At the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, candidates can participate in a doctoral programme in the different subfields of the economic sciences – management, economics or information systems.

The Department of Management offers doctoral studies in all management disciplines (e.g. financial management, accounting, HRM, marketing, corporate strategy, technology management, international management). These are organised according to the research fields of the professors of the Department. You can find a list of the research fields here: http://www.unifr.ch/bwl/en/research. During their doctoral studies, candidates usually write research articles, give presentations at academic conferences in Switzerland and abroad, publish articles and participate in various courses (e.g. doctoral seminars, method courses).

The Department of Economics offers doctoral studies in all fields of economics (e.g. microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics). Ph.D. students regularly participate in doctoral programmes offered by the Study Center Gerzensee:
– Swiss Program for beginning doctoral students in economics, Gerzensee (see DOCTORAL SCHOOL)
– Advanced Courses in Economics for Doctoral Students, Gerzensee (see DOCTORAL SCHOOL)
Moreover, Ph.D. students regularly participate and present in the departmental seminar series:
– Departmental Research Seminar
– Departmental Ph.D. Seminar

The Department of Informatics of the University of Fribourg offers doctorates in the fields of information management and computer science. Information management should be understood in the broadest sense of the term as comprising both information systems and decision-support systems.
During their studies, Ph.D. students can participate in doctoral schools (such as the CUSO doctoral programmes in computer science or statistics and applied probability), or in specialist seminars in operational research.
Consequently, doctoral theses may cover themes such as the Internet of Things/Web of Things, or decision support systems for managers through the application of operational research, fuzzy logic or applied statistics models.

Professors eligible to supervise a doctoral thesis

Department of Economics

• Prof. Berno Büchel

Research fields:
– Industrial Organisation
– Network Science
– Law & Economics
– Applied Microeconomic Theory
– Applied Game Theory
– Digital Economy

Supervision of theses in English and German.

• Prof. Christelle Dumas

Research fields:
– Development microeconomics
– Applied econometrics
– Empirical health, labour, education economics and demographics

Additional courses:
Other courses (health economics, econometrics) provided as workshop or block lectures, at University of Fribourg or in Switzerland.

Supervision of theses in French and English.

• Prof. Reiner Eichenberger

Research fields:
– Public Economics
– Political Economics
– Public Choice
– Economic Policy
– Behavioural Economics

Supervision of theses in German and English.

• Prof. Volker Grossmann

Research fields:
– Growth Economics
– Distribution of Income and Wealth
– Human Capital Formation
– International Migration
– Health Economics
– Economics of Ageing
– Bequest Taxation

Supervision of theses in German and English.

• Prof. Philippe Gugler

Research fields:
– Competition Policy
– Competitiveness issues (economic policy, clusters, quality of the business environment; competitiveness of regions and cities)
– Multinational enterprises (MNEs)/international business (competitiveness of locations to attract FDI)
– Role of home country competitive advantages in the competitiveness of MNEs
– Public policies regarding competitiveness

Supervision of theses in French and English.

• Prof. Holger Herz

Research fields:
– Industrial Organisation
– Organisational Economics
– Behavioural Economics
– Experimental Economics
– Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Additional courses:
Doctoral Program in Behavioral Economics and Experimental Research, CUSO (see DOCTORAL SCHOOL).

Supervision of theses in German and English.

• Prof. Martin Huber

Research fields:
– Empirical labour, health, and education economics
– Microeconometric methods for causal inference
– Policy/treatment evaluation

Additional courses:
Ph.D. Program in Public Health of the Swiss School of Public Health (see DOCTORAL SCHOOL); Ph.D. courses offered by the Global School in Empirical Research Methods (see DOCTORAL SCHOOL).

Supervision of theses in German and English.

• Prof. Thierry Madiès

Research fields:
– Policy Public economics
– Public finance
– Political Economics
– New economic geography
– International taxation
– Economics of secessions
– Experimental economics
– Applied game theory
– Economics of innovation

Supervision of theses in French and English.

• Prof. Sergio Rossi

Research fields:
– Monetary Theory and Policy
– Inflation
– Financial Stability and Crises
– Bank Regulations
– Payment and Settlement Systems
– Exchange Rate Regimes and Global Imbalances
– European Monetary Integration
– History of Monetary Thought

Supervision of theses in English, German, French and Italian.

• Prof. Mark Schelker

Research fields:
– Public Economics
– Public Finance
– Political Economics
– Law and Economics
– New Institutional Economics
– Applied Econometrics

Additional courses:
Other courses (public economics, econometrics) taught as workshops or block lectures at universities in Switzerland or abroad.

Supervision of theses in French, German and English.

Department of Management

• Prof. Silke Bambauer-Sachse

Research fields:
– Price management
– Online marketing
– Complaint management

Supervision of theses in German, French and English.

• Prof. Alexandra Bertschi-Michel

Research fields:
– Strategic management of SMEs/family businesses
– Succession planning in SMEs/family businesses
– Governance in SMEs/family businesses

Own topic proposals in the field of SMEs/family businesses are welcome and will be considered.

Additional Courses:
As agreed, for example participation in the Doctoral Consortium of a Family Business conference and exchange with doctoral students from Bern, Witten-Herdecke, WHU, Liechtenstein, etc.

Supervision of theses in German and English.

• Prof. Michael Burkert

Research fields:
– Strategy implementation with management control systems
– Corporate governance
– Incentive systems
– Cost accounting and cost accounting systems

Additional courses:
Swiss Doctoral Program Network in Accounting Research (see DOCTORAL SCHOOL) and other courses (econometrics, experimental research in accounting) taught as workshops or block lectures at universities in Switzerland or abroad.

Supervision of theses in German and English.

• Prof. Eric Davoine

Research fields:
– International and cross-national comparative HRM
– Globalisation processes and HRM
– International mobility
– Managerial cognition
– French-German Intercultural Management
– Evaluation of HR processes
– Top management careers
– Gender and career

Projects:
– Swissness and HRM in the watch making industry
– Context effects and HRM in MNC subsidiaries
– HRM in MNC subsidiaries in Switzerland, Ukraine and Lebanon
– Career anchors within global MNCs: generation and gender effects
– Globalisation of Swiss top management profiles
– Integration of highly skilled migrants in Swiss companies
– Competencies gained through international student mobility
– Impacts of new communication technologies on managerial practices
– Gender issues in international dual careers

Additional courses:
PhD Seminar of Department of Management; PhD seminar of RHO Chair with guest researchers; LIVES NCCR PhD seminar; Ad-hoc method seminars from Swiss universities.

Supervision of theses in French and English.

• Prof. Emmanuelle Fauchart

Research fields:
– Entrepreneurship
– Innovation Management
– Open Innovation
– Start-ups
– Small enterprises

Supervision of theses in French and English.

• Prof. Olivier Furrer

Research fields:
– Marketing services
– Strategic marketing
– Intercultural marketing
– Corporate-level strategy

Supervision of theses in French and English.

• Prof. Markus Gmür

Research fields:
– NPO Management
– Social Entrepreneurship
– Third Sector Studies

Projects:
– Member Value Optimisation in Associations and Co-operatives
– Typologies of Social Entrepreneurship in international comparison
– Entrepreneurial Not-for-profit Management
– Third sector labour markets and career patterns of npo executives
– Corporate philanthropy and intersectoral cooperation
– Professionalisation in fundraising

Supervision of theses in German and English.

• Prof. Dušan Isakov

Research fields:
– Finance
– Business finance
– Business governance
– Financial markets
– Dividend policy
– Financial decisions and performance of family businesses
– Executive remuneration

Additional courses:
Block courses given in Swiss universities or abroad as well as some courses offered by the Swiss Finance Institute.

Supervision of theses in French and English.

• Prof. Sébastien Mena

Research fields:
– Organisation theory
– Business and society, corporate social responsibility
– Sustainability
– Global value chains
– Democracy, business & politics
– Regulation and governance

Supervision of theses in English.

• Prof. Franck Missonier Piera

Research fields:
– Governance role of accounting information
– Valuation role of accounting data
– Determinants & consequences of analysts' forecast errors
– Role and consequences of IPSAS (International Public Sector Accounting Standards)
– Environmental disclosure

Supervision of theses in French and English.

• Prof. Dirk Morschett

Research fields:
– Headquarters-subsidiary relationships
– Coordination of foreign subsidiaries
– Market selection
– Market entry strategies
– Internationalisation of services and services companies
– Internationalisation of retail companies
– Management in Emerging Markets

Supervision of theses in German and English.

• Prof. Stephan Nüesch

Research fields:
– Innovation Management
– Technology Management
– Strategic Management

Supervision of theses in English.

• Prof. Martin Wallmeier

Research fields:
– Asset Management
– Derivatives and Structured Financial Products
– Asset Pricing
– Firm Valuation
– Information Implied in Option Prices
– Behavioral Finance

Additional courses:
Ph.D. courses offered by the VHB (Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft), Swiss Finance Institute, Swiss Doctoral Program Network in Accounting Research.

Supervision of theses in German and English.

Department of Informatics (interfaculty)

• Prof. Laurent Donzé

Areas of specialisation:
– Survey statistics
– Fuzzy statistics
– Statistical modeling
– Imputation of missing data in complex enquiries
– Evaluating economic policy programmes
– Problems related to evaluation of wage gaps

Subjects of specific interest:
– Hedonic methods, notably for constructing price indices
– Fuzzy statistics methods

Supervision of theses in French, German and English.

• Prof. Hans-Georg Fill

Areas of specialisation:
– Meta modeling
– Conceptual modeling
– Visualisation
– Process management
– Development of enterprise information systems

Subjects of specific interest:
– Semantic information systems
– Blockchains and smart contracts
– Application of virtual and augmented reality in enterprise modeling
– Deviceless interaction for enterprise information systems

Supervision of theses in German and English.

• Prof. Andreas Fischer

Areas of specialisation:
– Deep Learning
– Large Vision and Language Models
– Graph-Based Pattern Recognition
– Document Analysis
– Handwriting Analysis

Subjects of specific interest:
– Digital Humanities
– Digital Pathology
– AI-Oriented Software Engineering

Supervision of theses in English, German, and French.

• Prof. Nathan Kunz

Areas of specialisation:
– Supply chain management
– Logistics
– Operations management
– Sustainability
– Methods: Case studies, qualitative research, design science research, system dynamics simulation

Subjects of specific interest:
– Humanitarian supply chains and logistics
– Sustainability in global supply chains
– Modern slavery in agrifood supply chains
– Circular supply chains

Supervision of theses in English and French.

• Prof. Bernard Ries

Areas of specialisation:
– Combinatorial optimisation
– Structural and Algorithmic Graph Theory
– Decision Support
– Complexity Theory
– Mathematical Modeling

Subjects of specific interest:
– Modeling and solving real world problems using graph theory and combinatorial optimisation
– Analysing the computational complexity of graph theoretical problems
– Analysing the structure of graphs in order to provide efficient algorithms

Supervision of theses in French, German and English.