Lectures & Courses
"Knowledge of theoretical concepts is also needed in the context of application-oriented training."
As a professor at the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein Tyrol, I lecture on a wide range of topics (e.g. finance and accounting, controlling, financing or quantitative methods) in business administration. In addition, I am also an external lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg in the SME Management & Entrepreneurship course, where I teach the subject "Entrepreneurial Finance" in the summer semester and the subject "SME Value Chain" in the winter semester together with my colleague Stefan Märk.
Furthermore, I am involved in the International Business School of the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein, I also work as an external lecturer in the courses Automotive Manager, General Management MBA and Social Work MBA and I am the scientific director for the courses "IT-Processmanagement" and "Change Management" responsible. The goal is to familiarize students with the essential to become familiar with theoretical concepts, which are indispensable for gaining problem-solving behavior for operational practice. Therefore, the inclusion of relevant literature applied to cases of operational practice is a central point of my courses.
"You get a different perspective ..."
Theoretical concepts appear to students, especially at the beginning of their studies, as useless and also unpleasant constructs to learn, which offer no added value and were actually only "invented" so that they can be tortured by lecturers in the context of exams. Over time, however, students recognize the added value and from many conversations I have often been told that once you know the theoretical concepts, you approach many practical problems differently or find a solution. The simple reason for this is that the wareness of the problem and also the perspekcive of possible solutions has expanded.
"Theory as a tool for foresight."
Of course, it is important to master different (not all) methods in order to solve practical problems. However, the application shows whether you have really understood them or can use them correctly. The important thing here is to understand why the methods exist and they are essentially built on theoretical concepts that represent the actual instrument, With one instrument you can use several methods and not vice versa. The quality of the results of the application of a method depend on the vision of the user.
"... Entrepreneurs also think in theoretical concepts."
It would probably be wrong to say that entrepreneurs (especially of small and medium enterprises) act without theory. It may well be that many have not completed an academic education. Very much, however, their decisions are based on implicitly known theoretical concepts. This means that due to the interweaving of theory and practice, many entrepreneurial actions can be better understood and this is an indispensable basis for being able to understand and transparently present decisions.
"Theory as the common ground of a basic understanding!"
A good example of this is music. Its logic is based on harmonies, notes and scales, which must be brought into harmony with each other so that a piece of music expresses what it is supposed to express or makes "sense". Only if you master and understand music theory is it possible to play in an orchestra. It creates the basic understanding that individual instruments fit together harmonically, that the individually played passages make sense as a whole, and that ideas can be combined with each other in a meaningful way (in the sense of sound).
Key facts about my lectures and courses
>160
Number of lectures & courses held so far
> 250
Number of bachelor's and master's theses supervised and evaluated to date
>10
Number of courses (co-)developed to date in development teams
4
Management of one Bachelor's and one Master's program / Scientific management of two courses
