SCE Annual Report 2014/15

Research
SCE supervises theses
(bachelors and masters)
of students at the Munich
University of Applied Sciences
and FOM.
For topics please visit
www.sce.de/en/bachelormaster.
Project “Innovation Networks in
Disaster Management”
Tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes – and in the midst
of all the devastation there are the aid workers. When it
comes to disaster
management, the focus has always been on the first
phase of relief operations, both in the media and
amongst researchers. Not so at SCE, where the “Innovation
Networks in Disaster Management” research
project has been studying the question of how effectively
cooperation amongst different actors in dynamic
networks functions and produces locally sustainable
results. The collaboration of different actors is being reconstructed
based on the example of the 2004 tsunami
in southern India. The research project is being supported
by the Hella Langer Foundation. A matching tool
is under development for practical use by global and
local partners in humanitarian relief operations. The
doctoral candidates group NITIM (Network on Information,
Technology and Innovation Management) received
a Marie Curie Graduate School Grant from the EU with
the SCE topic “Collaboration in Crisis Management”
and gathered twelve European doctoral candidates in
Bergamo for a summer school session in June 2014.
Page 28
Project “INNOSTART”
On 25 September 2014, the official conclusion of IN-
NOSTART took place during the Smart Factory Innovation
Forum. INNOSTART was a research project funded
by the German Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (BMBF) which worked with private-sector
partners (which included the BMW Group and Munich
Network) to study cooperative relationships between
start-ups and established businesses. It looked into the
question of how established businesses might increase
their capacity for innovation by building competenceoriented
innovation networks with start-ups and in so
doing reap the benefit of effective support through
inter-organisational, information technology-based
working systems.
A systematic matching process to reduce existing
asymmetries between start-ups and established companies
was developed and implemented jointly with
outside innovation intermediaries. Successful start-ups
were identified and recruited especially for innovation
partnerships with a long-term focus.
In December 2014, Dr Thomas Holzmann successfully
defended his doctoral dissertation.
NITIM
The SCE has been a part of the Graduate School NITIM
(Network on Information Technology and Innovation
Management) since it became a founding member in
2005. As a European research association, NITIM offers
an attractive basis for an international academic career
in the field of technology, innovation and social development.
In the research workshop, doctoral students meet with
professors from multiple disciplines to discuss their
research projects. The doctorate can be earned as an
outside Ph.D. at the University of Leiden. The regional
Ph.D. colloquium takes place once a month in Munich.
Summer and winter school sessions are held twice a
year at alternating European universities.
In June 2014, Christina Weber, director of the SCE research
department, delivered a lecture at the NITIM
International Graduate School in Bergamo, Italy. She
presented the actor-network theory derived from her
research on the rapid emergence and dynamic development
of actor networks in disaster relief and reconstruction.
(See also p. 28.)
For more information please visit www.nitim.org.
DBA
Page 29
The “Doctor of Business Administration” (DBA) is
another option for those seeking a doctor’s title. The
DBA is an application-oriented doctoral programme
designed with the needs of business and industry in
mind. A special feature of the DBA is its rigorously focused
and modular scientific approach and is therefore
ideal for those working full-time and wishing to earn a
doctorate. The SCE and the Munich University of Applied
Sciences offer this extra-occupational doctorate
in close cooperation with the Edinburgh Napier University,
the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) and
the University of South Wales. The first three doctoral
students began working towards their doctorates at
Edinburgh Napier University in the 2013-2014 winter
semester. The cooperation with WIT has been on-going
since the 2014-2015 winter semester. Eight doctoral
candidates are currently completing the programme.
The programme is designed to be completed in three to
four years on an extra-occupational basis, so that the
first class of DBA candidates at SCE will be graduating
in 2016. The supervising professors are Prof. Dr. Klaus
Sailer (SCE), Prof. Dr Thomas Peisl (FK10), Prof. Dr.
Christian Greiner (FK07).