As was the case two years ago, we achieved an excellent 4th place among universities in the latest manager magazin ranking. The ranking is published every two years and is based on assessments by numerous auditing firms as well as their clients. We are therefore all the more pleased to once again be among the leading institutions, outperforming many renowned universities as well as all universities of applied sciences.
The Journal of Marketing Research paper “Driving Mobile App User Engagement through Gamification” by Jun.-Prof. Jens Paschmann and his co-authors Hernán A. Bruno (University of Cologne), Harald J. van Heerde (UNSW Sydney), Franziska Völckner (University of Cologne), and Kristina Klein (University of Bremen) has been awarded the VHB Best Paper Award of the Marketing Section at the 2026 VHB conference in Göttingen.
In the article “A little help for others” in the latest edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, author Patrick Bernau explores the concept of “nudges” as a gentle form of reward within the framework of liberal paternalism. His argument is that many of the well-intentioned ideas in this context fail. As evidence, he cites, among other things, a study published in 2026 by PD Dr Jörg Lingens (Institute for Sustainable Market Design), Christoph Feldhaus, Andreas Löschel and Gerald Zunker.
What can past refugee crises teach us about resilience through entrepreneurship – particularly in light of potential new displacement risks? On March 4, 2026, the project team of RES²CUE – Building resources and resilience through the crisis for Ukrainian entrepreneurs met at the University of Münster. RES²CUE is a joint research project of the University of Bremen and the University of Münster, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Firms can defend themselves against new competition not only through innovation or price cuts, but also through their cost structure. This is shown by a new study by Prof. Dr. Martin Artz, Head of the Institute of Management Accounting and Control, together with Martin Holzhacker (Michigan State University) and André Hoppe (KU Leuven), published in The Accounting Review, one of the world's leading academic journals in accounting.
The University of Münster has published its 2025 annual portrait series “Twelve Months, Twelve People”. With this publication, the Communications and Public Relations Office highlights the diversity of the university and presents several outstanding personalities from the past year. Among them is Prof. Jan vom Brocke, Director of the Department of Information Systems, Chair of Information Systems and Business Process Management, and Director of the European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS).
Professor Sebastian Hohenberg was presented with the American Marketing Association (AMA) Varadarajan Award for Early Career Contributions to Marketing Strategy Research 2025 at the AMA Winter Conference in Madrid. He is only the second professor from a German university to receive this honour. The Varadarajan Award is one of the most prestigious awards in the field of marketing strategy and honours academics whose work has made an exceptional contribution to research and practice.
In Part 24 of the Alumni Stories, we introduce Gerd Hartwig. After studying Business Administration at the University of Münster, he began his career as an HR Officer and later as Head of Management Development at Oetker’s central administration in Bielefeld. He subsequently held positions as HR Director at Deutsche Postbank AG, member of the Executive Board of the Federal Pension Service for Post and Telecommunications, and, from 2004, as General Representative/CHRO at CLAAS, where he played a key role in shaping global HR and organizational development until his retirement in 2018. Even after retirement, Gerd Hartwig continues to serve as an advisor to CLAAS and is active on supervisory boards, employers’ associations, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and the Advisory Board of the School of Business & Economics.
Will AI save the world? Prof. Dr. Jan vom Brocke, Head of the Institute for Information Systems, addresses this and other questions in an interview with WELT on 15 February 2026. He describes AI as a tool with certain strengths that can make processes more efficient and assist with complex tasks, but at the same time emphasises that it should be used consciously and responsibly.
