WU improved its position in this year's ranking published by the German business daily Handelsblatt, moving up to place 4 on the list of the most successful research universities in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking regions of Switzerland.

The ranking also honors the best researchers: WU is proud to have 10 researchers ranked among the 250 best in terms of lifetime performance. In the last Business Administration ranking, published in 2009, WU came in at place 5. Thanks to the excellent work of WU's researchers, it moved up to 4th place this year. Switzerland's University of St. Gallen took first place. A total of 10 WU researchers were included under the top 250 researchers honored for their lifetime achievement: Josef Zechner (Institute for Finance, Banking and Insurance), Bodo Schlegelmilch (Head of the Institute forInternational Management), Engelbert Dockner (Institute for Finance, Banking and Insurance), Jan Mendling (Head of the Institute for Information Business), Alfred Taudes ( Head of the Department of Information Systems and Operations), Christian Laux (Institute for Finance, Banking and Insurance), Michael Müller-Camen (Institute for Human Resource Management), Björn Ambos (Institute for International Business), Neal Stoughton (Institute for Finance, Banking and Insurance), and Günter Stahl (Institute for International Business).

Jan Mendling: Top researcher under 40

Handelsblatt also ranks the top 100 researchers under the age of 40. WU's Jan Mendling came in at an excellent 10th place in this category, making him one of the year's top up-and-coming researchers. His excellent research performance moved him up a total of 89 places in this year's ranking. Mendling, at WU since 2011, is currently the Head of the Institute for Information Business, and his research focuses mainly on process management and process modeling.

Controversial ranking methods

Handelsblatt's Business Administration ranking is based on internationally recognized criteria for evaluating scientific research. Published work in any of approximately 1000 international scientific journals is the most important criterion, weighted by the quality of the various media. Before the ranking, researchers can review and edit their list of publications online under www.forschungsmonitoring.org. The ranking methods have created some controversy: In an open letter signed by over 300 researchers, it was claimed that the evaluations were one-dimensional, and the quality of the methods and the database used were called into question. These researchers refused to participate in the ranking in protest.
The Business Administration ranking and detailed results are available online (in German) under: http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/oekonomie/bwl-ranking/die-top-fakultaeten-deutsche-betriebswirte-fallen-zurueck/7142160.html or http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/oekonomie/bwl-ranking/

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