Handelsblatt Research Ranking: Mannheim Business Administration Faculty Once Again Far Ahead of Competition

• Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult Christian Homburg most prolific researcher in the field of business administration in Germany
• Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Martin Weber number 2 in Germany in life's work ranking
• Publications in leading international journals are key to success

The Business School of the University of Mannheim is clear number one in Germany in terms of research output and quality. This is the result of the recently published Handelsblatt ranking for the strongest academic researchers in the field of business administration. The margin by which Mannheim lies ahead of its competitors in Germany becomes even more pronounced when considering publications in the 15 most important international scientific journals only.

According to this latest Handelsblatt ranking, Mannheim is also home of the top two professors for business administration in Germany: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Christian Homburg, who holds one of the Marketing chairs at the University of Mannheim and simultaneously functions as President of Mannheim Business School, is once again the clear number one in Germany, just as he was in the previous edition of the ranking, which was published in 2005. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Martin Weber, who holds one of the university's Finance chairs (Business Administration and Finance, especially Banking), is ranked number two for his "life's work" - the overall number of publications he has published so far. A total of 11 members of the university's Business School are ranked among the top 200 German-speaking academics in the field of business administration.

For the rankings, Handelsblatt commissioned the Thurgauer Wirtschaftsinstitut (TWI) at the University of Constance to compare the research performance of the approximately 2,100 business professors in Germany, Austria and Switzerland based on the number of published articles in 761 international journals. Since reputation and quality of these publications vary considerably, each journal was assigned a weighting factor. On the one hand the overall number of publications ("life's work") was determined and compared, on the other hand the number and quality of publications since 2005.

In both rankings, 47-year-old Homburg clearly stands as the top German business professor, Weber holds second place among the German professors in the life's work ranking. The wide margin by which these two academics are ahead of the field becomes particularly evident when only articles from the 15 leading global scientific journals are considered.

Altogether, seven members of the Business School are among the top 100 professors in the life's work ranking, eleven are among the 200 strongest academic researchers since 2005. No other German university has achieved similar results.

"I would like to congratulate the Business School on this repeated impressive success. This is the reason why our academic research and teaching increasingly attracts such large international interest," says Prof. Hans-Wolfgang Arndt, Rector of the University of Mannheim. "Particularly impressive is the performance of Professor Homburg, who has not only been producing top-class research for more than a decade, but who, as President, has also turned Mannheim Business School into one of the leading European institutions for management education."

For Prof. Hans H. Bauer, Dean of the Business School of the University of Mannheim, the results of the Handelsblatt rankings are confirmation of the School's strategy: "Strong research and a solid theoretical foundation form the basis of our educational concept."

The example of the Mannheim professors is a case in point that academic rigor and practical relevance are not mutually exclusive, but instead are both of use to students, companies as well as the general public. A point also proven by another ranking, published annually by the Handelsblatt Publishing Group, which is based on a survey of international HR decision makers. "We attach high value to working together with the corporate world, as was shown in the recent Handelsblatt ranking, where we were voted undisputed number one by international HR directors for the eighth time successively," says Professor Bauer.

Further information on the Mannheim professors is available on the websites of the respective chairs, which can be accessed via the Business School's homepage.