Professor Lutz Kaufmann co-organizes high-profile, interdisciplinary webinar
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Top10 Research Institution
WHU is among the top 10 institutions worldwide in the field of empirical research on supply chain management.
Leading Scientific Journal
The Journal of Supply Chain Management (JSCM) is one of the two leading scientific journals in the field of SCM worldwide.
Creating Business Impact
We apply our rich experience from beyond the field of academia to engage in fruitful exchanges with practitioners.
Award-Winning Research
We invest heavily in research, which is recognized in the number of awards we have received.
Award-Winning Teaching
Over the last decade, we received a double-digit number of awards across all WHU programs.
At the Chair of Business Negotiations & Procurement I, our goal is to achieve excellence in the areas of research, teaching, and business impact. In doing so, we support WHU’s strategy to position itself as a leading business school in Europe. WHU is among the top 10 institutions worldwide in the field of empirical research on supply chain management.
The Chair of Business Negotiations & Procurement I Team.
- Marco Barth
- Alexander Becker
- Dirk Breitschwerdt
- Christian Buhrmann
- Nikola Denk
- Matthias Ehrgott
- Jens Esslinger
- Julia Gäckler
- Elmar Gans
- Thomas Germer
- Fabian Hedderich
- Andreas Jentzsch
- Matthias Koch
- Peter Körte
- Tobias Kosmol
- Sebastian Kreft
- Jiachun Lu
- Holger Materlik
- Gavin Meschnig
- Alex Michel
- Dirk Panhans
- Johan Rauer
- Felix Reimann
- Christopher Ridder
- Leopold Ried
- Dominik Riedl
- Jan-Frederik Rösch
- Sönke Rössing
- Philipp Rossner
- Jörg Rottenburger
- Aischa Astou Saw
- Daniel Schmidt
- Yvonne Schneider
- Lukas Schönberger
- Moritz Schreiner
- Pei Shen
- Claus Thiel
- Stéphane Timmer
- Colin Tritt
- Sonja Vorwerk-Handing
- Christian Wagener
- Claudia Wagner
- Barbara Wichmann
- Katja Wölfl
- Philipp Zimmermann
Doctoral Studies
You find business negotiations fascinating? Their strategic set-up as well as behavioral and psychological effects? Then apply with us!
We look for:
RESEARCH ASSISTANT / DOCTORAL STUDENT (f/m/d) - B2B NEGOTIATIONS
Please note that we don’t supervise external doctoral students, because we focus our full capacity on working with our internal doctoral students.
Working with us on your dissertation
We always work empirically. This means that all our research has immediate real-life relevance. You will work closely with us during your entire dissertation project, and we will very regularly provide you with constructive feedback and support. Our goal is to equip you for a successful career in business as well as in academia. You will learn to apply cutting-edge analytical techniques, improve your decision making, and be able to build highly effective business relationships. These skills will enable you to excel in your career just like our alumni, who went on to become top managers (e.g., Peter Körte, Thomas Germer), founders/entrepreneurs (e.g., Sebastian Kreft, Dirk Breitschwerdt), professors (e.g., Jiachun Lu, Leopold Ried, Felix Reimann), and partners at top-tier consulting firms (e.g., Gavin Meschnig, Andreas Jentzsch).
Our group has an exceptionally strong research profile and we are ranked amongst the 10 research-strongest universities worldwide in our field (http://www.scmlist.com/home/university-rankings/empirical-report/). With about 40 successful doctoral dissertations and more than 20 international dissertation research awards, we have a track record at our Chair that speaks for itself. The first supervisor of your thesis will be Professor Lutz Kaufmann, who in 2021 was the first researcher from a continental European university to ever receive a Distinguished Scholar Award of the Academy of Management – one of, if not the, most prestigious awards in our field.
We welcome candidates with a background in psychology, business, or related fields.
Doctoral Studies
You find business negotiations fascinating? Their strategic set-up as well as behavioral and psychological effects? Then apply with us!
We look for:
RESEARCH ASSISTANT / DOCTORAL STUDENT (f/m/d) - B2B NEGOTIATIONS
Please note that we don’t supervise external doctoral students, because we focus our full capacity on working with our internal doctoral students.
Working with us on your dissertation
We always work empirically. This means that all our research has immediate real-life relevance. You will work closely with us during your entire dissertation project, and we will very regularly provide you with constructive feedback and support. Our goal is to equip you for a successful career in business as well as in academia. You will learn to apply cutting-edge analytical techniques, improve your decision making, and be able to build highly effective business relationships. These skills will enable you to excel in your career just like our alumni, who went on to become top managers (e.g., Peter Körte, Thomas Germer), founders/entrepreneurs (e.g., Sebastian Kreft, Dirk Breitschwerdt), professors (e.g., Jiachun Lu, Leopold Ried, Felix Reimann), and partners at top-tier consulting firms (e.g., Gavin Meschnig, Andreas Jentzsch).
Our group has an exceptionally strong research profile and we are ranked amongst the 10 research-strongest universities worldwide in our field (http://www.scmlist.com/home/university-rankings/empirical-report/). With about 40 successful doctoral dissertations and more than 20 international dissertation research awards, we have a track record at our Chair that speaks for itself. The first supervisor of your thesis will be Professor Lutz Kaufmann, who in 2021 was the first researcher from a continental European university to ever receive a Distinguished Scholar Award of the Academy of Management – one of, if not the, most prestigious awards in our field.
We welcome candidates with a background in psychology, business, or related fields.
Our contribution to cutting-edge research.
If you would like to view the entire list of publications, you can download the PDF here.
Read the latest news from the Chair –
Keep up with our events and activities.
The Best Teacher Awards of the MBA Program 2022 were presented during the Graduation Ceremony held on 20 January 2023 in Düsseldorf. The graduates of the WHU MBA class of 2022_I honored Lutz Kaufmann with this prestigious award.
Read moreWHU researchers honored once more by one of the world’s most renowned management institutions
Read moreBCG experts provide insights into how to create truly sustainable supply chains
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Our teaching –
Creating new perspectives for our participants.
The Chair of Business Negotiations & Procurement I offers courses in the following programs:
Sourcing: Managing a Firm’s Supply Base
Lutz Kaufmann, Felix Reimann
Supply Chain Management Practice Project
Lutz Kaufmann, Felix Reimann
Negotiations for Managers and Entrepreneurs
Lutz Kaufmann
Strategic Sourcing
Lutz Kaufmann
Negotiations for Managers and Entrepreneurs
Lutz Kaufmann
Strategic Sourcing
Lutz Kaufmann, Felix Reimann
Negotiations Program (Open Enrollment)
Lutz Kaufmann, Felix Reimann
Online Negotiations Workshop
Lutz Kaufmann, Felix Reimann
Customized Negotiations Programs
Lutz Kaufmann, Felix Reimann
Qualitative Research Methods
Lutz Kaufmann
Feedback from our students
(from anonymous course evaluations)
Bridging the gap between business and academia –
Giving our students a competitive edge.
Climate Strategist
Title: Achieving Net-Zero with Automated Carbon Management
Course: Sourcing: Managing the Firm's Supply Base (BSc)
Date: October 13, 2022
Director of Decarbonization & Partnerships
Title: Achieving Net-Zero with Automated Carbon Management
Course: Sourcing: Managing the Firm's Supply Base (BSc)
Date: October 11, 2022
Corp. VP Purchasing, Exec. Ass. CPO, Global Senior Communication Manager, Head of Purchasing Logistics Europe & Corp. Director Purchasing
Title: CPO Class Henkel
Course: Strategic Sourcing (Full-Time MBA)
Date: July 19, 2022
Partner, Project Leader & Partner
Title: Creating Truly Sustainable Supply Chains
Course: Strategic Sourcing (Full-Time MBA)
Date: July 5, 2022
Corp. VP, Supplier Innovation Manager, Global Senior Manager & Corp. Director Purchasing
Title: WHU CPO Class Henkel
Course: Strategic Sourcing (Full-Time MBA)
Date: July 19, 2021
Media coverage –
Contributions in the national and international press.
Gehaltsverhandlung: Diese 3 Geheimtipps sollten Chefs kennen
Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung, November 2022
Internationale Auszeichnung für ein Lebenswerk - Interview mit Prof. Dr. Lutz Kaufmann
Beschaffung aktuell, January 2022
(Source: www.beschaffung-aktuell.de, Author: Sabine Ursel)
Interview with 2021 OSCM Distinguished Scholar Prof. Lutz Kaufmann
Perspective (Newsletter for the Operations & Supply Chain Management Division of AoM), December 2021
"Das wird kein Spaß werden"
Rhein-Zeitung Wirtschaft, December 2021
"Bier macht keine Rotweinflecken" - Warum Pseudo-Wissenschaftler und manche Journalisten mehr schaden als nutzen
Beschaffung aktuell (online), November 2021
(Source: www.beschaffung-aktuell.de, Author: Sabine Ursel)
Über Geld reden
Impulse, July/August 2021
Persönlichkeitsmerkmale im Einkauf
Beschaffung aktuell, April 2020
(Source: www.beschaffung-aktuell.de 04/2020, Author: Sabine Ursel, Konradin Mediengruppe)
Der Konter gegen Corona: So können Unternehmen auf Lieferprobleme reagieren
Informationsdienst Wissenschaft, March 2020
Der Konter gegen Corona: So können Unternehmen auf Lieferprobleme reagieren
Chemie.de, March 2020
EU-Austritt des Vereinigten Königreichs - Was Manager vom Brexit lernen
manager magazin, October 2019
Supply Chain Reactions (source: Inside Supply Management, Vol. 30, No. 8, October 2019)
Inside Supply Management, October 2019
Can we rely on our intuition? Cited along with Nobel Laureates
Scientific American, August 2019
Best Teacher Award für Professor Dr. Lutz Kaufmann
Blick aktuell Vallendar, June 2019
What is intuition's role in the supply chain? Authors of a selected Journal of Business (JBL) article explain the real-world implications of their academic research
CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly, October 2018
Dell Technologies: CSCMP Honors Innovators at Annual Supply Chain Conference
MarketScreener, October 2018
CSCMP Honors Innovators at Annual Supply Chain Conference
Transport Topics, October 2018
Was der Einkauf von Real Madrid und dem FC Liverpool lernen kann (source: Beschaffung aktuell, 06/2018, Text: Sabine Ursel)
Beschaffung aktuell,June 2018
Gehaltsverhandlung: Diese 3 Geheimtipps sollten Chefs kennen
Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung, April2018
Die Kunst des Bluffs
WirtschaftsWoche, March 2018
Lieferantenqualitätsmanagement in China (source: Beschaffung aktuell 09/2017)
Beschaffung aktuell, September 2017
Durch Spitzenforschung zum Weltklasse-Verhandler (source: Beschaffung aktuell 07-08/2017)
Beschaffung aktuell, August 2017
"Testosteronkrieg" um Kaiser's Tengelmann
Stern, October 2016
Cross-funktionale Teams: Stimmt die Chemie?
Business+Logistic, May 2016
Zur Psychologie von Verhandlungen
WDR 5 "Leonardo", April 2016
Zur Psychologie von Verhandlungen
WDR, April 2016
Übung macht den Meister - Einkauf hat Luft nach oben
Business+Logistic, January 2016
Personalmanagement in China - Qualifizierung ernst nehmen!
Beschaffung aktuell, October 2015
Mit Strategie zum Ziel
Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 2015
Interview Professor Lutz Kaufmann
Keep in touch (In Praxi e. V. member magazine), July 2015
Handelsblatt BWL-Ranking 2014 -Beste Forschungsleistung http://tool.handelsblatt.com/tabelle/index.php?id=140
Handelsblatt, January 2015
Wettbewerbsfaktor Compliance: Guter Ruf ist Gold wert
Einkaufs Manager, May 2014
Strategist of the Year 2012
Financial Times Deutschland, October 2012
Betriebswirte bekämpfen Forschungsranking - Deutschland sucht den Super-Prof.
Handelsblatt, September 2012
Strategist of the Year 2011
Financial Times Deutschland, September 2011
Strategist of the Year 2010
Financial Times Deutschland, October 2010
Engineering the future - MAN ,WHU and Saïd Busines School
EFMD Business Magazine: EFMD Excellence in Practice Award, September 2010
WHU wins EFMD Excellence in Practice Award 2010 as first German business School
Press Release EFMD/Emerald, MAN, WHU & Said Business School, May 2010
Strategist of the Year 2009
Financial Times Deutschland, September 2009
Sustainable Success
The Wall Street Journal, June 2009
Ethik für Betriebswirte: Anständig wirtschaften
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, August 2007
Wettbewerbsfaktor Einkauf: Neue Helden
WirtschaftsWoche, April 2007
Verhandlungstaktik: Zum Training auf den Trödel
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 2006
Beschaffung: Aus dem Einkäufer wird der Supply-Chain-Manager
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 2005
Verhandlungsgeschick: Erst der Kompromiß, dann die Konfrontation
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 2004
Management: Der Einkauf muss entfesselt werden
manager magazin, July 2004
Outsourcing: Das ist wie eine Geiselnahme
manager magazin, December 2003
Follow Professor Kaufmann on LinkedIn!
Excellence in research and teaching –
Our awards.
The Best Teacher Awards of the MBA Program 2022 were presented during the Graduation Ceremony held on 20 January 2023 in Duesseldorf. The graduates of the WHU MBA class of 2022_I honored Lutz Kaufmann with this prestigious award.
"Professor Kaufmann is one of the best Professors WHU has. His teaching methods, motivation, and class structure are second to none", the students stated.
Katja Woelfl and Lutz Kaufmann received the Best Paper Award - New Directions in the Conflict Management division for their paper “Changing Perspective – Toward a Configurational Perspective on Deception in Business Negotiations from a Target’s Viewpoint,” co-authored with Craig Carter of Arizona State University. The judges nominated the paper both for its overall high quality and its significant new contribution to conflict literature.
Lutz Kaufmann has been honored with the Outstanding Reviewer Award 2022 from the Operations & Supply Chain Management Division of the Academy of Management. Notably, in 2021, he was also the first ever winner—across AoM divisions—from a continental European institution to win the Distinguished Scholar Award.
Professor Lutz Kaufmann received the Distinguished Scholar Award 2021 of the Academy of Management (AoM). He is the first ever researcher from a continental European institution to receive this world-renowned award.
The award recognizes the lifetime achievements of the winners in various professional categories of management research. Professor Kaufmann received the Distinguished Scholar Award for his research on business negotiations and purchasing management as well as for his support services for young scientists.
Assistant Professor Jiachun Lu received the IPSERA Best Doctoral Dissertation Award 2021 for her work on “An Exploration of the Role of Advice Exchanges in Supply Management”. The dissertation was honored with the doctoral dissertation award because of its theoretical contributions and practical relevance.
Jiachun’s work was supervised by Professor Lutz Kaufmann. This is the fourth time that this prestigious worldwide award goes to a member of Professor Kaufmann's research team with Jiachun Lu following Barbara Yilmaz (2016), Claudia Wagner (2017), and Jens Esslinger (2019).
Charlotte Both received the In Praxi Outstanding Thesis Award 2020 for her bachelor thesis on "Sustainability’s Unintended Consequences".
The In Praxi Outstanding Thesis Award is presented annually to recognize bachelor and master theses that examine topics of high relevance and practical impact to both business and society. The winners of the IP Awards each receive €1,000.
Charlotte’s bachelor thesis was supervised by Professor Lutz Kaufmann.
Dr. Jens Esslinger received the 2019 IPSERA Doctoral Dissertation Award for his work on “Managing Unexpected Events in Joint Buyer–Supplier Projects.” The award committee judged all dissertations written at universities worldwide along the criteria originality, rigor, and scientific and practical impact.
Jens’ work was supervised by Professor Lutz Kaufmann. His research has been published in leading SCM journals, including the Journal of Supply Chain Management and the practitioner-oriented Supply Chain Management Review.
Dr. Jörg R. Rottenburger received the 2019 Research Award of the German Association for Supply Chain Management, Procurement, and Logistics (BME) for his work on deception in business negotiations. The award for the best dissertation is presented annually by the BME since 1988 and comes with a cash prize of €7,000.
Jörg R. Rottenburger wrote his dissertation during his time as a research assistant at the chair of Professor Lutz Kaufmann. His second supervisor was Professor Christian Schlereth.
Dr. Tobias Kosmol won the Doctoral Dissertation Award of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). The 2018 CSCMP DDA was given to Tobias in Nashville, TN, during the 2018 CSCMP conference. The dissertation was titled “Supplier Quality Management in Emerging Markets – The Interplay of Behavior and Cognition”.
It was the third time in ten years that a dissertation from the chair wins this prestigious award in the U.S. This makes WHU the most successful non-US institution in the history of this prestigious competition. The list of previous winners can be found here.
Lutz Kaufmann, Claudia M. Wagner, and Craig R. Carter (Arizona State University) received the Journal of Business Logistics 2018 Best Paper Award for their paper „Reconceptualizing Intuition in Supply Chain Management“.
The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) presents the Bernard J. La Londe Best Paper Award to the most valuable paper published in the Journal of Business Logistics (JBL) during CSCMP's Annual Conference. The Best Paper Award 2018 was presented during the 2018 CSCMP conference in Nashville, TN.
The Journal of Business Logistics (JBL) is one of the leading journals for empirical supply chain research and as such listed in The SCM Journal List.
Tobias Kosmol was honored in the Research Award 2018 of the German Association Materials Management, Purchasing and Logistics (BME) final for his dissertation "Supplier Quality Management in Emerging Markets – The Interplay of Behavior and Cognition". The scientific jury noted that Tobias’s research yielded both significant theoretical contributions and valuable practical insights.
Lutz Kaufmann, Jörg Rottenburger, and Craig R. Carter (Arizona State University) received the IPSERA 2017 Best Paper Award for their paper, "It’s Alright, It’s just a Bluff: Why do corporate codes reduce lying, but not bluffing?". The judges nominated the paper both, for its innovativeness and its high quality use of research methodologies.
The Best Paper Award 2017 was presented to Lutz Kaufmann during the 26th of the annual IPSERA conferences. IPSERA, the International Purchasing and Supply Education and Research Association, is a worldwide multi-disciplinary network of academics and practitioners dedicated to the development of knowledge concerning Purchasing and Supply Management.
Jörg Rottenburger received the Highly Commended Dissertation Award 2017 by IPSERA. His research, entitled "Differentiating Deception: New Insights into Bluffing, Lying, and Paltering in Business Negotiations", provided surprising and highly relevant new insights into deceptive behavior in buyer-supplier negotiations. The dissertation was recognized for its outstanding practical and scholarly contributions.
In 2017, the graduates of the MBA programs at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management once again bestowed the Best Teacher Award, a recognition presented to particularly dedicated professors for their commitment to teaching excellence. The graduates of the Full-Time MBA Class of 2017 honored Lutz Kaufmann with the award.
The participants of the courses specifically praised Professor Kaufmann’s dedication to work and approachable nature. “A great mentor”, they stated.
After 2015 and 2016, Lutz Kaufmann won the prize for the third time in a row.
Emerald and EFMD have honored Claudia Wagner with a Highly Commended Award for her dissertation “Intuition in Supplier Selection – An Emotional Perspective of Team Decision Making”.
Claudia Wagner’s work was supervised by professor Lutz Kaufmann. It was for the eight time that a dissertation from this research team wins an award in this research competition. This makes WHU the most successful institution in the history of this prestigious EFMD/Emerald competition.
Dr. Claudia M. Wagner received the IPSERA Best Doctoral Dissertation Award 2016 for her work on “Intuition in supplier selection – An emotional perspective of team decision making”. The award was given to Claudia M. Wagner during the 26th of the annual IPSERA conferences held from April 9 - April 12, 2017, in Budapest/Hungary.
The award committee, which consisted of professors from the United States, Finland, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, judged all dissertations written at universities worldwide along the criteria of originality, rigor, and scientific and practical impact.
As a PhD candidate in the SCM Group, Claudia’s work was supervised by WHU-professor Lutz Kaufmann.
Lutz Kaufmann received the Best Teacher Award of the Part-Time MBA class of 2016. The students of his courses “Strategic Sourcing” and “International Module China” honored the practical approaches, the liveliness of the lectures, and Professor Kaufmann’s unique teaching style. "Very practical real-life cases”, “Great teaching style”, “Excellent organization of the International Module China. Mix of SOE, private companies, German companies was perfect to get an overall picture”, the participants of the courses stated.
Lutz Kaufmann received the Best Teacher Award for his courses “Strategic Sourcing" and "Negotiations" in WHU’s Full-Time MBA program. The students perceived both courses to be interactive, fun, and extremely engaging. "There is never a boring moment in Professor Kaufmann's classes", the participants stated.
Dr. Barbara Yilmaz received the CSCMP 2016 Doctoral Dissertation Award for her work titled “Implementing environmental supply chain management initiatives: A social network perspective.” The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) is the pre-eminent association for individuals involved in supply chain management with over 9,000 members worldwide. Barbara was honored for her work at the 2016 CSCMP Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. She is the 43rd recipient of this prestigious award since 1973.
Lutz Kaufmann and Jörg Rottenburger received the Best Paper Award – New Directions of the 76th Academy of Management Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, USA, for their paper, “The Big Bluff Theory: A reconceptualization of business bluffing”. The judges nominated the paper both for its overall high quality and its innovative use of research methodologies.
Dr. Gavin Meschnig received the Research Award 2016 of the German Association Materials Management, Purchasing and Logistics (BME) for his dissertation "Decision-making in cross-functional teams - A behavioral perspective on supplier selection decisions". In his research, Dr. Meschnig identified various levers to improve cross-functional decision-making in the supplier selection process and as a result to select superior performing suppliers. The scientific jury pointed out that Gavin’s research yielded both, significant theoretical contributions and practically useful insights.
The award for the best dissertation is presented by the BME since 1988 and comes with a cash award of €7,000.
During the 25th annual IPSERA conference, Dr. Barbara Wichmann received the IPSERA Best Doctoral Dissertation Award 2015 for her work titled “Implementing environmental supply chain management initiatives: A social network perspective.”
The IPSERA award committee consisted of professors from the United States, Finland, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. For the award of 2015, the committee evaluated and chose from among dissertations that were written at universities in North America, Asia, and Europe. According to Professor van Raaij, two of the dissertations that were ranked among the top three by all members of the award committee were from WHU. These dissertations were written by Barbara Wichmann and Gavin Meschnig, both of whom, as PhD candidates in the SCM Group, were supervised by professor Lutz Kaufmann.
Dr. Gavin Meschnig won the 2015 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards (ODRA) in the supply chain management category for his dissertation "Decision-making in cross-functional teams - A behavioral perspective on supplier selection decisions". In his research, Dr. Meschnig identified various levers to improve cross-functional decision-making in the supplier selection process and as a result to select superior performing suppliers.
The judges picked dissertations which demonstrated significance/implications for theory and practice, originality and innovation, appropriateness and application of the methodology and the quality of the data/research. The Award comes with a cash prize of 1,500 Euros.
Lutz Kaufmann received the Best Teacher Award for his course “Strategic Sourcing" in WHU’s MBA program.
The course enables the students to gain an appreciation of the strategic role of supply management in a global economy and to acquire in-depth knowledge concerning major concepts and instruments needed for successful supply management.
The students particularly praised Professor Kaufmann's teaching methods and the way of engaging them in the topic.
After 2014, Lutz Kaufmann again received the Best Teacher Award for his course “Negotiations and Dispute Resolution“ in WHU’s BSc program.
The course allows students to get both an in-depth understanding of the setup and processes of negotiations as well as practical training and tools to negotiate effectively.
“Positively challenging negotiation simulations", "very practical orientation and a plethora of helpful take-aways", the students stated.
Lutz Kaufmann received the Best Teacher Award for his course “Negotiations and Dispute Resolution“ in WHU’s BSc program 2014.
The participants praised particularly the practical approach, liveliness, and interaction of the course. “The course managed to reach the learning objective of providing the students with useful negotiation skills for their future careers“, the participants stated.
In September 2014, Professor Dr. Lutz Kaufmann was recognized as one of the 25 best-selling authors over the past 40 years by "The Case Centre".
Cases created at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management are real download hits, according to the "The Case Centre", formerly known as the European Case Clearing House (ECCH). As download statistics at the Case Centre show, fully 40,000 WHU cases have been downloaded since 2003.
Lutz Kaufmann has been honored as an Outstanding Reviewer of the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management (IJPDLM) in the Emerald Literati Network 2014 Awards for Excellence.
According to the members of the Editorial Team of the IJPDLM, Lutz Kaufmann was chosen as a winner "as they wanted to recognize his significant contribution throughout 2013".
The ICC invited the submission of original business cases for the 33rd competition in January 2014 in Montreal, Canada. Six cases were finally selected by the ICC. One of them was the WHU case study, "Henkel’s Journey to Purchasing Excellence ˗ Escape from an Adverse Sourcing Situation". The case was written by Sotris Politis as his master thesis in WHU’s Parttime MBA program in summer 2013 under the supervision of Gavin Meschnig and Lutz Kaufmann. The case was the first in the history of the event that transported the topic of purchasing ˗ in particular of purchasing at the German DAX‐icon Henkel AG & Co. KGaA ˗ into the heads and hearts of many participants.
The paper "Intuitive Team Members in Sourcing Team Decision Making", co‐authored by Lutz Kaufmann, Gavin Meschnig, Matthias Ehrgott, and Felix Reimann received the overall Best Paper Award of the 23rd North American Research Symposium on Purchasing and Supply Chain Management (NARS) hosted by the Arizona State University on March 14 & 15, 2013.
The article "The impact of individual debiasing efforts on financial decision effectiveness in the supplier selection process" by Lutz Kaufmann, Craig R. Carter, and Christian Buhrmann has been chosen the Highly Commended Award Winner 2012 by the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management (IJPDLM).
According to the Editorial Team "the paper has been selected as it was one of the most impressive pieces of work the team has seen throughout 2012".
The paper "Ratonality in supplier selection decisions: The effect of the buyer’s national task environment", co‐authored by Lutz Kaufmann, Sebastian Kreft, Matthias Ehrgott, and Felix Reimann received the overall Best Paper Award 2012 of the Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management (JPSM) during the 22nd Annual IPSERA Conference held from March 24 - March 27, 2013, in Nantes/France.
Emerald and EFMD have honored Dominik Riedl with a "Highly Commended Award" for his dissertation "Behavioral Supply Management ‐ A Decision‐Theory‐Based Investigation of Decision Process Decomposition in the United States and China".
It was the sixth time that a dissertation from the chair wins an award in this prestigious research competition. Four times, this was the case in the category "Logistics & Supply Chain Management".
Emerald and EFMD have honored Nikola Denk and Christian Buhrmann with a "Highly Commended Award" for their dissertations "Internationalization of Emerging Market Firms ‐ Grounded Theory‐based Evidence of Relational Ambidexterities" and "Supplier Selection Decisions‐ Reducing the Vulnerability to Judgment and Decision Biases and the Implications for Supplier Performance". Both researchers have participated in Emerald’s and EFMD’s annual Outstanding Doctoral Research Award Competition: Nikola Denk in the "Management & Governance" category and Christian Buhrmann in the "Logistics & Supply Chain Management" category.
Nikola Denk and Christian Buhrmann both wrote their dissertations under the supervision of Lutz Kaufmann.
On September 29, 2010, Matthias Ehrgott received the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' (CSCMP) Doctoral Dissertation Award for his research entitled "Social and Environmental Sustainability in Supplier Management - A Stakeholder Theory Perspective on Antecedents and Outcomes".
The 2010 SCMRC Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Award was presented on September 26, 2010, to Dominik Riedl for his research on "Behavioral Supply Management - A Decision Theory Based Investigation of Buyer Behavior in China, Mexico, Germany, and the United States". This was the first time in the 11year history that the award was given to a researcher outside the United States.
Together with their client MAN, the WHU Executive Development Team and Saïd Business School of Oxford University won the Excellence in Practice Award 2010 of the EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) for the programs for the Senior Management levels of MAN SE (category Executive Development).
This is the first time that the award goes to a German business school and for the first time to a trio of partners, a major company and two business schools in two different countries.
Alex Michel and Dirk Breitschwerdt were two of the winners of the worldwide Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award 2009.
Alex Michel’s dissertation “Behavioral supply management – a review of human judgment and decision making theory and its integration into the field of supply management” persuaded in the Logistics and Supply Chain Management category.
Dirk Breitschwerdt’s work “International production mandates of subsidiaries – conceptual framework and empirical evidence from German MNEs” was awarded in the Operations and Production Management category.
So far, WHU has been the first and only university with two award winners in the same year.
Dr. Matthias Ehrgott won the 2008 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards (ODRA) in the supply chain management category for his dissertation "Social and Environmental Sustainability in Supplier Management - A Stakeholder Theory Perspective on Antecedents and Outcomes". In his thesis, Dr. Ehrgott examined both the driving forces behind and associated competitive advantages of socially and ecologically sustainable procurement. A particular focus of his research was on relationship of Western firms with vendors from supply markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.
The case study “SIG Combibloc: Supply Chain Innovations” won the first prize in the SCM category by an independent jury of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). The case was written by Dominik Boskamp, Holger Materlik, Franziska May, and Dominik Steinkühler under the supervision of Lutz Kaufmann and Alex Michel.
The case study “Xelibri – A Siemens Mobile Adventure”, written by the former WHU students Florian Clemens, Henning Hagen, Fabian Hedderich, and Hendrik Sassmann received the status as “Best Selling Case” of the ECCH. The case has been supervised by Lutz Kaufmann.
This is the first WHU case which has been translated into Chinese.
Journal of Supply Chain Management –
Leading journal in supply chain management.
The Journal of Supply Chain Management (JSCM) is an interdisciplinary research journal. Launched in 1965, it has published papers by major leaders in the field, such as Steve Borgatti, Tom Choi, Lisa Ellram, Barb Flynn, Gary Frazier, Shelby Hunt, Dave Ketchen, Tom Mentzer, Jack Meredith, Aleda Roth, Jack Wacker, and Oliver Williamson. Members of the Advisory Board are Michael Hitt and Jay Barney, amongst others.
Professor Lutz Kaufmann joined the Editorial Team of JSCM in 2008 and is the first European to do so. The journal has firmly established itself as one of the leading scientific journals in the field of SCM worldwide. This is visible through the annual impact factors of the Thomson Reuters' Social Sciences Citation Index (ISI Impact Factor of 10.6 in 2022) and through the fact that the Journal is on the A-lists of journals of many of the leading schools worldwide. JSCM has been ranked #1 or #2 across supply chain and operations management journals for 13 consecutive years.
Executive Education Negotiations Programs
Gain the strategies and tools for successful negotiations
WHU's Negotiations Programs are developed to enhance these skills as effectively as possible, meaning you can navigate negotiations with confidence!
Executive Education Negotiations Programs
Gain the strategies and tools for successful negotiations
WHU's Negotiations Programs are developed to enhance these skills as effectively as possible, meaning you can navigate negotiations with confidence!
Get in touch with us –
We look forward to hearing from you.

Professor Lutz Kaufmann
Professor of Business Negotiations & Procurement
lutz.kaufmann(at)whu.edu
+49 (0)261 6509 320
