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- Business Administration-Sustainability Management (B.Sc.)
Please schedule an appointment via email.
- study programmanagement "Business Administration - Sustainability Management"
- Contact person for sustainability at THM Business School and
member of the THM Sustainability Board - Member of the Competence Center for Economics and Management Science (WuMS)
Research interests:
- Sustainability Management, especially Sustainable Supply Chain Management
- Behavioral Business Ethics & Social Norm Change
- Corporate culture esp. Compliance, integrity and sustainability culture
Courses:
- Sustainability and social responsibility (Module 403 | NM403)
- Business & Leadership Ethics (Module 717 | NM206)
- Sustainable Supply Chain Management & Logistics (NM 506)
- Business & Research Project (NM 602)
Current research projects and publications can be found here: Publications
Topics for theses (Bachelor's & Master's): List of topics
Further appointments by arrangement.
Appointments by appointment only!
Office opening hours:
Monday to Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Other appointments by arrangement.
During exam and lecture-free periods, appointments by arrangement only!
🇬🇧 By appointment (please make an appointment by e-mail)
🇩🇪 By arrangement (please arrange an appointment via e-mail)
Professor of Sustainable Production
🇬🇧 Research areas
- BESS and renewable energy economics
- Production technologies with a focus on environmental and resource conservation
- Sustainable surfaces and printing technologies
- Innovative sustainable materials and circular economy
🇩🇪 Research majors
- BESS and renewable energy industry
- Production technologies taking into account environmental and resource protection
- Sustainable surface and printing technologies
- Innovative sustainable materials and circular economy
Courses | Lectures
- Sustainable Production Management (NM731)
- Production Economics (725)
By arrangement via email.
since 10/2022
Technical University of Central Hesse, departement of Economics
09/2019 - 09/2022
Professor of Management, Macromedia University, Faculty of Business, Design and Technology
05/2015 - 08/2019
Research Assistant, Chair of Business Administration, especially Auditing , FernUniversität in Hagen, PhD
03/2015
Tax advisor exam
09/2011 – 04/2015
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Siegen, Auditing
06/2006 - 08/2011
University of Siegen; Degree: Diploma in Business Law
09/2010 - 02/2011
Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio, Villanueva de la Cañada, Derecho y Administración de Empresas
During the lecture period: Wed, 1 p.m. - 2 p.m., otherwise by appointment
Please register in advance by email.
see publication list
| from to | Task |
|---|---|
| 1989-1994 | Studied economics at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, graduating with a degree in economics |
| 1995-2000 | Research assistant at the chair of economics at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen |
| 2000-2005 | Economist, BGAG Frankfurt/Main |
| 2005-2014 | Program Director, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Frankfurt/Main |
| since 9/2014 | Professor of General Economics, THM |
Wednesdays, 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM and by appointment via email (My office hours are currently held via Zoom.)
Research areas:
- The future of work
- Artificial Intelligence in People Management
- Social media use by knowledge workers
- Gamification and Performance
- Agile working and organizational forms
- Innovation behavior of managers
Does this sound interesting for your bachelor's or master's thesis? Then please get in touch with me.
CV: XING
Wednesdays by prior arrangement via email.
majors :
- Controlling, cost accounting and cost management
- Strategy transmission and strategic controlling
- Digitalization in controlling, in particular its influence on controlling instruments and their use and application
- Controlling effect of controlling instruments
Kachel, 2017, The selection of controlling instruments for strategy transmission in medium-sized family businesses, Shaker Verlag, Aachen.
Hoch/Heupel/Kachel, 2016, Life-Cycle-Costing in corporate practice: techniques, strategic importance, implementation problems, pages 329 - 344, in Becker/Ulrich (eds.), Handbook of Controlling, Springer Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden.
- Since summer semester 2025: Professor of general business administration and controlling at THM
- 2015 - 2025 Head of Strategic Controlling at Stabilus SE
- 2011 - 2015 Research Assistant at the Chair of Management Accounting at the University of Siegen
- 2009 - 2011 Trainee program in Strategic Controlling at ThyssenKrupp Rasselstein GmbH
- 2005 - 2010 Studies at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences (B.Sc. and M.Sc.)
- 2001 - 2005 Commercial apprenticeship/commercial employee
Consultation hours: By appointment
Publications
Disclosure obligations in the trading of energy products on the EEX – Scope of the amended Section 15 WpHG
together with Jürgen Ensthaler, Kai Strübbe
Betriebsberater 2006, 733 ff.
An interdisciplinary view on international energy concepts – Setting up an independent system operator due to regulating competition on German energy market
together with Jürgen Ensthaler, Kai Strugbe
European Law Reporter 2006, 353 ff.
Certification and Accreditation of Technical Products:
A Guide for Companies
(with Jürgen Ensthaler, Kai Strübbe)
Heidelberg 2007
The Microsoft Case – Disclosed Interfaces and Unresolved Questions.
In: Open Source Yearbook 2008, B. Lutterbeck, M. Bärwolff and RA Gehring (eds.), Berlin 2008
Relationship between antitrust law and intellectual property law using the example of the essential facility case law of the ECJ and the General Court
together with Jürgen Ensthaler
GRUR 2009, p. 1 ff.
The Liability of Platform Operators for “Own Content” – What Influence Does a Management System Have on Dealing with Liability Risks?
(with Patrick Wege)
In: User-Generated Content as a Subject of Private Law, Proceedings of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law Conference for Assistant Researchers in October 2009, H. Große Ruse-Khan, N. Klass and S. von Lewinski (eds.), Heidelberg 2010
Market dominance through impairment of competition or vice versa? The connection between a dominant market position and the prevention of competition in the downstream market in the decision of the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) of March 3, 2009 (KZR 82/07) – Travel Agency Card,
together with Jürgen Ensthaler,
WRP 2010, p. 1109 ff.
The application of Article 102 TFEU to intellectual property and tangible property –
The conditions for the obligation to contract under Article 102 TFEU and the essential facility doctrine with particular consideration of the differences between intellectual property and tangible property.
Frankfurt 2011;
also: Berlin, Free University, Dissertation, 2011
Termination of the contract due to the contractor's failure to provide a construction security deposit - Brief commentary on BGH, judgment of 16.04.2025, VII ZR 236/23, ZIP 2025, 2224
Career path and academic majors
- Studied law in Frankfurt am Main and Leicester
- Legal traineeship with Major in criminal law in Darmstadt
- Research assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Dr. Jürgen Ensthaler at the Technical Universities of Kaiserslautern and Berlin
- PhD thesis at the Free University of Berlin on the antitrust prohibition of abuse of market power with regard to essential facilities in the form of intellectual property and tangible property
- Speaker at the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority in Bonn and Frankfurt
- Lecturer at the Academy of the Foreign Service in Berlin
- Lecturing activities on banking and capital markets law
Consultation by appointment (email)
Information and capacity for bachelor's theses:
https://moodle.thm.de/course/view.php?id=12880
Reshaping the Economy: Bachelor of Business Administration - Sustainability Management https://www.thm.de/w/studium/unsere-studiengaenge/nachhaltigkeitmanagement-b-sc
majors
- Sustainable corporate management and corporate governance
- Sustainability strategy and materiality analysis
- Sustainability reporting
- Climate management and strategy
Teach
- Module 403 / NM403: Sustainability and Social Responsibility
- Module NM308: Developing a Sustainability Strategy
- Module NM405: Implementing a Sustainability Strategy
- Module NM502: Sustainability Reporting and Auditing
- Module NM602: Business Project/Research Project
- Module: Fundamentals of Sustainable Economy and Management
- Module: Sustainability Economics and Sustainability Management
New publication: Formulating and Prioritizing CSR Strategies: A Marketing Strategy-Informed Approach. Australasian Marketing Journal, 0(0), 2004 (with H. Wetzel, M. Hammerschmidt) https://doi.org/10.1177/14413582241295819
Academic education
|
2011 – 2016 Doctorate (Dr. rer. pol. , Georg-August-University Göttingen, Faculty of Economics; Doctoral thesis: “Doing Well by Doing Good? New Insights into the Firm Value Implications of Corporate Social Responsibility” 2004 – 2009 Studies in Sociology, Business Administration, and Psychology (MA); Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz 2007 – 2008 Studied International Business, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden |
Work experience
|
2018 – 2022 Senior Consultant, :response – Consulting for Sustainability and CSR https://good-response.de/ 2016 – 2017 Postdoc / Research Assistant; Georg-August University of Göttingen, Chair of Marketing and Innovation Management 2011 – 2016 Research Associate; Georg-August University of Göttingen, Chair of Marketing and Innovation Management |
Consultation hours by appointment
Please contact me via email to schedule an appointment. My office hours are currently held primarily virtually (via Zoom).
Research areas / Research interests
My research interests lie at the intersection of digital transformation and aim primarily to support companies (of all sizes) in identifying digitalization measures and addressing the challenges of digitalization. This includes, among other things:
- Digital skills
- Maturity of digitalization in companies (especially SMEs)
- Low-code / No-code - Applications, potential and competence requirements
- Opportunities and risks of digital transformation
- Digitization of business processes / Digital business models
- Use of enterprise application systems as an important component of digital transformation
- Success factors of digitization projects
- Shadow IT
Theses - Bachelor's and Master's theses
If you are interested in having me supervise your thesis, I look forward to hearing from you. You are welcome to your own topics suggest These topics can conceptual/theory-based and/or empirical work, as well as highly practice-oriented projects, for example, in close collaboration with a partner company. All theses can be written in either German or English (unless otherwise specified).
Are you interested in one of the presented topics or would you like to suggest your own? Then simply contact me informally via email with a brief statement of motivation or topic description (if it's your own topic). Please attach a current transcript of records to this email . Remember to contact me well in advance. This should be at least one month before you plan to begin work on the project , but earlier is also welcome.
Current topics:
You can now find my current topics for theses in my Moodle course:
Publications
My publications can be found here:
https://www.thm.de/w/forschung/publikationen/prof-dr-christian-leyh
Curriculum Vitae (CV) / CV
| Since April 2022 | Professor of General Business Administration with Major in ERP Systems and Business Analytics, Technical University of Central Hesse (THM), departement Economics / THM Business School |
| Since April 2022 | Senior Expert in the "Data and Platform-Based Value Creation" group, Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW, Leipzig |
| April 2019 to March 2022 | Team leader of the "Digital Transformation" team, Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW, Leipzig |
| Since October 2014 | External lecturer at Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences (subjects:Business Application Systems, Fundamentals of IT I and II, Digital Transformation and Product Data Management, Digital Networking) |
| October 2014 to August 2021 | Post-Doc at the Chair of Business Informatics, especially Information Systems in Industry and Trade, Technical University of Dresden |
| October 2017 to February 2019 | External lecturer at EBS Business School, Oestrich-Winkel (Subject: Usage and Management of ICT - Fundamentals of the Digital Transformation) |
| April 2013 to September 2015 | Project manager of the eBusiness Pilot Project Dresden (third-party funded project of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy) |
| January 2008 to September 2014 | Research Associate at the Chair of Business Informatics, especially Information Systems in Industry and Trade, Technical University of Dresden |
| January 2008 to September 2014 | PhD at the Chair of Business Informatics, especially Information Systems in Industry and Trade, Technical University of Dresden. Dissertation topic: Success factors in the introduction of ERP systems in small and medium-sized enterprises and their implications for university teaching (awarded the Dr. Feldbausch Advancement Prize) |
| October 2006 to October 2007 | Master's degree: Business and Engineering at Steinbeis University Berlin (graduated with a Master of Business and Engineering (MBE)) |
| October 2002 to March 2007 | Diploma studies: Business Informatics at Schmalkalden University of(graduation as a Diploma in Business Informatics (FH)) |
Office hours: Friday, 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.
On-site or online:
https://thm-de.zoom-x.de/j/5324307703
Please request appointments in advance via email!
Head of the Master of Digital and International Marketing (DIMA)
Teaching and research areas:
- International Marketing
- Consumer behavior with a focus on intercultural differences and current areas of application (e.g. sustainable consumption, new technologies)
- Market research (qualitative and quantitative)
- Innovation Management
My current list of topics for theses can be found here: Topic List.
Other activities:
Reviewer for Journal of Business Research, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Consumer Behavior, European Management Review, Marketing Intelligence & Planning
Awarded the Emerald Literati Outstanding Reviewer Award 2025 (Journal of Product & Brand Management).
Recent publications and conference contributions (complete list of publications: see bibliography):
Crafting the Digital Frontline: An Exploration of How Firms Shape the Visual Identity of Virtual Service Agents; in: Proceedings of the EMAC 2026 Spring Conference, Bath, 2026 (with L. Marquardt and M. Schuhmacher).
Explaining consumer climate engagement: a conceptual model and a typology based on social exchange and construal level theory, in: Journal of Business Research, Special Issue "Fostering Consumers' Climate (Change) Engagement", Vol. 207, April 2026 (with M. Haupt).
Hybrid analytical approach to understanding male consumer behavior: Integrating PLS-SEM, ANN, and sentiment analysis in the context of green grooming products, in: Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 90, March 2026 (with S. Sonkar and P. Singh).
Beyond “Sorry”: Unpacking the Key Components of Effective Brand Apologies on Social Media. Appears in: H. Schmidt, C. Baumgarth, and J. Redler (Eds.). Forum Brand Research 2025. Proceedings of the DERMARKENTAG Conference. Springer Gabler (with J. Staubach). (Best Paper Award)
What Drives Consumers' Willingness to Make Sacrifices for Sustainability? Proceedings of the 2025 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) World Marketing Congress, Dijon, France, 2025 (with M. Haupt).
Digital Doppelgangers and Alter Egos: The Meaning and Design of Avatars in the Metaverse. Haas-Kotzegger, U. (ed.): Digital Economy: The New Rules of the Game for Companies. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden (with J. Grauberger).
Gen Z in a mental crisis. The New University (DNH), 2/2005, pp. 6-9 (with J. Staubach).
From Fridays for Future to Fast Fashion. markenartikel, No. 7, 2024, pp. 23-25.
Generative AI in Product Design: Investigating the effects of AI creatorship disclosure on consumer responses, in: PraxisWissen Marketing - German Journal of Marketing, No. 1, 2024, p. 103-123 (with J. Peter and M. Haupt).
Hitting the right tone – How consumers respond to humorous versus assertive and neutral appeals in climate-related advertising, Global Brand Conference, Edinburgh, 2024 (with M. Haupt and T. Hirzle).
How to say sorry on social media - A framework for effective corporate apologies, in: Marketing Review St. Gallen, No. 1, 2024, pp. 22–31 (with J. Staubach).
Marketing in the Metaverse - Exploring Marketing Opportunities and Potential Pitfalls, in: PraxisWissen Marketing - German Journal of Marketing, No. 1, 2023, p. 57-76 (with Ch. Beck).
Mere lip service or genuine commitment – how seriously does the younger generation take the issue of sustainability? planning&analysis, August 15, 2023 (with M. Haupt and M. Groß).
Consumer Responses To The Vaccination Campaign #TogetherAgainstCorona – The Role Of Reactance, Perceived Marginalization, and Multi-Brand Activism, in: Proceedings of the 2023 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) World Marketing Congress, Canterbury, UK, 2023 (with M. Haupt and C. Sondermann).
Who is more responsive to brand activism? The role of consumer-brand identification and political ideology in consumer responses to activist brand messages, in: Journal of Product & Brand Management, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-10-2022-4193">https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-10-2022-4193 (with M. Haupt, L. Marquardt, J, Graubner and A. Haas).
Is brand activism an emotional affair? The role of moral emotions in consumer responses to brand activism, in: Journal of Brand Management, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-023-00326-9 (with M. Haupt and M. Ohlwein).
Grateful and elevated or angry and contemptuous? The role of moral emotions in consumer responses to brand activism, in: Proceedings of the EMAC 2022 Annual Conference, Budapest, 2022 (with E. Esposito and M. Haupt).
When brands take a stance - Navigating emotional reactions to brand activism, in: Marketing Review St. Gallen, No. 2, 2022 (with M. Haupt).
Love is in the air! – What creates strong bonds between voice assistants and their users, in: Proceedings of the EMAC Regional Conference, Warsaw, 2021 (with N. Lukacs and M. Haupt).
Brands Taking a Stand – Consumer responses to ads that tackle gender stereotypes, in: Proceedings of the EMAC 2021 Annual Conference (online), Madrid, Spain, 2021 (with M. Haupt and C. Schacht).
Sharing Economy – Asymmetric effects between host and Airbnb in case of a service failure; in: Proceedings of the EMAC 2021 Annual Conference (online), Madrid, Spain, 2021 (with M. Haupt and L. Ehlers).
Customer Value of Shared Mobility Services - Comparing the main value drivers across two different sharing models and public transport, THM Hochschulschrift, 2021 (with M. Haupt and D. Schleuter).
Our teams
- office
- Major Controlling
- Major Digital Business
- Major Financial Services
- Major International Management
- Major Marketing
- Major Medium-Sized Companies & Entrepreneurship
- Major People Management
- Major Tax Consulting and Auditing
- Business Administration (B.Sc.)
- Business Administration-Sustainability Management (B.Sc.)
- Digital Business (M.Sc)
- Digital and International Marketing (M.Sc)
- People Management (M.Sc.)
- Management Control (M.Sc.)
- MBA