Zeppelin University

Master in Corporate Management & Economics

Decision-makers and entrepreneurs are being confronted more than ever before with demands that can no longer be met by the functional range of classic business management alone. Conventional management training has reached its limits, as argued by the renowned Canadian management theorist Henry Mintzberg and the Stanford economist Jeffrey Pfeffer, and ironically lamented by "The Economist" in its 2010 yearbook: "The decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit at source." p. 122.

So what now? For a deeper understanding of these new challenges – unavoidable crises aside – knowledge in communication sciences, cultural sciences, and political sciences are imperative. Medialization in the form of "CEO branding" and the harmonization of "product-, equity- and employer branding" within the national culture are as much part of the challenge faced by today's top decision-makers as interaction with political networks, regulation and deregulation trends, privatization initiatives and public-private partnerships.

Since 2003, ZU has reacted to these challenges with a new (by German standards) type of research-oriented business qualification for generalists. The novelty lies in the combination of business administration and economics with cultural studies, communication and media studies, as well as aspects of political science and public administration.

A program that questions the economy. We have already had enough answers.

The pro­fes­sors know this one best: What are the eight most im­por­tant ques­tions oc­cu­py­ing the fac­ulty of Busi­ness and Eco­nom­ics?

Sus­tain­able or­ga­ni­za­tions

What will fu­ture or­ga­ni­za­tions be like after years of on­go­ing re­or­ga­ni­za­tion? Net­worked or in­for­mal?

Global cap­i­tal mar­kets

What will the new order of glob­al­ized fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions look like? How can it be suit­ably reg­u­lated?

En­tre­pre­neur­ship

What might a 21st cen­tury en­tre­pre­neur­ial sci­ence look like? What will dis­tin­guish the next busi­ness mod­els in a so­cial, cul­tural and po­lit­i­cal sphere from the past?

Fam­ily busi­nesses

What does a spe­cific busi­ness ad­min­is­tra­tion course for fam­ily busi­nesses com­prise? How do fam­ily busi­nesses com­mu­ni­cate; how are they or­ga­nized and fi­nanced; how do they grow; how do they fail?

In­no­va­tion and tech­nol­ogy man­age­ment

How can the man­age­ment of ex­ter­nal cre­ativ­ity be achieved? Which "so­cial in­no­va­tions" do we need for tech­no­log­i­cal de­vel­op­ments?

Mar­ket­ing and mar­kets

Are mar­kets mor­al­ized; can they act ir­ra­tionally? Do be­hav­ioral and neu­roe­co­nomic analy­ses con­sti­tute a sus­tain­able par­a­digm of ex­pla­na­tion?

Mo­bil­ity and value-added net­works

Which modes and mod­els of mo­bil­ity will be ef­fi­cient, en­vi­ron­men­tally and so­cially com­pat­i­ble? What might the fu­ture of global pro­duc­tion look like?

The fu­ture of civil so­ci­ety

How will the func­tions of mar­ket, state, and busi­ness be sep­a­rated in the fu­ture? What rel­e­vance will so­cial en­ter­prises achieve?