Since November 1, 2022, Dr. Thomas Scholdra holds the IFH Endowed Junior Professorship for Marketing and Retailing at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Cologne. What may sound formalistic at first, means for WiSo that we have succeeded in continuing to attract an upcoming scientist and university teacher to the faculty with the help of the Center for Research in Retailing (IFH associates, Affiliated Institute of the WiSo faculty).
We are very pleased to continue to welcome him to our faculty. Since November 2019, Jun.-Prof. Dr Thomas Scholdra has already been working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Retailing and Customer Management under Prof. Dr Werner Reinartz.
Professor Scholdra completed his master’s degree in Marketing and Channel Management at the Georg-August-University Göttingen where he also participated in an exchange programme with the Turku School of Economics, Finland. In 2015, he started his doctoral studies at the University of Bremen and worked as a research assistant at the markstones Institute of Marketing, Branding & Technology under the supervision of Prof. Dr Maik Eisenbeiß. After completing his Ph.D. with his dissertation titled “Business Cycles and Consumer Behavior” (summa cum laude) in September 2019, Thomas Scholdra moved to the University of Cologne as a postdoctoral researcher.
Professor Scholdra's research interests focus on retailing, marketing strategy, advertising effectiveness, and digital marketing. His research has been published in leading academic and practitioner-oriented journals. In collaboration with WiSo colleagues, for example, his studies “Households under Economic Change: How Micro- and Macroeconomic Conditions Shape FMCG Shopping Behavior” (2022) and “The Effect of Content on Zapping in TV Advertising” (2022) have been published in the renowned Journal of Marketing.
In addition to the practical relevance of his research, Thomas Scholdra also has a strong practical orientation in his teaching activities. Key courses offered by the junior professorship are „Quantitative Applications in Marketing“ and „Retailing“.
His appointment to the IFH Endowed Junior Professorship thus appears to be a logical step. The IFH associates have made it their business to use research findings and to prepare them for the retail industry and its stakeholders. Members are retail and manufacturing companies, associations, chambers, universities, service providers, and public institutions. As an affiliated institute of the WiSo faculty, the IFH sponsors thus set important thematic priorities in Cologne marketing.
With WiSo Dean Ulrich Thonemann, we congratulate Professor Scholdra on his appointment and warmly welcome him to his new role. Congratulations on your junior professorship, you are still very welcome!
