MU awarded two Vienna Chamber of Commerce research grants

Every year, the Vienna Chamber of Commerce (Wirtschaftskammer Wien (WKW)) funds a small number of research projects from universities around the city. We are proud to announce that this year MU received two WKW Research grant awards.

This year’s awarded projects are:

Assistant professor Sabine Sedlacek of the Department of Public Governance and Sustainable Development. Together with Nina Zitz (2014 BBA graduate and future MSc in Sustainable Development, Management and Policy student at MU), Sabine will work on the project titled “Evaluation of tertiary education in Vienna. A MODUL University Vienna case study”.

The project analyses the economic location of Vienna from the perspective of tertiary education and aims at identifying the indirect economic effects of private universities in Vienna. It will run from September 2015 – January 2016 and attempt to answer questions including “What are the advantages and indirect economic effects of private universities compared to public universities? What is the role of MODUL University Vienna in the growing trend of internationalization in the tertiary sector?’’ and “Where are graduates located after they have finished their study program and what kinds of factors trigger integration in the Viennese as well as the international labor as well as educational market?’’

The second award went to PhD candidate Lidija Lalicic for “Open innovation platforms in tourism; a case study of the Vienna Tourist Board’’.

This study is related Lidija's PhD thesis focus on “Innovation Opportunities for the Tourism Industry enhanced by Social Media’’, and will analyze open innovation initiatives by Destination Management Organizations, the success of such initiatives, and spill-over effects for the tourism industry in Vienna and surroundings.

“It's such a great honor to win this year's WKW research award,’’ she says, “especially as a young scholar; it shows the industry recognizes the value of my PhD-related research! The award allows me to support my research in various ways which otherwise would have hindered me from analyzing this case study in-depth.’’

A full description of Dr. Sedlacek’s proposal (in German) can be found here and Ms. Lalicic’s here.