Jens Hagelstein receives dissertation award of the German Public Relations Association

Hanover, May 16 – Jens Hagelstein received the Scientific Award of the German Public Relations Association (DPRG) and Klenk & Hoursch for his dissertation "Image transfers in personalised organisational communication. Development and validation of the dual-process model of image transfer". The award ceremony took place as part of the DPRG's International German PR Prize on May 16, 2024 at Herrenhausen Castle in Hanover. The DPRG Scientific Award has been honoring academic theses in the fields of public relations and communication management since 1985 and is awarded every two years. The prize is worth €500.

In his dissertation, Jens Hagelstein examines whether the image of CEOs or party leaders, employees or party members, celebrity testimonials or social media influencers transfers to their respective organisations. Drawing on basic research in cognitive psychology, the work develops and tests a dual-process model of image transfer that distinguishes between affective and cognitive, explicit and implicit, and controlled and automatic image transfers. Among other things, implicit and automatic image transfers can be demonstrated for the first time. The dissertation was written between 2018 and 2023 at the Institute for Communication and Media Studies at Leipzig University and was published as a monograph by Springer VS in the "Organisational Communication" series. Since December 2023, Jens Hagelstein is a postdoctoral researcher in the Corporate Communication Research Group at the University of Vienna.