Faculty of Economics and Business Management

Dean	Professor Dr. Hans Günter Rautenberg
Address Phone Fax E-mail URL	Marschnerstr. 31, 04109 Leipzig (03 41) 97 33 500 (03 41) 97 33 509 dekanat@wifa.uni-leipzig.de http://www.uni-leipzig.de/wifa

Research Activities at the Faculty

	Research Activities at the Faculty
	Topics of Doctorates and Postdoctoral Qualifications / Previous Years
	Reports of the Institutes and Departments

	Economics and Business Management Institutes
	Institute of Empirical Economic Research
	Institute of Finance
	Institute of Software and System Development
	Institute of Theoretical Economics
	Institute of Accounting and Corporate Taxation
	Institute of Business Computing
	Institute of Economic Policy Chairs
	Controlling and Management Accounting
	Banking
	Service Management
	Marketing
	Management & Organisation
	Distribution
	Real Estate Management
	Personnel Management
	Insurance Company Management
	Economics, Microeconomics   Civil Engineering / Industrial Engineering Institutes
	Institute of Construction Management and Building Industry
	Institute of Structural Concrete and Building Materials
	Institute of Statics and Dynamics of Structures Chairs
	Architectural and Structural Design and Detailing
	Geotechnics / Hydraulic Engineering
	Transportation Systems Design
	Technical and Infra-structural Management of Buildings

Business Economics

Research activities in business economics are aimed at selected subjects in which core competencies are to be established. Of central importance are services - firstly because several departments are already devoted to certain services (banking, real estate management, commerce and distribution, insurance), and secondly because services in general play a vital role for the Leipzig region. Research contributions to real estate management, for example, deal with the development of valuation methods tailored to the market conditions prevailing in eastern Germany. Moreover, a marketing project is presently tackling specific economic problems in the south of Leipzig, and is hence also focusing on the regional economic situation. This direction was recently reinforced by the appointment of a Professor of Service Management.

In addition to the institutional focus of service management, accounting (including corporate taxation) should be emphasised as a functional focus. Recent developments in financial and management accounting as well as in corporate tax law underline the high dynamics of this area of business economics and bring home the necessity of building up and extending competence in these fields. One important step in this direction was the appointment of a Professor of Controlling and Management Accounting last year. Unfortunately, a Professor of Auditing and Financial Accounting has not yet been appointed; the post is now expected to be filled this year.

The research activities by the Institute of Finance, which deals with questions of both public and corporate finance, must also be mentioned. One research project funded by the European Union studies the possibilities of supporting the development of small and medium-sized companies in the Leipzig district. Other projects are concerned with the financing of public broadcasting corporations and cultural institutions, as well as the development of financial services and financial instruments. Furthermore, a marketing project is focusing on empirical aspects of e-business.

Economics

Economics

Scientific work in economics is geared towards examining economic problems under theoretical and empirical aspects. It includes the macro and micro levels, economic theory and policy, specific branches of political economy such as public finance, money and currency, as well as empirical economic research. The main topics dealt with are as follows:

• Basic issues of economic policy are studied in a number of research projects. In particular, the Institute of Economic Policy and the Institute of Theoretical Economics have conducted research into the theoretical foundations of the social market economy, the results of which are made available to the public via colloquia and publications. Intensive research has been underway for a number of years into the transformation of economic systems, with special attention being paid to the problem of unemployment in transformation countries. The aim is to conclude recommendations for the development of the labour market in these countries.
• Economic integration (especially European forms and models) is addressed from a number of angles. Work focuses on basic features and on the specific aspects of an EU project to enhance competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises by means of innovation (ECOVIN). The Zermatter Symposia, an international committee for the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, acts as a forum for discussion for basic problems.
• Empirical studies, which act as a basis for producing models and theoretical findings, as well as for concluding ways of developing economic policy, are growing in importance. This work is mainly performed by the Institute of Empirical Economical Research and the Institute of Theoretical Economics, as well as the Department of Public Finance. One interdisciplinary area tackled is the analysis of regional data to provide a basis for recommendations.
• Microeconomic research concentrates on the area of decision and game theory.

In future, the Department of Economics will also deepen its involvement in the new research area of ecological economics. An additional department is to be set up, which will also be a centre of economic excellence for interdisciplinary and applied environmental research at the University of Leipzig working in conjunction with non-university institutions (e.g. the UFZ Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle). As well as intensifying research in this area of great future relevance, this move will also broaden the choice available on economics degree programmes. Furthermore, a concept is being established to make the combination of empirical and theoretical studies available to the students and thereby offer them a knowledge ready-to-use

Business computing

Business computing

There are two institutes with three departments dealing with fundamental issues of the application of IT as we approach the information society:

• The Institute of Software and System Development (ISS) focuses on application-oriented computer science as the basis for business computing, as well as on software and programming for the development of telematics applications;
• The Institute of Business Computing (IWI) deals with the fundamentals of business computing as a scientific discipline, as well as modelling, algorithms of business processes, and the design of information systems in trade and industry.

Within this division of labour, in which the IWI builds upon the work of the ISS, the Department of Data Management which specialises in databases and data-modelling for economic institutions has an additional integrating function. Both institutes co-operate closely with the Institute of Computer Science of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, which contributes to the IT fundamentals of business computing, and also uses the training services of the ISS in the field of software technology.

The subjects dealt with by the institutes in the last few years include:

• ISS: telematics/multimedia engineering with a European dimension within the European Commission's Telematics Applications Programme. Telematics / multimedia engineering within the business computing degree programme has been augmented by technologies for distributed multi-tier systems. The ISS develops telematics applications for the internet and public-access terminals.
• IWI: online training, data mining in the business sector, and the modelling and development of internet-based applications. The institute advises representatives of local government and the corporate sector during the conceptual phase of IT systems.

Civil engineering / industrial engineering

Civil engineering / industrial engineering

The main fields of research are characterised by the combination of scientific, technical and economic aspects. Accordingly, the methodology is strictly mathematical, experimental and quantitatively analytical, with the precise emphasis of work partly being decided by the co-operation partners and customers.

The primary aims of research are the evaluation of the bearing capacity of various structures, the development of new building materials including patent applications, the modification of building codes, the optimisation and the modification of use of existing building structures, and the development of methods for project management and for controlling the financing of building projects.

The main subjects are:

• Hybrid building using high performance materials
• Development of high-strength and pumpable lightweight aggregate concretes
• Deformation capacity of reinforced concrete and pre-stressed concrete structures
• Safety concepts for non-linear design procedures
• New types of reinforcement consisting of concrete bars and carbon fibre layers
• Verification of susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking by means of electrochemical noise
• Pre-stressing methods: external tendons, carbon fibre sheets
• Combined pile-slab foundations
• European research on snow loads
• Non-linear structural analysis of slender wind-loaded cylindrical steel shells
• Non-linear structural analysis of single-supported cylindrical metal silos with cone shaped discharge hopper
• Composite masonry/wood structures
• Bearing behaviour of composite structures of wood and anhydrite floor
• Project management, calculation methods and financing of building projects
• Technical facility management and corporate real estate management with indoor installations, technical real estate management and computer-aided building management
• Optimisation potentials of office buildings considered as whole units
• Approaches for the sustainable development of the housing stock in Saxony
• Analysis of the residential buildings from the late 19th century in Leipzig
• Exploration of wave energy converters
• Optimisation of sewage treatment plants
• Reconstruction of former coal works railways as public transport
• Investigations into the utilisation of the superstructure of railways as external tendons
• EDP-aided project control of traffic schemes