Faculty Management and Business Science

The competence centre is located around the Industrie 4.0 research laboratory with CP (Cyber Physical) Factory. This provides an ideal testing ground for applied research to develop new approaches and processes in production digitalisation as well as innovative products and to test their market and industrial readiness at the development stage.

Your contact: Prof. Dr. Steffen Schwarzer 

The Aalen Institute for Corporate Governance (AAUF) was established in 2017 and pursues the overarching goal of establishing corporate governance with a primary focus on value orientation in corporate management within research and transfer projects. Methodological excellence is always at the centre of our efforts in the context of closing the existing research gap "Success factors of value-based corporate governance" and beyond for further research projects. One of our concerns is to anchor the topic of corporate governance in the research context and to disseminate it on the practical side through an ongoing range of training and continuing education programmes as well as regular dialogue.

Contact: Prof. Dr. Ingo Scheuermann, Prof. Dr. habil. Patrick Ulrich

Ansprechpartner: Prof. Dr. Ingo Scheuermann, Prof. Dr. habil. Patrick Ulrich

AI has been on the rise for many years Voice based (chat)bots are one application of AI. They are a further development of text based (chat) which enjoy great popularity. The best known use of voice based (chat)bots is in so called intelligent personal assistants. The aim of voice based (chat)bots is to enable the user to carry out a wide range of functions by means of a simple verbal request, in order to make this considerably easier through intuitive operation For example, they can be used to operate smart home devices or to order things on the Internet. The aim of the work is to find out how well the four most common bots namely Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana currently work, and to compare their functionality with each other. Following an evaluation of the found results, future uses will also be discussed.

The triumph of smart speakers and digital voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant seems unstoppable. What we are currently observing is that these applications are increasingly developing from non commercial and private applications such as weather forecasts or homework support to commercial applications along the entire customer journey In addition to the great convenience advantage, the benefit in terms of accessibility should also be seen as a driver for voice commerce. The voice interface, as the most natural interface for us humans, faces the challenge of understanding different languages, dialects, ways of speaking and expressions and translating them into clear intents and answers. Against this background, this study examines the range and quality of voice based systems in the finance and insurance industry in Germany based on a comprehensive catalogue of criteria.

The concept of knowledge graphs can be traced back to the 1960s and after three decades, advances in knowledge graphs focused on the Semantic Web, ontologies and taxonomies. Today, knowledge graphs are gaining momentum as their business value is proven in various domains and use cases. But what are they actually? Knowledge graphs are a platform that contextually ingests disparate data (internal and external) to transform data points into insights and insights into actionable knowledge to improve business decision-making capabilities. improve. What's new: Why is there so much emphasis on the importance of knowledge graphs in today's business world?

Negotiations play a paramount role in business, politics and society. Without them and the famous "negotiation breakthrough", there would often be no solution. However, negotiation processes are also an exciting field of research, and Prof. Dr Ingmar Geiger from Aalen University has dedicated himself to this. Now the economist received special recognition for his work on negotiation research: He was awarded the "Gregory Kersten GDN Journal Best Paper Award" for the first time.

The past few months with the mask affair, various accounting scandals and spectacular insolvencies have once again provided Prof. Dr. Patrick Ulrich with plenty of material for research and teaching. The economist has been researching and teaching at Aalen University since 2016 on evidence-based management, business ethics and sustainable corporate governance, the formulation of guidelines and ethical standards for practice as well as modern personnel management in the context of digitalisation. Topics that are more topical than ever today. He has now been awarded the Aalen University Research Award for his outstanding commitment.

The number of cyber attacks has risen sharply, and more and more SMEs and family businesses are feeling the effects. In the current study "Cyber Security in Medium-Sized Businesses", the management consultancy Deloitte gets to the bottom of the threat. Scientific support was provided by Aalen University under the leadership of Prof. Roland Hellmann, a specialist in IT security, and the Aalen Institute for Corporate Management (AAUF). The study shows that the majority of German SMEs are not yet sufficiently prepared for IT attacks. In many cases, the risks are still underestimated.

How good are chatbots? Savings banks and credit unions beat fintech! Many companies already offer the possibility to get in touch via so-called chatbots, also in the insurance and financial sector. But how good are the virtual assistants and what questions can they already answer? Prof. Dr. Peter Gentsch from Aalen University at the Institute for Conversational Business investigated this. The result is surprising: traditional banks like Sparkassen and Volksbanken beat fintech companies in the use of chatbots.

You can find the entire Chatbot Study 2020 here.

Customers want more contact with companies via WhatsApp, Alexa and Co. Online shopping is booming - especially in Corona times. But how can retailers or industrial companies maintain personal contact with customers? The study "Conversational Business 2020" by Aalen University shows that the current pandemic has given messenger services and smart speaker systems for marketing and service offers an enormous boost. End consumers want messengers, chat bots and voice assistants as purchasing channels. However, this strategic potential is mostly not yet used on the corporate side.