For the first time, the research award of the University of Mannheim Business School, donated by the Mannheim Business School gGmbH, was awarded to two researchers from the faculty. Marketing professor Christian Homburg and Gunther Glenk, assistant professor for accounting and taxation, received the prizes for their research work over the past five years.
The research prizes “Senior Researcher Award” and “Junior Researcher Award” of the Business School were presented for the first time. During the School-internal convention meeting on 13 October, the Vice Dean for Research Prof. Dr. Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi honored the two award winners. The prizes emphasize the importance of cutting-edge research for the School and make research achievements even more visible, said Niessen-Ruenzi. Christian Homburg, holder of the Chair of B2B Marketing, Sales and Pricing at the Business School, was recognized as Senior Researcher for his outstanding research achievements. He has held the chair since 1999 and around 50 books and over 200 articles have appeared in his career to date. In the past five years he has had 25 top A-list publications. In addition, he was the first European professor to be recognized by the American Marketing Association (AMA) as an AMA Fellow for his life's work.
“I am very happy about the research award and I am honored to receive it. The award honors our high-quality and at the same time practical research work and motivates us to continue to drive first-class research in the future,” thanks Prof. Homburg. In current projects he focuses on “Internet of Things” technologies, extended reality in the sales process and customer recovery management. Research in the ivory tower without practical relevance is out of the question for Prof. Homburg: “Good research is not only mirrored in scientific excellence, but also in its practical relevance and applicability for managers.”
In addition to the Senior Researcher Prize, the Junior Researcher Prize was also awarded. Gunther Glenk, Assistant Professor of Accounting and Taxation at the Mannheim Institute for Sustainable Energy Studies (MISES) was honored, among other things, for his publication on “green” hydrogen. The article, which was published in the journal Nature-Energy, is one of the first works on this topic. Hydrogen could fundamentally reduce the CO2 emissions of the world economy, but high costs and emissions in production have prevented its widespread use so far. Glenk shows that both reservations are no longer valid, as cost reductions in renewable energies and developments in power-to-gas technology open up new opportunities for the economical production of hydrogen from electricity.
“My work addresses various questions about the decarbonisation of the economy and is based on interdisciplinary methods to answer them. Some of my studies, as well as the award-winning work, are therefore mainly published in scientific or engineering journals. The award now shows that publications in leading magazines outside of traditional management literature are also valued, ”says Glenk happily. “The prize money will help me a lot to expand my research activities.”
Both prizes are endowed with a research funding budget of € 10,000 each for research-related purposes, which was made available by Mannheim Business School gGmbH and which can be used to finance further research. Prof. Dr. Jens Wüstemann, President of Mannheim Business School, justified this at the award ceremony with the central role that research plays in the competitiveness of Mannheim Business School.