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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).
Opening hours of the Dean's Office and Master's Secretariat:
Monday to Wednesday from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm - Other appointments by arrangement!
Thursday - Appointments by arrangement!
Friday - closed
During exam and lecture-free times: Appointments by appointment only!
Visitor address:
Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen,
departement of Business | THM Business School,
Eichgärtenallee 6 - Building C50 | Room 1.03,
35394 Gießen
Postal address:
Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen,
departement Business | THM Business School,
Wiesenstraße 14,
35390 Gießen
By appointment - please register by email stating your request.
Consultation hours: Please book an available appointment directly in the calendar for a phone call or video conference meeting: https://calendly.com/simonkiesel/
Teaching and research areas:
- Digital and International Marketing
- Artificial Intelligence in Marketing
- Online communication (email marketing, websites, SEO, SEA, mobile marketing, social media)
- Digital campaign planning and control
- eCommerce and data-driven marketing
- User Experience
- Customer relationship management
- Entrepreneurship for digital startups
- Business start-up and business game - including coaching
- Innovation Management
Do you have a topic suggestion from these areas for your bachelor's or master's thesis? Then please feel free to contact me.
See publications
Since the winter semester of 2022/2023, Simon Kiesel has supported the departement of Economics as a professor of general business administration with Major in digital marketing. He completed his initial business administration degree with a media Major at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Heidenheim. Due to the Bologna Process during those years, he was also enrolled at the Open University Business School and holds both a Diplom-Betriebswirt (German equivalent of a German Diplom in Business Administration) and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours. He then pursued a Master of Science in Management at the University of South Wales, Glamorgan, while working. This program was a collaboration with the German Graduate School of Management & Law (GGS) in Heilbronn, whose location has since been largely taken over by the Technical University of Munich as the Heilbronn Campus. A close connection to the GGS and his involvement as a founding member of the alumni association led to further academic study trips and a part-time doctoral program for executives at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris.
Even during his school years in the 1990s, Mr. Kiesel volunteered to help build the internet infrastructure and websites of the Bavarian Red Cross, created SAP training presentations for SALT/Accenture, and wrote his final high school thesis, a comprehensive online archive about Nazi institutions in Würzburg. As part of his dual studies program, he completed a two-year commercial apprenticeship in publishing and a one-year traineeship at the Vogel Communications Group. After receiving his first university degree, he began his career in sales at Vogel Druck und Medienservice. A move to controlling, then within the Bertelsmann/Arvato Group, provided him with the opportunity to assume personnel responsibility as deputy head of finance. This included establishing and managing an employee suggestion program for incremental improvements, as well as contributing to media innovations and new digital business areas as an innovation coach as part of an innovation initiative at Bertelsmann.
Before joining THM, Mr. Kiesel spent twelve years in various senior marketing positions within the Krick Group. There, he oversaw the digital transformation of a traditional telephone directory publisher and media provider into an IT company. Today, Krick.com offers advertising services encompassing search engine marketing, websites and online shops, smartphone apps, social media services, and influencer collaborations.
In addition, Mr. Kiesel is involved in event formats in Mainfranken, such as the Mobile Media Day of the Media Network Bavaria, the Würzburg Web Week, as a long-time lecturer at the THWS University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, as a speaker at the Center for Digital Innovations, and as a jury member for the Business Plan Competition of the Network Northern Bavaria for BayStartUp. As part of the Gründen@Würzburg initiative, he regularly organizes founders' meetups and the annual Würzburg Startup Prize.
by appointment
Head ("Founding Director") of the Master'sstudy programDigital Business [Info videos: short, long]
Member of the MajorTeam Digital Business
Member of the Competence Center for Economics and Management Science (WuMS)
(Deputy) Member of the departementCouncil
Areas of expertise:
- Digital business models and processes
- Digitization and digital transformation
- Digital Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital
CV
Education:
- 1994-1999: Studied electrical engineering (Dipl.-Ing.) at the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (CAU)
- 1999-2001: Scholarship in the DAAD program "Language and Practice in Japan"
- 2001-2005: Doctoral studies at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management
- 2001: Sales representative for electronic commerce software
- 2001-2004: Research Assistant at the Chair of Electronic Business at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management (Prof. Dr. Detlef Schoder)
- 2004-2009: Management Consultant
- 2009-2017: Venture Capital Investor (“VC”)
- Since 2018: Professor at the departement of Economics at THM
Courses
Current:
- Business Informatics and Digital Business (B.Sc., together with Prof. Leyh)
- Digital Business Models and Digital Transformation (B.Sc.)
- Digital Business Models (M.Sc., only in the summer semester)
- Project module E-commerce and digital marketing (M.Sc., together with Prof. Kiesel and Mr. Schäfer, only in the summer semester)
- Digital Transformation and Change Management (M.Sc., together with Prof. Freidank, only in the winter semester)
- Master Thesis Seminar (M.Sc.)
- Digital Business (MBA, together with Prof. Sames, only in the summer semester)
- Project Management (B.Sc., until summer semester 2023)
- Current topics in Business Informatics and Digital Business (B.Sc., until Summer Semester 2020)
Theses
A current list of open or available topics for (Bachelor's/Master's) theses, as well as some basic information regarding supervision, can be found here.
Wednesdays 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM and by appointment
International Exchange Coordinator – Advising and supporting
outgoing and incoming exchange students,
liaison with partner universities;
Consultant and Coordinator for all outgoing and incoming exchange
students, contact for partner universities.
Lecturer for Module 733 Intercultural Competencies, Module 749 International Business Simulation (Blended) and Module 1105 Leadership and Intercultural Communication; Lecturer for Module 733 Intercultural Competencies, Module 749 International Business Simulation (Blended) and Module 1105 Leadership and Intercultural Communication
Thursdays 8:30-9:30 am by appointment
Head of Major Marketing
| from to | Task |
|---|---|
| 1997-2001 | Studies in Business Administration (Dipl.-Kffr. degree) at the University of Cologne, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, and EADA Barcelona; concurrent projects and internships at Accenture, Bayer, Siemens, Allianz, and Kienbaum Consultants |
| 2001-2004 | Doctoral studies and dissertation at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland (degree: Dr. oec. HSG) |
| 2001-2003 | Consultant at the marketing consultancy htp St. Gallen, Switzerland |
| 2004-2010 |
Manager at Procter & Gamble (P&G) in the areas of Customer Business Development, Key Account Management and Market Strategy and Planning in the Fabric & Home Care, Oral Care & Snacks and Blades & Razors divisions Organizational and Executive Coaching Degree at NYU, New York City/USA |
| since 2010 |
Professor of General Business Administration with Major in Marketing at THM Business School, Head of the Marketing Major in the B.Sc. Business Administration Participation in various committees, commissions and functions at THM with a focus on internationalization, didactics and marketing Jury member of the Hessian Export Prize (2019, 2021, 2023). The Hessian Export Prize is awarded every two years by the Hessian Association of Chambers of Industry and Commerce, the Association of Hessian Chambers of Skilled Crafts, and the Hessian Ministry of Economics, Energy, Transport and Housing. Assessor for, among others, the accreditation agencies AQAS, evalag and AHPGS Voluntary work: Board member of the CDU Frankfurt-Nordend, working-class child |
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