Research
WU’s goal in research is to deliver excellent research performance, generate new knowledge in the fields of business and economics, and create added value from its clear commitment to a plurality of disciplines. WU’s variety of business- and economics-related disciplines is the basis for meeting future challenges by ensuring a broad scope in the university’s research activities and discipline specific approaches in the development of efficient and sustainable solutions to different problems.
In the field of research, WU’s goal is to make significant contributions to solving the economic, social, and ecological problems of the day, both on regional and global levels, to generate new economics- and businessrelated knowledge and to make it accessible to the public. This happens on the one hand through discourse with the scientific community, and on the other hand by interacting with the public at research communication events.
Within the relevant scientific communities, WU enters into productive competition with leading international research institutions, aiming for the highest degree of success possible. In addition to its internationally oriented research in specific areas, WU is also working to further strengthen and expand its leading position in Austria as a university with a broad portfolio in business, economics, and business law. Excellence in research means that WU’s researchers are maintaining an intensive dialog with the scientific communities they are a part of and that they are making excellent contributions to the development of their disciplines. Excellent research is one of the most important preconditions for WU to be able to implement the principle of research-led teaching. Providing support to junior researchers is one of WU’s highest priorities.
Evaluation is crucial for long-term research success. WU reviews its research performance and the effectiveness of its research funding tools on a regular basis. When assessing research performance in many different areas, the quality criteria and standards of different scientific communities and stakeholders must be taken into account. Evaluation and review of the research activities conducted at WU’s academic units are based on the following factors:
Contribution to and participation in international scientific discourse (e.g. at conferences, research seminars, or through collaborations)
Impact and significance of research findings (e.g. publication output and its scientific impact, third-part funding acquisition)
Dissemination of research findings (e.g. in the media, through events with the participation of the business community, collaborations with the business community, relevance of the findings in teaching)
Education of junior researchers (e.g. type and intensity of training for junior researchers, career paths of graduates)
Currently, there are many sub-fields of WU’s main research areas where the university has achieved a leading position internationally, thanks to the work of a number of internationally outstanding researchers. The process of evaluating research performance is never clear-cut or unequivocal, and for this reason it is a challenge to identify the fields of research where WU is an international leader. The results always depend on the methodology used in the evaluation. This notwithstanding, WU would like to particularly highlight several outstanding areas of research that have been identified ex post, based on a simple methodology, to underline WU’s strong performance in several specific fields:
Business Process Design
Business Process Monitoring
Corporate Finance, Asset Pricing, and Quantitative Methods in Finance
Global Strategy and Headquarters-Subsidiary Relationships in Multinational Corporations
Institutional Perspectives on Organization and Management
Internationalization Strategies: Antecedents, Consequences, and Processes
International Taxation
Spatially Explicit Sustainability Assessments of Global Supply Chains