IST Institute

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Guido Baltes is Director of the IST Innovation Institute in Constance, visiting professor at UIBE University in Beijing and the Rady School of Management at the University of California in San Diego.

As an expert in strategic transformation and innovation, he combines corporate and entrepreneurial experience with internationally renowned research. He was responsible for strategy & marketing in the management of a top3 IT service company in Germany and, as a (co)founder, successfully built up several start-ups - including Coliquio, the largest medical community in German-speaking countries. He regularly supports start-ups at the University of Konstanz and the Startup Bootcamp of the Entrepreneurship Center of the University of California Berkeley.

Since 2009 he has focused his research on design issues in the context of strategic innovation and corporate entrepreneurship. Against this background, he regularly supports companies in the implementation of innovation-oriented growth strategies and their digital transformation. He is a multiple author of refereed journal and book articles. Together with Antje Freyth, he has recently published the standard work "Veränderungsintelligenz" at Springer/Gabler.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Carsten Manz studied mechanical engineering at the TU Braunschweig from 1988-1993 in the field of aerospace engineering. In 1993 he moved to the aerospace industry, where he first completed his doctorate in laser material processing in cooperation with the University of Erlangen. After holding various positions in project/program management, assistant to the management board, head of strategic corporate planning and most recently head of a business unit as a company within the company, he was appointed to the former University of Applied Sciences Konstanz in 1999. Here he headed the Master's programme in Mechanical Engineering and International Sales Management in the field of mechanical engineering. One focus of his activities is bridging the gap between technology and business in order to expand the profile of a conventional mechanical engineer to include management and business administration aspects. From October 2006 - March 2014, Prof. Dr.-Ing C. Manz was the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

After interdisciplinary studies with a focus on economics and systems science on the one hand and natural sciences and engineering on the other (degree: University of Karlsruhe), Thomas Göllinger worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Organization and Environmental Economics at the University of Siegen and received his doctorate with a thesis on "Strategies for a Sustainable Energy Economy", Dr. rer. pol.

He then worked for many years as a board member and project manager at the Institute for Ecological Business Administration (IöB) at the University of Siegen. The focus was on application-oriented research and consulting, especially strategic environmental and innovation management in the fields of energy / mobility / industry / building management / services etc. This also included the initiation and support of energy efficiency networks and climate protection initiatives as well as organisational development in companies and public administrations.

At the same time, he was habilitated (Dr. rer. pol. habil.) at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Siegen on the topic of "Systemic evolutionary innovation and sustainability management". With the award of the Venia legendi for the subject "Business Administration", Thomas Göllinger continues to be a private lecturer at the University of Siegen and is entitled to supervise doctoral students including the acceptance of doctoral examinations.The preparation and consolidation of four theoretical-conceptual building blocks (evolutionary economics, ecological economics, system-oriented management, industrial environmental economics) along the most important lines of development of modern and future-oriented economics and management sciences into a universal problem-solving methodology in the context of innovation and sustainability as well as their application to a number of equally current and future-relevant subject areas continue to be at the centre of his work.

Since 2012 Thomas Göllinger has been professor at the HTWG Konstanz, especially in the field of "Energy Economics". Teaching in industrial engineering subjects (sustainable energy management, sustainable mobility, planning and organisation, innovation and transformation management as well as general business administration):

Career

Nicolai Heinzelmann completed his bachelor and master studies (B.Eng./M.Eng.) in Industrial Engineering at the University of Konstanz. During a semester abroad at the University of New South Wales, Sydney (Australia) he deepened his knowledge in the fields of Innovation & Entrepreneurship as well as Strategic Management. Nicolai has been involved in research projects at the IST Institute since 2014. In the beginning, he supported the investigation of indicators that suggest the survivability of young tech start-ups. Later he focused his research on Corporate Entrepreneurship and Corporate Venturing. He is supported by the HAW doctoral fellowship.

Working and Research Focuses

In the area of Corporate Entrepreneurship and Corporate Venturing, Nicolai examines in particular which types of Corporate Venturing units are suitable for achieving specific strategic objectives and which framework conditions must be in place for successful implementation. Building on this, Nicolai examines which interactions arise from a combination of different Corporate Venturing units and how these influence the achievement of objectives.

Career

Marc König studied Business Administration/Marketing (B.Sc.) in Pforzheim and deepened his knowledge in the Master's Program Service Marketing (M.A.), which he completed with distinction. Since 2013 he has been involved in research activities in Constance as part of a cooperation between bwcon and the IST Institute. In addition to his part-time doctorate, Marc König works as head of coaching and finance at bwcon, where he is responsible for incubation and acceleration processes.

Working and Research Focuses

As part of his dissertation project, Marc König is researching success indicators for technology-based start-ups. A business plan analysis based on transaction relationships will be carried out. This includes an algorithm for automatic text recognition.

Career

Christina Lang studied industrial engineering at the Esslingen University of Applied Sciences with a bachelor's degree (B. Eng.) and a master's degree (M. Eng.), which she successfully completed with a thesis on intrapreneurship. During her studies she gained insights into companies of different sizes and industries and gained experience in production and new business marketing. Christina has been involved in research projects at the IST Institute since 2018.

Working and Research Focuses

Her work focuses on the study of where the challenges of digital transformation come from for SMEs and what established SMEs can learn from the start-up world to master digital transformation.

In the field of corporate entrepreneurship, Christina examines how the various entrepreneurial innovation units can be successfully managed by established companies in their implementation. She focuses on the question of success in corporate entrepreneurship and how this success can be measured and controlled. On this basis, she aims to develop a management system for corporate entrepreneurship.

Career

Felix Duffner completed his bachelor's degree (B.Eng.) in industrial engineering at the University of Konstanz. During the practical semester he deepened his knowledge in the field of innovation and project management and successfully completed his studies with a thesis on the subject of free innovation. He then worked for a Startup Accelerator in Cologne and Düsseldorf, where he accompanied over 80 early stage startups.

Working and Research Focuses

Together with the University of Konstanz, Felix is working on the joint application for the EXIST Potentials funding measure of the BMWi.

Career

Christoph Selig completed his bachelor and master studies at the University of Konstanz as an industrial engineer specialising in electrical engineering and information technology. During his studies he spent two stays abroad with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship in Denmark (DTU Copenhagen) and Brazil (PUC Paraná). He is currently an academic assistant at the IST Institute for Strategic Innovation and Technology Management.

Working and Research Focuses

As a start-up representative of the University of Constance, he heads the cooperation project Kilometer1, which was initiated in cooperation with the University of Constance. The aim of Kilometer1 is to strengthen the founding culture and support students interested in founding a company.

He is responsible for the research strand Corporate Entrepreneurship and Corporate Startups as a strategic tool for increasing the innovative strength of established companies. His focus is on the corporate entrepreneur, who in his hybrid role is a critical success factor for entrepreneurial teams. 

Career

Christina Ungerer completed her International Business (B.Sc.) studies at Pforzheim University with a bachelor thesis in a start-up company. During the subsequent two years of work experience in a management consultancy, she continued to work part-time in the start-up sector. She also studied International Management (M.Sc.) at Northeastern University, Boston (USA) and at ESB Reutlingen, where she dealt with the topic of innovation and researched the acceptance behaviour of potential customers of a new technological product. After another year in the automotive industry and strategy development, she joined the IST Institute in July 2015 as a research fellow. Christina Ungerer is doing her doctorate in cooperation with the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster.

Working and Research Focuses

In the context of her dissertation project Christina Ungerer researches success indicators of technology-based start-ups. A business plan analysis on the basis of transaction relationships will be carried out. This includes an algorithm for automatic text recognition.