Daniel M. RINGEL

Academic Career

Daniel M. Ringel is Full Professor in the Department of Business Analytics and Decision Sciences at WU Vienna. He earned his PhD in Marketing from Goethe University Frankfurt in 2017 and an MBA from Goethe Business School in alliance with Duke University in 2011. From 2017 to 2026, he was Assistant Professor of Marketing at UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

His research has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). His doctoral work received four German research awards: the German Science Award of the German Marketing Association (2017), the Retail Science Award of the EHI Retail Institute (2018), a Dissertation Award of the German Brand Association (2018) and the Wolfgang Ritter Prize (2019). At UNC Kenan-Flagler, he received the Weatherspoon Award for Excellence in MBA Teaching in 2023 and the Award for Excellence in BSBA Teaching in 2025.

Before entering academia, Dr. Ringel worked as a management consultant with The Monitor Group in Switzerland, South Africa and Germany. He also founded and grew Ringel Modellbau, a radio-controlled aircraft and lithium-polymer battery business with operations in Germany and China, and later sold the company. He continues to advise and consult for companies in financial services, energy and retail.

Research Interest

My research is situated at the intersection of marketing, operations management and artificial intelligence. My vision is to advance data-driven decision making through artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning (ML). By integrating theory with real-world AI applications, I aim to develop new frameworks and tools that contribute to academic discourse and provide tangible benefits to practitioners. I believe that significant value emerges from collaborating with both industry partners and academic peers across different fields. By fostering close ties to business leaders, I identify practically relevant research questions. My research portfolio is characterized by methods and frameworks that utilize AI and ML to create insights into complex market dynamics, consumer behaviors, and managerial decision making.