Activities of the Institute Director

“Life is associated with constant change”

I am very pleased to announce that I have been offered and accepted the Professorship of “Business Administration and Scientific Work” at the “IU International University of Applied Sciences” in the “Dual Study Programs” department. This means that I am now working at the Cologne site of IU in the completely renovated buildings and premises of the former Gerling Group. There is a positive spirit of optimism here, which opens up new opportunities and offers many options. I am enthusiastic about this new and challenging job, which I am carrying out in conjunction with the academic “E-Commerce Institute”.

The “IU International University of Applied Sciences” is Germany’s largest private university, which is growing at an enormous rate with over 100,000 students from over 180 countries, 200 study programs, 15,000 corporate partners and 4,000 employees (www.iu.de). One of the secrets to the success of its leading role is the development of the dual study program system. The economy needs qualified employees and therefore the companies finance the dual study program for the students at the IU, who at the same time already become employees of the companies and thus increase the talent pool of the companies. This results in considerable and very welcome synergies between the students, the companies and IU.

The Institute’s ongoing projects and conferences are continuing and the 3rd Annual International Scientific Practical Conference (ISPC 2023) in particular is proving to be a great success. After 20 contributions during ISPC 2021 and 24 contributions during ISPC 2022, over 30 contributions from more than 50 submissions have now been selected and accepted for presentation on November 24 and 25, 2023. The partners of the conference “East European University” Tbilisi, Georgia, and “Adelphi University”, New York, USA, as well as “E-Commerce Institute”, Cologne, are very pleased about this, as international authors from Germany, Europe, Asia and the USA have registered.

Overall, the combination of my activities at IU and at the Institute creates a strong link between teaching, research, and transfer into practice via the Institute. This intensive interaction is also reflected in the publications in the scientific publisher Springer Nature for the proceedings of the ISPC. It should be emphasized that in this format, the research results of both the “young scientists” such as master’s and doctoral students and the work results of the companies based on scientific principles are published. This format integrates the work results of companies and organizations based on scientific principles.

I look forward with great pleasure and optimistic curiosity to the further development and intensive exchange with all those involved.

– Richard C. Geibel, Institute Director and Professor at IU International University