Research news

These provide concrete insights into the effects of mergers and acquisitions on co-determination and deal in particular with questions on the background and motives of acquisitions and which problems can arise here from a co-determination perspective. The case studies, including the acquisitions of the German company Iglo GmbH by financial investors, the acquisition of the German company Kuka AG by the Chinese investor Midea and the acquisition of the US company Concur by the German company SAP SE, were published on the Foundation's co-determination portal in September 2024. Among other things, they serve to train and advise works councils and supervisory board members on the employee side.

Presentation of working papers and participation in pre-Colloquium PhD workshop

Elisabeth Bethge and Sarah Bützler attended this year’s EGOS pre-Colloquium PhD workshops on July 2^nd as well as this year’s EGOS conference presenting their recent research projects.

Elisabeth Bethge gave a presentation on her current project, “Local Contexts Shaping Global Ideas: Uberization in the Discourse of Nations,” co-authored with Mike Geppert. This presentation was featured in Sub-theme 84: “Work and Employment at Multiple Crossroads: Building Better Futures from the Present”.

Sarah Bützler presented a working paper titled “Hazy, suppressed, and lived stigma—Making sense of the individual formation of stigma in a stigmatizable context” (written together with Jan Goldenstein, Daniel Pastuh and Mike Geppert) in sub-theme 5 “Multi-Level Approaches to Social Evaluations: From the Micro to the Macro and Back”.

Mike Geppert hielt am 23.11.23 im Rahmen der Reihe „Online-Talk Fußball“ einen Vortrag für StipendiatInnen der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung zum Thema „Einfluss privater Investitionen im europäischen Profifußball und daraus resultierende Konflikte“. Die Veranstaltung wurde von den Referenten der Stiftung Pascal Geißler und Alexander Kejo organisiert und moderiert.

In our sub-panel 4.1 on 'The role of, and the conflict over, private property in professional football – Germany and England compared' at the annual conference of the Collaborative Research Centre Structural Change of Property - SFB 294 in Erfurt from the 4th to the 6th of October 2023, Andrea Dietl and Prof. Mike Geppertt will present the first findings of our subproject investigating the similarities and differences between the two countries in terms of (trans-)national regulation, corporate governance, and ownership structures and how these structures trigger political struggles and conflicts with critical stakeholders, e.g. with fans and members. Our two expert panel members, Prof. Christoph Breuer (German Sport University Cologne, Germany) and Dr. David Webber (Solent University Southampton, UK), will comment on the findings while presenting their research on the politics of ownership structures in the two leagues.

Sarah Bützler attended this year’s WORK2023 conference from the 23rd to the 25th of August 2023 at the University of Turku (Finland). She presented a working paper titled “’Just a Job’: Individual Perception of and Response to Core Stigma in the Gig Economy” (written together with Jan Goldenstein, Daniel Pastuh and Mike Geppert).

In the subtheme "A Good Life for the Fluid Workforce: Illusion or Reality?" at this year's EGOS conference, Elisabeth Bethge presented a current project from her Ph.D. research titled "Voices beyond the road: A comparison of online employee voice in traditional transport and the ride-sharing industry." This research aims to delve into the impact of fluid work facilitated by digital business models on online employee voice, comparing it to the traditional passenger transport industry in the UK.

Call For Papers für eine Special in Critical Perspectives on International Business (CPoIB)  zum Thema “Multinational Corporations and Grand Challenges: Part of the problem, part of the solution?”. 

Professor Mike Geppert took part at the Panel on “Another Research Agenda in International Business and Management? - What Does Actually Need to Change and What Can Be Done in Practice?” at the 16^th Vaasa (virtual) IB Conference on the 18^th of August 2021. His presentation was titled “The promises and prospects of thinking outside the box”.

Prof. Mike Geppert has been appointed as Editorial Advisory Board Member of the Journal "International Business Review" from January 2021 onwards.

Prof. Dr. Mike Geppert und Kenny Böswetter erforschen in einem Teilprojekt im Rahmen des neuen SFB-Transregio 294 den Wandel von Eigentumsstrukturen in Fußballclubs und dessen Wirkungen

Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft fördert seit Beginn dieses Jahres den Sonderforschungsbereich-Transregio 294 „Strukturwandel des Eigentums“. Dieses Großprojekt wird an den beiden Thüringer Universitäten, Jena und Erfurt, in den kommenden vier Jahren mit bis zu zehn Millionen Euro unterstützt. Das Konsortium vereint Forschende der Sozial-, Rechts-, Wirtschafts- und Geschichtswissenschaften. Unsere Fakultät ist mit Teilprojekt B03 „Öffentliche Interessen vs. private Verfügungsrechte: Eigentumsstrukturen von Organisationen des öffentlichen Interesses“ vertreten, welches von Prof. Dr. Mike Geppert geleitet wird. Ab Mitte März wird Kenny Böswetter als wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Projekt mitarbeiten.

Worum soll es in dem Projekt gehen?

Seit etlichen Jahren gibt es in der Eigentumsforschung eine intensive Debatte über die Frage „who owns football?“. Offen bleibt eine systematische international-vergleichende Untersuchung des Wandels von Eigentumsstrukturen und Verfügungsrechten im europäischen Fußball, basierend auf sozioökonomischen Annahmen. Ausgehend von einem solchen Ansatz rücken gesellschaftspolitisch relevante Fragestellung in den Vordergrund, d.h. ob und warum der Fußball ein „öffentliches Gut“ ist? Wie und unter welchen Bedingungen kann ein sportlich fairer, global vernetzter und lokal verwurzelter Wettbewerb im Fußball gewährleistet werden?

Welche Interessen haben wichtige Anspruchsgruppen in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft daran und wie bringen sie diese, mit welcher Wirkung, zum Ausdruck? Welche Stakeholder (Fans, Vereinsmitglieder, Politiker, Vertreter von Verbänden und Medien, etc.) werden wie in Entscheidungsfindungen einbezogen, wenn es um sportliche Fairness aber auch soziale Verantwortung geht?

Der Kampf um das „öffentliche Gut“ Fußball und die spezifische Rolle des Eigentums muss somit als konflikthafter politischer Aushandlungsprozess verstanden werden, wie gerade die gegenwärtige Diskussion zur „Sonderbehandlung“ von europäischen Spitzenclubs und -ligen in Pandemiezeiten zeigt. Es stellt sich die Frage: Warum darf der Profifußball weiterspielen und somit weiterhin Geld verdienen, während andere im öffentlichen Interesse stehende Organisationen, wie Kulturschaffende, oder selbst nichtprofessionelle Sportvereine über Monate geschlossen bleiben?

Was sind die theoretisch-konzeptionellen Grundlagen?

Auf Basis neuerer institutionalistischer Ansätze soll zum einen eine akteurszentrierte Perspektive in die fußballbezogene Eigentumsdebatte eingebracht werden, um zu untersuchen, wie konkret gesellschaftsspezifische Institutionensysteme bestimmend auf nationale Eigentumsordnungen und -strukturen wirken. Zum anderen sollen Veränderungen von Interessen wichtiger Anspruchsgruppen und deren Teilhabe an Eigentumsstrukturen in den europäischen Fußballligen analysiert werden.

Wie wollen wir empirisch vorgehen?

Ausgehend von der Beobachtung zunehmender Kommerzialisierung, Internationalisierung und Professionalisierung, soll in einem ersten quantitativen Teil untersucht werden, wie sich der europäische Fußball dem Privateigentum global geöffnet hat und wie damit gewisse transnationale Standards einhergehen, die in verschiedenen nationalen Kontexten unterschiedlich interpretiert werden.

In einem zweiten qualitativen Teil ist ein Fallstudien-basierter Vergleich von ausgewählten Clubs in der englischen Premier League und in der deutschen Bundesliga geplant, um näher verstehen zu können, welche konkreten Akteure ihre Interessen machtvoll ausüben können.   

Kontakt:

Mike Geppert                                   mike.geppert@uni-jena.de       

Tel. Sekretariat                                03641-9-43160

Prof. Mike Geppert has been appointed as new Editorial Advisory Board Member of the Journal "critical perspectives on international business"External link in July 2020.

Pastuh, D./Geppert, M. (2020): A “Circuits of Power”-based Perspective on Algorithmic Management and Labour in the Gig Economy.External link Industrielle Beziehungen. Zeitschrift für Arbeit, Organisation und Management, 27/2: 179-204.

Meldung vom: 22.05.2020 15:54

At the 10^th of September 2019 Professor Mike Geppert participated at the Eurofound 2019 project seminar on multi-level forms of social dialogue in multinational companies at the Ecorys office in Brussels. 

Mike Geppert and Florian Olischer attended this year’s Colloquium of European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS) from the 4^th to the 7^th of July 2019 at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Mike acted as a co-convenor of the subtheme 59 “Actor-centred institutionalism: Comparing actors, contexts, interactions and change (together with Ruth Aguilera and Gregory Jackson) and presented a paper on “The transfer of the global value chain approach into research on global factories: Insights into theory borrowing in International Business”.

Florian presented a paper on “Location strategy as response by MNEs: The case of European low-cost civil airlines”.

Meldung vom 10.07.2019

Professor Mike Geppert has been invited to participate at the seminar on multi-level forms of HRM and social dialogue in multinational companies, organized by Ecorys, as a discussant of first research results. The one-day seminar took place at the 8th of April 2019 at the Ecorys UK office in London.

Meldung vom: 09.04.2019 15:06

Professor Mike Geppert has been invited for an input lecture at the Training Workshop of the SAP SE Works Council, supported by the European Trade Union Institute, which took place on the 9th of October 2018 in Sitges (Spain). His talk dealt with main trends of cross-border standardisation and reorganisation in European multinational corporations, followed by a discussion.

Meldung vom: 23.10.2018 10:52

Vom 05. bis 07. Juli 2018 findet das diesjährige Kolloquium der European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS) unter dem Titel "Surprise in and around Organizations: Journeys to the Unexpected" an der Estonian Business School (EBS) in Tallinn statt.

Am 07. Juli wird Mike Geppert im Sub-theme 37 "Opening the Black Box: Advancing Micro-level Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility" ein Paper zum Thema "Linking macro- and micro-level politics in and around multinational corporations: Towards a meso-level framework of analysis" (zusammen mit Dirk Matten, Toronto) präsentieren. Eva Schlindwein hält am 06. Juli im Sub-theme 47 "Social-Symbolic Work and the Unexpected in Organizational Life" einen Vortrag mit dem Titel "Summoning the Moral Demon: Discursive work in the Case of Cannabis Prohibition in the U.S., 1900-1960".

Informationen zum Kolloquium finden Sie hier.External link

Meldung vom: 03.07.2018 09:29

Professor Mike Geppert is going to take part at the annual ETUI-ETUC Conference which focuses on the topic "The world(s) of work in transition"External link, from 27th to 29th of June 2018 in Brussels. He will present and discuss key ideas and findings of the just published study (ETUI report 141) on "Cross-border standardisation and reorganisation in European multinational companies" at the (interactive) Panel 6, titled "The role of worker's participation in addressing the digitalisation driven Europeanisation strategies of MNCs".External link

Meldung vom: 20.06.2018 07:51

Mike Geppert and Daniel Pastuh attended the 2nd Biennial Conference on "What Does Co-Determination Do? What Can We Learn from Research?", which took place at Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB) at the 11th of June 2018. Here the joined paper (written together with C. Dörrenbächer, A. Hoffmann and M: Tomenendal) titled "Beyond Restructuring: Intensified cross-border standardisation and centralisation in multinational companies and the role of workers' participation" has been presented.

For more information: https://www.wzb.eu/de/veranstaltungen/what-does-co-determination-do-what-can-we-learn-from-research-0External link

Meldung vom: 18.06.2018 12:26

Call for Papers for 4th Paper Development Workshop in Organization and Management Studies for PhD Students and Early Career Scholars in Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe (CESEE)

October 24-27, 2018
City of Korčula | University of Dubrovnik, Croatia

Meldung vom: 17.05.2018 14:43

Professor Mike Geppert will attend the Latin American and European Meeting on Organization Studies (LAEMOS), which takes place in Buenos Aires (Argentina) from 22-24 March 2018. He acts as a convenor for subtheme 24 on "International standards and multinationals: towards a greater appreciation of the role of politics" and will present a paper titled "Macro- and micro-level politics in and around multinational corporations".

Meldung vom: 12.03.2018 15:04

Professor Geppert has been invited to visit the School of Business at Aalto University in Helsinki (Finland) in February 2018. Here he presented a paper on the topic "Macro- and micro-level politics in and around multinational corporations" at the School's Research Seminar. He also participated in the MSc class, entitled "Perspectives to the Multinational Corporation".

Meldung vom: 13.02.2018 09:25

Professor Geppert has been invited to visit the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto in late September 2017.  He will participate in departmental activities and work on a research paper.

Meldung vom: 14.09.2017 14:40

Call for Papers for Subtheme 22 on 'Economic and Institutional flux and the power of MNCs: towards a greater appreciation of the role of politics' at the Latin American and European Organization Studies (LAEMOS) conference at the IAE Business School in Buenos Aires (Argentina), March 22-24, 2018

Deadline: 15.09.2017

Meldung vom: 13.07.2017 09:56

Call for Papers for 3rd Paper Development Workshop for PhD Students and Early Career Scholars in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

"Managing and Organizing in Challenging Times"

from 2nd to 4th of November 2017 at Transilvania University of Brasov (Romania)

Meldung vom: 12.05.2017 16:43

PDW 05: In Search of New Research Directions and Methods for Critically Studying Social Responsibility

Convenors:
Loreta Tauginienė, Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania
Mike Geppert, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany

The pre-Colloquium Development Workshop (PDW) will take place on Wednesday, July 5, 2017, 9:00-13:00 - prior to the 33rd EGOS main Colloquium - at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Denmark.

Time period for submission of applications:

• Start: Monday, February 20, 2017
• End:  Monday, April 3, 2017, 23:59:59 (CEST)

Call for ApplicationsExternal link

Meldung vom: 17.02.2017 11:09

Professor Geppert has been appointed as Visiting Professor at the University College Dublin (UCD), and will be a guest researcher at the UCD's Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in March 2017.

Meldung vom: 16.01.2017 12:12

As part of his sabbatical leave, Professor Geppert has been invited to visit the Department of Organisation Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in early December 2016. Over there he participated in several departmental activities, including a guest lecture at the Annual Seminar for BCO-Master Students and a Research Seminar on the topic "Precarious and destructive effects of the colonization of the Lebenswelt in higher education".

Meldung vom: 16.01.2017 12:01

Professor Mike Geppert has been invited to present a paper at the Research Seminar at the Brunel Business School, Brunel University London, on the 10th of October 2016 (at ESGW 102, between 12:30 - 14:00). His paper is titled "Bridge-building between organization theory and international business for studying multinational companies: a one-way road?". In his presentation Professor Geppert will look deeper into and reflect on reasons how and why bridge-building exercises have been limited so far, especially in the field of IB, based on his own on-going research on social agency and institutional change in post-millennium MNCs, and the crucial role of micropolitics and power relations in this process (e.g. Becker-Ritterspach et al. 2016; Dörrenbächer and Geppert, 2017; Geppert and Dörrenbächer, 2014; Geppert te al. 2016).

Meldung vom: 07.10.2016 14:51

Call for Applications: 2nd Paper Development Workshop for PhD Students and Early Career Scholars in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

"Challenges in Managing and Organizing Processes of Change"

Special Issue Call for Papers: Human Relations

"Politicization and political contests in contemporary multinational corporations"

Meldung vom: 11.05.2016 13:47

Dörrenbächer, C./Geppert, M. (2016): The Integration-Responsiveness Framework: A Review and Application of the Concept. BIIBS Working Papers, 03/2016, Berlin Institute for International Business Studies, Berlin.

Meldung vom: 29.03.2016 14:38

Professor Mike Geppert has been invited to present a paper at the Research Seminar at the Department of Financial and Management Studies, SOAS, University of London. The paper which he is going to present on the 15th of March 2016 is titled 'Dystopia and Demoralization:  Reflections on the precarious and destructive effects of the colonization of the Lebenswelt of British academia'. The paper, on which the presentation is based on, has been written in the style of a provocative essay. It starts with the observation that particularly in the US and the UK Higher Education systems, neo-liberalism has become the leading 'policy doctrine'. This has put increasing systemic political and the economic pressure on universities which not only undermined but also 'colonized' the Lebenswelt or 'lifeworld' (Habermas) of many academics. We are going to highlight and illustrate how the increasing dominance of 'neo-liberal science' principles severely damages the quality of knowledge production and working conditions of ordinary academics as knowledge workers. We will provide concrete empirical examples based on own experiences and secondary sources.

Meldung vom: 10.03.2016 13:35

In addition to the Panel discussion on 18th November 2015, please find the following video:

Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MzZzzZu_hQ

Meldung vom: 17.02.2016 09:27

Am Freitag, den 29. Januar 2016, 12.00 Uhr, wird Mike Geppert gemeinsam mit Herrn Prof. Dr. Walsh seine Antrittsvorlesung in der Aula der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität halten. Die Kurzbeschreibung des Vortrages zum Thema "Inside the multinational corporation: The role of institutions, power and political processes" lautet:

In Textbüchern zum Internationalen Management und auch in den Medien werden multinationale Unternehmen (MNU) oft als Vorreiter der Globalisierung dargestellt, die aufgrund modernster Technologien, effektiver Strukturen und effizienter Strategien erfolgreich expandieren. Nicht erst seit dem aktuellen VW-Skandal wissen wir, dass im Innern von MNU solch eine allumfassende Rationalität kaum existiert. Daher ist es für empirische Sozialforscher umso wichtiger, kritische Fragen zu stellen und zu erkunden: was effizient, für wen ist und warum. Solche Fragen sind besonders relevant, weil MNU in diversen institutionellen Umwelten agieren und somit unterschiedliche politische Interessen und Identitäten von Managern und Beschäftigten ins Spiel kommen. Der Vortrag wird zeigen, wie sich oft vernachlässigte machtpolitische Aspekte im Innern von MNU mit alternativen Theorien erklären lassen. 

Meldung vom: 06.01.2016 17:48

Professor Mike Geppert has been invited to give a talk at the Workshop on 'Legitimacy, Ethics and Shades of Darkness in International Business' at the School of Management at RMIT University in Melbourne (Australia) on the 17th of December 2015. He will present a paper, titled  'Towards a Critical Institutionalist analysis of Contemporary Business organizations - Lessons from Goffman's Work on Total Institutions'.

Meldung vom: 09.12.2015 09:36

Professor Mike Geppert will attend APROS-EGOS Conference which takes place at the UTS Business SchoolExternal link, University of Technology, Sydney (Australia) from 9-11 of December 2015. He is one of the organizers of this conference on behalf of the EGOS Board. He is also a co-convenor (together with (Stewart Clegg) of subtheme 11 on "The politicized multinational company: contested transnational spaces and the role of actors and institutions" and the co-author of two papers which will be presented there.

Meldung vom: 16.11.2015 13:50

From 19th to 20th of November 2015 professors Christoph Dörrenbächer (Berlin School of Economics and Law) and Mike Geppert (FSU Jena) will host a Paper Development Workshop. The workshop is funded by the Ernst-Abbe-StiftungExternal link and related to the book project "Multinational Corporations and Organization Theory: Post millennium Perspectives". The forthcoming volume, edited by the two hosts, will be published in the high quality book series "Research in the Sociology of OrganizationsExternal link" by Emerald.

Meldung vom: 16.11.2015 09:14

Mike Geppert has been invited to join a Panel discussion about "The Social Accountability of Multinational Corporations Reality, Challenge or Myth?". The Panel takes place on the 18th of November 2015, 16:00-18:00, at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. The Panel Discussion seeks answers to questions, like: How should economic and socially viable business strategies across borders look like in order to best deal with these challenges? How can viable strategies be developed, implemented and monitored in large MNCs that often employ 100.000 or more employees? What role will the public play, be it international organizations, national governments or civil society actors such as trade unions and consumer organizations?

Meldung vom: 15.10.2015 13:45

From 29th to 30th of October 2015 Professor Geppert will act as co-organizer and mentor at a Paper Development Workshop for PhD Students and Early Career Scholars in Central and Eastern Europe at the University of Warsaw (Poland). The PDW, titled 'Managing and Organizing in Contexts of Change', is co-sponsored by European Group for Organizational Studies, Organization & Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management, and the journal 'Organization Studies'. 

Meldung vom: 07.10.2015 08:47

Vom 1. bis 4. Juli 2015 findet das diesjährige Kolloquium der European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS) unter dem Titel "Organizations and the Examined Life: Reason, Reflexivity and Responsibility" an der ALBA Graduate Business School at The American College of Greece in Athen statt.

Am 2. Juli wird Mike Geppert dort ein Paper zum Thema "Sensemaking with institutions about strategic business model change: the case of a Norwegian family firm" präsentieren.  Eva Schlindwein hält dam 4. Juli einen Vortrag unter dem Titel "How (public) organizations thrive in the midst of institutional pluralism: the role of identity". Am 4. Juli präsentieren dann Daniel Pastuh und Mike Geppert ein Paper zum Thema "Elements of total, greedy and reinventive institutions in work and employment practices of contemporary service sector business organizations".
Mike Geppert wird außerdem als amtierender Vice-Chair an den beiden Vorstandssitzungen des EGOS Boards, am 1. und 4. Juli, teilnehmen.

Informationen zum Kolloquium finden Sie hierExternal link.
Das vollständige Programm können Sie hierExternal link einsehen.

Meldung vom: 01.10.2015 11:07