Professor Katrin Hummel, Department of Finance, Accounting & Statistics

Katrin Hummel (39) was awarded her doctorate in financial control from the University of Stuttgart for her doctoral thesis on transfer pricing systems in 2008. After graduation, she was employed by a Swiss plant engineering company, where she was responsible for the financial control of major international projects. In 2010, she returned to academia, working as a senior teaching and research assistant at the University of Zurich’s chair of accounting and as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Basel. From 2018 and 2019, she was also a visiting professor at the Department of Finance, Accounting and Statistics at WU. In her research, Katrin Hummel addresses issues at the interface of accounting and sustainability, with a particular focus on sustainability reporting and performance. She applies cutting-edge automated text analysis methods in her work. “I’m looking forward to making my contribution to WU, one of the strongest research universities in the German-speaking region. Sustainability is one of the most pressing challenges our society currently faces, and accounting plays an important role in this field. This is one of the areas I plan to focus on in my teaching,” says Hummel. She started in her new position as professor of accounting and reporting at WU’s Department of Finance, Accounting and Statistics on January 1, 2021.

Professor Nils Wlömert, Department of Marketing

Nils Wlömert (41) earned his doctorate from the University of Hamburg in 2014. From 2015 to 2020, he worked as an assistant professor at WU’s Institute for Interactive Marketing & Social Media, before completing his venia docendi there in 2020. During this time, he was a visiting researcher at a number of different international universities, including the University of New South Wales, New York University, Tel Aviv University, and the University of Technology Sydney. Nils Wlömert’s research focuses mainly on the effects of digitalization and new technologies on markets and business models, for example how new online sales channels are affecting more traditional sales channels, and how they work together in multi-channel sales models. His work is often based on the analysis of huge datasets encompassing the various dimensions of corporate and consumer behavior. “I’m looking forward to cooperating with corporate partners to investigate practice-based problems and solve them using data analysis. In my teaching, I also plan to focus on providing students with skills in quantitative analysis methods, as these are in increasing demand on the job market. The question of the extent to which companies can and should be permitted to collect and analyze user data is highly relevant to today’s society. For this reason, I will also be contributing to the public discourse on the responsible and appropriate use of personal data by companies,” he says. He started in his new position as professor of retailing and data science at WU’s Department of Marketing on January 1, 2021.

Professor Ewald Aschauer, Department of Finance, Accounting & Statistics

Ewald Aschauer (aged 38) obtained his doctoral degree from WU in 2008. In 2014, he was appointed associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), where he worked part-time until 2017. Also in 2014, he was offered a professorship at Johannes Kepler University Linz (JKU), where he held the chair for system stability and corporate monitoring at the Institute of Financial Accounting and Auditing until his recent appointment as a full professor at WU. At JKU, Professor Aschauer was also involved in the establishment of the JKU Business School, which he co-headed as part of the Dean Team. He also completed several visiting professorships in Austria and abroad. Ewald Aschbauer is also involved in several professional associations, where he works to promote the transfer of scientific knowledge. For example, he is a member of the business administration and organization panel and the business valuation working group of the Austrian Chamber of Tax Consultants and Accountants, member of the scientific advisory board of the Austrian Public Accountants’ Institute (IWP), member of the Austrian Financial Reporting and Auditing Committee (AFRAC), and speaker of the advisory board of COFAG, the Austrian federal COVID-19 financing agency. His research and teaching activities focus on balance sheet accounting, accounting and auditing and corporate governance, and business valuation. “Effective financial accounting is a cornerstone of economic exchange. With my research at WU, I would like to contribute to further developing and improving the quality of the financial reporting system,” says Ewald Aschauer. He started in his new position as professor of financial accounting and auditing at WU’s Department of Finance, Accounting and Statistics on February 1, 2021.

Professor Susann Fiedler, Department of Strategy and Innovation

Susann Fiedler (aged 36) is a behavioral scientist. She earned her doctoral degree in psychology at the University of Erfurt in 2013. In 2014, she became head of the Economic Cognition research group at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods. In the course of her academic career, she also worked as a visiting scholar at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics (Harvard University) and as a visiting professor at the University of Hagen. Her work on the cognitive and affective processes involved in human choices, decisions, and activities has earned her the Otto Hahn Medal awarded by the Max Planck Society, among other distinctions. Susann Fiedler also works on questions related to the design of choice situations and organizational environments. Her research provides insights into the mental representation of situations and problems and how such representations (e.g. in case of biases) can be altered (e.g. to avoid misconduct in professional contexts). Susann Fiedler is also an advocate for open science and participates in several panels and groups dedicated to strengthening reproducibility in research (e.g. as part of the German Reproducibility Network and the German Psychological Society’s Ombuds Committee for psychological research). “I’m very much looking forward to my work in Vienna and to contributing to WU’s teaching in the field of behavioral and decision analysis,” says Susann Fiedler. She started in her new position as professor of business and psychology at WU’s Department of Strategy and Innovation on February 1, 2021.