In her work, the scientist from the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences (WiSo Faculty) at the University of Cologne discusses the question of how companies can drive innovation in the digital age by identifying and promoting innovative employees - so-called innovation champions. Dr Katharina Drechsler develops a profound and multi-layered understanding of innovation champions in the digital age and states that it is no longer individual "great entrepreneurial personalities", but actors distributed in teams who contribute to the sustainable success of innovations. Her dissertation also provides insights into how companies should structure their innovation processes for the development of digital technologies in order to fully utilise the potential of innovation champions and how digital platforms can create an environment in which innovation is actively promoted.
Dr Katharina Drechsler has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Information Systems since February 2023. She previously worked as a research assistant at the University of Liechtenstein in Vaduz. She completed her doctorate in Information Systems at the University of Bamberg with summa cum laude honours. The WiSo digitalisation expert's research focuses on the dynamics and effects of the development of digital technologies such as Industry 4.0, blockchain and artificial intelligence. She is particularly passionate about researching the role of employees, managers and entrepreneurs in the development of digital technologies and the promotion of digital transformation. Her research combines quantitative, qualitative and design-oriented research methods and includes interdisciplinary work that combines questions of business informatics with topics of finance and innovation management. Her work has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of Information Technology, Information and Management, Communications of the AIS and the International Journal of Innovation Management.
At the award ceremony, Bremen's Senator for the Environment, Climate and Science, Kathrin Moosdorf, stated that the foundation was honouring scientific work that focuses on social, ecological and economic sustainability, raises creative and topical issues and is therefore highly relevant to our society. It is one of the most prestigious and most highly endowed prizes in the field of business administration and economics in Germany. The Wolfgang Ritter Foundation will award the prize, named after its founder, for the 39th time in 2024.
The WiSo digitisation expert's work reflects the multidisciplinary nature of the WiSo faculty: "The jury was impressed by the combination of research approaches from different fields such as finance, management and business informatics." We congratulate her sincerely on this outstanding honour.
