Current research projects

Digitalisation / AI

AI@School – Research-Based AI Literacy in Schools

Researchers:	Mohnen, Alwine; Toporova, Nevena
Outline:	AI@School is a structural knowledge-transfer initiative designed to bring current, research-based AI knowledge into schools. TUM students spend one month working directly with AI experts from research and industry, one month translating their findings into didactically sound workshop formats, and one month delivering these workshops in schools. The rolling three-month cycle ensures that knowledge is continuously updated. In planned summer schools at TUM, students become researchers themselves: together with TUM students, they conduct their own experiments on how AI affects motivation, creativity, learning, and feedback. AI School Design translates these findings into recommendations for educational institutions on how AI education must be structured to foster critical competence and ensure educational equity.

Researchers:

Mohnen, Alwine; Toporova, Nevena

Outline:

AI@School is a structural knowledge-transfer initiative designed to bring current, research-based AI knowledge into schools. TUM students spend one month working directly with AI experts from research and industry, one month translating their findings into didactically sound workshop formats, and one month delivering these workshops in schools. The rolling three-month cycle ensures that knowledge is continuously updated. In planned summer schools at TUM, students become researchers themselves: together with TUM students, they conduct their own experiments on how AI affects motivation, creativity, learning, and feedback. AI School Design translates these findings into recommendations for educational institutions on how AI education must be structured to foster critical competence and ensure educational equity.

AI@Work – Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace

Researchers:	Mohnen, Alwine; Toporova, Nevena
Outline:	This project investigates how the use of artificial intelligence affects six core dimensions of work: critical thinking, motivation and commitment, stress experience, feedback culture, moral behavior, and willingness to learn. Using laboratory and online experiments, biomarker assessments, and field studies, the project systematically compares individual and organizational outcomes of working with versus without AI. Building on these findings, AI Work Design derives concrete recommendations for organizations on how AI must be implemented to realize its benefits at scale while retaining top talent.

Researchers:

Mohnen, Alwine; Toporova, Nevena

Outline:

This project investigates how the use of artificial intelligence affects six core dimensions of work: critical thinking, motivation and commitment, stress experience, feedback culture, moral behavior, and willingness to learn. Using laboratory and online experiments, biomarker assessments, and field studies, the project systematically compares individual and organizational outcomes of working with versus without AI. Building on these findings, AI Work Design derives concrete recommendations for organizations on how AI must be implemented to realize its benefits at scale while retaining top talent.

Family business

HRM in Family Firms: How Family Involvement Shapes Ability-Enhancing Human Resource Management Practices

Researchers:	Kern, Maximilian; Mohnen, Alwine; Toporova, Nevena
Outline:	This project investigates how family involvement in top management shapes ability-enhancing HRM practices in family firms. Drawing on the Linked Personnel Panel (LPP) combined with the IAB Establishment Panel, a comprehensive range of HRM practices was analyzed. The project contributes new insights into the unique HRM dynamics of family firms and the importance of ability-enhancing practices for organizational performance.

Researchers:

Kern, Maximilian; Mohnen, Alwine; Toporova, Nevena

Outline:

This project investigates how family involvement in top management shapes ability-enhancing HRM practices in family firms. Drawing on the Linked Personnel Panel (LPP) combined with the IAB Establishment Panel, a comprehensive range of HRM practices was analyzed. The project contributes new insights into the unique HRM dynamics of family firms and the importance of ability-enhancing practices for organizational performance.

Compensation Systems in Family Businesses

Researchers:	Mohnen, Alwine; Maxl, Jakob
Outline:	A key focus of the project is identifying individual and job-related factors that influence the compensation levels of managers in family-owned businesses. To this end, the managers’ sociodemographic characteristics are matched with the specific characteristics of the respective (family-)owned business.

Behavioral Decision-Making

Cost of Incentivizing

Researcher:	Sittenthaler, Hanna; Kaiser, Theresa; Mohnen Alwine
Outline:	To date, research has primarily focused on incentive effectiveness, i.e. the impact of incentives on performance, as a measure to decide which incentive scheme is superior. This project shifts the focus to the cost of incentivizing by integrating the cost side into experimental studies.

Biased Information Search in Innovation Decisions

Researcher:	Maxl, Jakob
Outline:	This project studies biased information search in innovation decisions using laboratory experiments. It examines how time pressure and debiasing interventions affect selective exposure to confirming versus conflicting information, depending on how information is presented, building on a replication of prior findings.

Researcher:

Maxl, Jakob

Outline:

This project studies biased information search in innovation decisions using laboratory experiments. It examines how time pressure and debiasing interventions affect selective exposure to confirming versus conflicting information, depending on how information is presented, building on a replication of prior findings.

Sustainability

Circular Economy

Researchers:	Mohnen, Alwine; Burkhardt, Robert
Outline:	CirculaTUM bundles the diverse expertise within TUM across all disciplines and locations, drives new research projects, supports systemic thinking in teaching, and helps to activate student engagement and entrepreneurial potential.

Reusable Packaging Systems

Researchers:

Mohnen, Alwine; Burkhardt, Robert

Outline:

We are involved in two projects within the MEHRCE innovation community, which promotes the transition from single-use to reusable packaging, from to-go cups and deposit systems to cosmetic packaging. In our research we leverage field data and quasi-experimental methods to analyze the effectiveness of interventions aimed at increasing the uptake of reusable packaging.culaTUM bundles the diverse expertise within TUM across all disciplines and locations, drives new research projects, supports systemic thinking in teaching, and helps to activate student engagement and entrepreneurial potential.

Previous research projects

Behavioral Decision-Making

Human Resource Management in Family Businesses

Researchers:	Mohnen, Alwine; Mückenhausen, Verena; Toporova, Nevena
Outline:	This project focuses on Germany’s family-owned businesses. As part of the study, specific aspects of human resources management related to globalization, digitalization, and the shortage of skilled workers are examined in order to provide targeted answers to questions of particular relevance to family-owned businesses. The research project is funded by the Family Business Foundation.

Digitalisation

Analogous vs. digital negotiation

Researchers:	Mohnen, Alwine; Toporova, Nevena; Drobner, Christoph; Uhl, Matthias; Walkowitz, Gari; Bodenschatz, Anja;
Outline:	The new designed master’s seminar „Successful negotiation with digital communication channels“ is supported by the “TUM Lehrfonds 2018”. The cross-faculty applicable course will demonstrate the influence of analogous and digital communication channels on individual negotiation successes. Individual learning objectives and learning progress will be recorded with an innovative Track-Record-App. Students should work out negotiation strategies and conduct negotiations individually or in groups successfully considering modern means of communication. The course is based on the existing lecture "basics of negotiation" which is already offered in the bachelor's studies TUM-BWL and will be extended by the digital frame. Negotiation in the analogous area will be amplified to include the digital perspective and should be expanded to other faculties. Special attention is paid to the comparison of negotiation characteristics and results of personal and digital communication in the negotiation process.

Researchers:

Mohnen, Alwine; Toporova, Nevena; Drobner, Christoph; Uhl, Matthias; Walkowitz, Gari; Bodenschatz, Anja;

Outline:

The new designed master’s seminar „Successful negotiation with digital communication channels“ is supported by the “TUM Lehrfonds 2018”. The cross-faculty applicable course will demonstrate the influence of analogous and digital communication channels on individual negotiation successes. Individual learning objectives and learning progress will be recorded with an innovative Track-Record-App. Students should work out negotiation strategies and conduct negotiations individually or in groups successfully considering modern means of communication. The course is based on the existing lecture "basics of negotiation" which is already offered in the bachelor's studies TUM-BWL and will be extended by the digital frame. Negotiation in the analogous area will be amplified to include the digital perspective and should be expanded to other faculties. Special attention is paid to the comparison of negotiation characteristics and results of personal and digital communication in the negotiation process.

Sustainability

Energy-efficient driving

Researchers:	Mohnen, Alwine; Schall, Dominik
Outline:	The project uses a field experiment to identify drivers of energy-efficient behavior of professional drivers in a business context.

Socially responsible investments in renewable energy

Researchers:	Mohnen, Alwine; Schall, Dominik
Outline:	The project aims to identify the main drivers of socially responsible investment (SRI) in Germany, especially regarding sustainable energy projects.

EU-InnovatE

Researchers:	Mohnen, Alwine; Wayand, Martina; Pabst, Stefan
Outline:	EU-InnovatE stands for "Sustainable Lifestyles 2.0: End User Integration, Innovation and Entrepreneurship." The key idea of the EU research project is to investigate the creative, innovative and entrepreneurial roles of end user to develop sustainable products, services and systems ("Sustainable Lifestyles 2.0"). The large-scale research project includes 14 leading institutions with around 40 researchers and receives funding from the European Commision. For more information go to our EU-InnovatE website.

Researchers:

Mohnen, Alwine; Wayand, Martina; Pabst, Stefan

Outline:

EU-InnovatE stands for "Sustainable Lifestyles 2.0: End User Integration, Innovation and Entrepreneurship." The key idea of the EU research project is to investigate the creative, innovative and entrepreneurial roles of end user to develop sustainable products, services and systems ("Sustainable Lifestyles 2.0"). The large-scale research project includes 14 leading institutions with around 40 researchers and receives funding from the European Commision. For more information go to our EU-InnovatE website.

Personnel Economics

Stepping-stones and vicious cycles in temporary agency work

Researchers:	Toporova, Nevena; Hopp, Christian; Minten, Axel (RWTH Aachen University)
Outline:	Despite the growing importance of temporary work agencies, the benefits they bring to temporary agency employees (TAEs) are still disputed, and empirical findings are, by and large, mixed. Using a unique dataset comprising almost 12,000 TAEs on their first and second temporary work assignments, this work aims at disentangling the consequences of temporary agency work on the level of the individual TAE in Germany. We find that temporary agency work assignments act as learning devices for employers about the underlying ability of TAEs.

Researchers:

Toporova, Nevena; Hopp, Christian; Minten, Axel (RWTH Aachen University)

Outline:

Despite the growing importance of temporary work agencies, the benefits they bring to temporary agency employees (TAEs) are still disputed, and empirical findings are, by and large, mixed. Using a unique dataset comprising almost 12,000 TAEs on their first and second temporary work assignments, this work aims at disentangling the consequences of temporary agency work on the level of the individual TAE in Germany. We find that temporary agency work assignments act as learning devices for employers about the underlying ability of TAEs.

The motivation of temporary agency workers—An empirical analysis on the basis of appraisals compiled by hiring companies

Researchers:	Toporova, Nevena; Grund, Christian; Minten, Axel (RWTH Aachen University)
Outline:	We are investigating the relationship between individual and job-related characteristics and the motivation of temporary agency workers. To do so, we are using a unique dataset from one of Germany’s largest temporary work agencies. For 3,000 temporary agency workers, a subjective motivation appraisal is provided by the respective direct manager within the hiring company.

The Impact of Monetary, Non-Monetary & Mixed Incentives on Performance

Researchers:	Sittenthaler, Hanna; Mohnen, Alwine;
Outline:	This project aims to analyze the impact of monetary, non-monetary and the interaction of monetary and non-monetary incentives on performance in a real effort experiment. Furthermore our study sheds light on gender differences.

The Impact of Variable Payment Cuts on Performance and Satisfaction

Researchers:	Sittenthaler, Hanna; Mohnen, Alwine; Herbst, Virginia;
Outline:	We conducted a real effort experiment to analyze the impact of different levels of variable payment cuts on performance and satisfaction. In contrast to standard economic assumptions our results show that a piece rate cut does not necessarily have a negative impact on performance, but the level of the piece rate cut matters.

Performance evaluation

Objective metrics or subjective performance evaluation? Trading off controllability for congruence

Researchers:	Kachelmeier, Steven J.; Mohnen, Alwine; Ostermaier, Andreas
Outline:	Incentive contracts are preferably based on objective metrics. However, performance often cannot be measured objectively. Should the principal then contract on objective metrics, which measure performance imperfectly, or resort to subjective performance evaluation? The choice of objective over subjective metrics trades off congruence for controllability. The project explores this trade-off. The results potentially explain the parallel use of objective metrics and subjective performance evaluation in firms.

Researchers:

Kachelmeier, Steven J.; Mohnen, Alwine; Ostermaier, Andreas

Outline:

Incentive contracts are preferably based on objective metrics. However, performance often cannot be measured objectively. Should the principal then contract on objective metrics, which measure performance imperfectly, or resort to subjective performance evaluation? The choice of objective over subjective metrics trades off congruence for controllability. The project explores this trade-off. The results potentially explain the parallel use of objective metrics and subjective performance evaluation in firms.

Performance evaluation and creativity: Balancing novelty and usefulness

Researchers:	Ostermaier, Andreas; Uhl, Matthias
Outline:	The project examines the effect of performance evaluation on the tension between novelty and usefulness, which arises in creative tasks. Usefulness is important for ideas to be implemented and turn into innovation. The findings of the project will hopefully help firms design incentives to motivate the creation of ideas that are both novel and useful.