Chair of Marketing & Sales
Chair ofMarketing & Sales
At the Chair of Marketing & Sales, we study how firms win customers, grow customer value, and build stronger sales organizations. Our research focuses on the drivers of sales performance and on how AI can improve innovation and managerial decision-making. The goal is rigorous research with clear practical relevance. This also shapes our teaching, which is closely connected to real managerial challenges and designed to prepare students for sales positions in a dynamic business environment. At the same time, we examine how market-oriented thinking can be used to address broader societal challenges.
Teaching
In which programmes does this Chair offer courses?
MSc in
International Sales Management
- Sales
- Consumer Behavior & Digital Marketing
- Organizational Buying
Research
At the Chair of Marketing & Sales, my research explores how firms can sell more effectively, improve innovation through AI, and use market-oriented strategies to address important societal challenges. My work focuses on how sales organizations can win customers, grow customer value, and translate strategy into innovative products and superior sales performance.
Selling to Customers
This research area explores how firms can create and capture value through personal selling, incentive design, and customer referral mechanisms. A first project is on personal selling, especially the effectiveness of sales visits under different economic conditions. A second project analyzes incentive systems for sales employees, with a particular interest in how incentives shape effort, behavior, and performance to different types of customers. A third project investigates customer referral programs and asks when and why referrals attract more valuable, more loyal, or better-matching customers than selling through salespeople. Together, these projects explore how firms can sell more efficiently and effectively.
AI in Innovation
This research area explores how firms can use artificial intelligence to improve innovation processes and decision-making. I study how new ideas emerge, how they are evaluated, and how organizations can strengthen the fuzzy front end of innovation. A particular focus lies on the role of large language models and other AI systems in idea generation, idea screening, and opportunity identification. My research asks when AI can enhance human creativity, when it may distort judgment, and how firms can combine human expertise and machine intelligence effectively. Overall, this work examines how organizations can use AI not only to become more efficient, but also to innovate more intelligently and successfully.
Better Marketing for a Better World
This research area explores how marketing can help address major societal challenges and improve individual well-being. Rather than viewing marketing only as a tool for commercial success, I study how it can generate positive outcomes for people and society. One project examines the factors that foster the successful integration of refugees into the labor market. Another investigates how the behavior of customer service employees in public service contexts, such as unemployment registration, can shape important life outcomes of employees like the duration of unemployment. More broadly, this research asks how marketing and service interactions can be designed to create social value.
Publications
Find an overview
Academic Articles
2026
Digital new products in virtual worlds – How do limited-time offers influence consumers’ adoption behavior?
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 207, 115995
Academic Articles
2025
Ideator's success in innovation tournaments: Participation, productivity, or pressure?
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN MARKETING, 42 (2), 335-364
Academic Articles
2025
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Ideation Process
JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT (THE), 42 (5), 958-982
Other Intellectual Contributions
2024
Can AI help in ideation? A theory-based model for idea screening in crowdsourcing contests
MARKETING SCIENCE, 43 (1), 54-72
Academic Articles
2021
Menu-Based Choice Models for Customization: On the Recoverability of Reservation Prices, Model Fit, and Predictive Validity
JOURNAL OF INTERACTIVE MARKETING, 53 (1), 1-14
Academic Articles
2014
Relevance of actors in bridging positions for product-related information diffusion
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 67 (8), 1630-1637
Academic Articles
2014
Accounting for Word‐of‐Mouth Effects in Preference‐Based Market Forecasts
JOURNAL OF FORECASTING, 33 (2), 95-107
Academic Articles
2014
Consumer decision-making processes in mobile viral marketing campaigns
JOURNAL OF INTERACTIVE MARKETING, 28 (1), 43-54
Academic Articles
2013
A comparison of the effectiveness of e-mail coupons and mobile text message coupons for digital products
ELECTRONIC MARKETS, 23 (3), 217-225
Team and contact
