete design alternatives for the practical implementation of the resulting facets of digital business models based on examples from family businesses. Family businesses at different stages of digitization receive valuable information on the possible design options for digitizing their value creation, their value proposition and their revenue model. These can either serve as an impetus for new digitization initiatives or reflection on existing measures.

You can find the link here.

"I think the digitization of business processes, but also of the business model, is essential for the survival of a company that already has a long family history. ... Our future customers will no longer respond to all traditional sales channels. If we want to reach these customers, we have to adapt our business model to the current times.

In the September issue of the magazine for family businesses "Die News", Prof. Dr. Thomas Clauß and Marc André Scheffler have summarized the main findings of their study on digital business models in family businesses in a short article. You can find the article here 

You can find the issue of the magazine here.

A detailed explanation of the study and its findings can be found in our Practical Guide to Digital Business Models in Family Businesses, available here.
 

It was a special honor that Prof. Dr. Thomas Clauß and Marc André Scheffler were allowed to contribute a chapter to the book "Theorie und Praxis der Unternehmerfamilie und des Familienunternehmens" (Theory and Practice of the Entrepreneurial Family and the Family Business), published in 2021 as a Festschrift in honor of the life's work of Prof. Dr. Arist von Schlippe. Arist von Schlippe is well known, professionally recognized and respected in the community of family business researchers. With this volume, long-time research colleagues, companions and friends pay tribute to the great achievement of Arist von Schlippe and show what traces he has left in 15 years in this field. The chapter contributed by Thomas Clauß and Marc André Scheffler focuses, among other things, on the impact of Arist's research on conflicts in family businesses and their impact on the digital transformation of the company.
More information about the book can be found here.