Strategische Unternehmensführung und Digitalisierung

The field of strategic management is of equal importance for both practice and business theory. Dealing with the strategic aspects of corporate management seems not only attractive, but also necessary. Long-term survival on the market and the sustainable achievement of competitive advantages are generally not primarily attributable to indicators such as the size or age of a company, but rather to its successful strategies. The development and implementation of strategies are therefore key tasks for the management of companies. This task is becoming even more demanding due to the ongoing “megatrend” of digitalization and presents companies with major challenges. In particular, digital business models and digitalization strategies need to be subjected to ethical reflection.

In the course of the seminar, students will work independently on current topics and issues in the context of strategic corporate management and digitalization and discuss them together. In small groups, students have to prepare and give a presentation on a specific topic and write a term paper on this topic individually.

In detail, the following topics are expected to be covered in the seminar “Strategic Corporate Management and Digitalization”:

Topic 1: The Megatrend of Digitalization and its Influence on the Strategies of the Automotive Industry

Topic 2: The Theory of Disruptive Innovation - the Innovator's Dilemma: Presentation, Critical Analysis and Case Studies

Topic 3: Digital Platforms (I): Structure, Functionality and Ethical Areas of Conflict

Topic 4: Digital Platforms (II): Presentation and Critical Analysis of Facebook's Business Model

Topic 5: Surveillance Capitalism: Definition, Consequences and Areas of Ethical Conflict

Topic 6: Big Data: Opportunities and Risks of Generating Data Through Digitalization

Topic 7: Artificial Intelligence and Automation of Decision-Making Processes: Potential and Limits

Topic 8: Born Digitals: Opportunities and Risks of the Internationalization of Digital Companies

The aim of the seminar is to sensitize students to the challenges in the analysis and development of digital strategies, as well as to possible ethical implications. The seminar participants also train their ability to apply the knowledge they have acquired in the seminar to concrete and practical issues.

For the winter semester 2021/22, Universität Hamburg and the Gilbert Professorship are aiming for in-person teaching wherever possible, provided the pandemic development allows this. Therefore, teaching in the seminar will mainly take place in face-to-face sessions, which will be supplemented by virtual office hours via Zoom during seminar times and phases of self-study. However, due to the dynamic development of the COVID pandemic, it may be necessary to switch to a purely virtual format at short notice. In this case, the seminar will continue in the form of synchronous Zoom sessions. Therefore, please pay attention to updates in the course description, which will be regularly adapted to the dynamic events!

The seminar begins with a kick-off meeting on Thursday, October 14, 2021 at 10:15 a.m. in room S08 in VMP9. On this day, the seminar topics will be presented and details of the seminar schedule will be announced. The topics will be assigned and the groups divided up in the second seminar session on Thursday, October 21, 2021, when the preparation phase for the group presentations will begin. The individual groups will then work on the seminar content independently. Questions about the seminar content, the preparation of the presentations and the preparation of a seminar paper can be clarified with the lecturer during the virtual consultation hours during the seminar times. Students can send their presentation drafts to the lecturer between 25.11. and 02.12.2021 to receive feedback on these dates. Please use these dates to clarify your questions! The group presentations and the plenary discussion will take place on four further attendance dates. Students have a maximum of 25 minutes for the presentation. The subsequent plenary discussion will take about 15 minutes.

The peer review process is used on the presentation days. This means that each group takes on the additional task of providing expert feedback to the respective presentation group. To do this, the group must prepare the content of the presentation group's topic using selected literature and keep the discussion going after the presentation. They are given the first word after the presentation.

After the presentation, the individual groups also receive feedback from the teacher on the content and presentation. The submission deadline for the term papers is 28.02.2022.

The following literature is recommended for an introduction to the seminar topic:

Christensen, Clayton M. (2013): The innovator‘s dilemma: warum etablierte Unternehmen den Wettbewerb um bahnbrechende Innovationen verlieren, München: Vahlen (Volltextzugang als E-Book über Staatsbibliothek). 

Gilbert, Dirk Ulrich (2020): Digitale Plattformen: Konzept, Bedeutung und Analyse der Problem-bereiche, in: Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Studium, Vol. 49, No. 2-3, S. 12-18. 

O’Neil, Cathy (2017): Weapons of math destruction: how big data increases inequality and threatens democracy, London: Penguin Books (auch auf Deutsch erhältlich) 

Zuboff, Shoshana (2019): The age of surveillance capitalism. The fight for the future at the new frontier of power, London: Profile Books (auch auf Deutsch erhältlich) 

Further literature references will be announced in the seminar.

You must write a term paper and pass it with at least a grade of 4.0. The length of the term paper is 10 pages (approx. 20,000 characters). You must give an oral presentation as part of the seminar session (group presentation) and prepare a (PowerPoint) presentation. After your presentation, you will be asked to moderate the subsequent discussion yourself and keep it going.

The grade for the course is made up as follows: 50% term paper (individual grade), 50% presentation (group grade).