Institute News

Senior Research Fellow and Head of Unit at the Munich-based Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Annette Kur, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki (Finnland),, "for her major contributions to European intellectual property law, especially within the fields of trade mark and design law" at the end of November.

The honorary doctorate is conferred every five years on persons who "based on scientific, cultural or social activities of great merit can be considered worthy of this distinction". Together with a group of experts at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Kur has greatly influenced industrial design legislation in the European Union, for instance by co-writing the report on the "Overall Evaluation of the Functioning of the European Trade Mark System", which has formed the basis of the pending Commission proposal for the reform of European trade mark law.

Alongside Kur, Edward Freeman, Professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business (USA), and Oz Shy, PhD, Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (USA), were awarded the honorary doctorate for their academic achievements.

Hanken School of Economics, founded in 1909, is a leading, internationally accredited (Equis and AMBA) university in the field of economics and business administration. It is one of the oldest business schools in the Nordic countries and maintains close and intensive links with the business world. At its two campuses in Helsinki and Vaasa it offers academic programs on all levels (BSc, MSc and PhD).

Magdalena Streicher, doctoral candidate with exploratory focus on "Entrepreneurship" at the Munich-based Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition since October 2014, was awarded the Appreciation Prize from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy for her excellent achievements in the framework of her master studies in "International Management / CEMS" at the Vienna University of Economics and Business at the end of November.

The prize, endowed with EUR 2,500, is awarded annually at the recommendation of the Austrian universities and the conference of the technical colleges to their best graduates of the previous academic year. Two groups are eligible: on the one hand, persons who, under the auspices of the Austrian president, complete a doctorate, and on the other hand graduates of diploma and master programs. The requirement for the latter group is the completion of the diploma examination or the bachelor and master examination, respectively, with honors, as well as an excellent and best-rated diploma or master thesis, respectively. The Appreciation Prize is meant to make visible and honor top performance during academic studies and, at the same time, to be a stimulus for young academics.

In her master thesis "Diversity and Innovation: Which factors besides the demographic diversity of the founding team influence the innovation capability of a new company?" Streicher used a case study to analyse the dynamic of homogeneous founder teams. The thesis shows that the cognitive capabilities to integrate new knowledge in the company, to generate ideas and to identify opportunities are shaped much more by a variety of personal features and mindsets than by the demographic diversity of the founding team.

On August 1, 2014, the fourth amendment of the "Gesetz für den Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien" (Renewable Energy Law, or EEG, for short), came into effect. The EEG regulates the preferred feeding of electricity produced from renewable sources into the power grid and guarantees the producers a fixed remuneration. According to the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy), the amendment eliminates weaknesses of the former law and adapts unrealistic development goals in the field of renewable energies. At the invitation of the Munich-based Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition and within the framework of the seminar series "[IP]2 - Intellectual Property in Practice", on October 15, 2014, six experts from science and practice discussed with an audience of around 50 knowledgeable persons - bankers, auditors, lawyers, start-up entrepreneurs und doctoral candidates in the engineering sciences - the possible effects of the EEG amendment on innovations in the technological, entrepreneurial and procedural area. The event's organizers, Christian Steinle and Alexandru Steininger of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, were very pleased with the evening, which ended with a reception: "We investigate innovation processes and we wanted the experts to spin visions and scenarios. To this purpose the precise effects of the amendment, which will only be visible from the year 2016 on, have to be awaited. But with these experts we succeeded in looking beyond the dry content of the law and in sharpening their view for possible effects of the amendment on clean-tech innovations".

Die am Max-Planck-Institut entstandene Habilitationsschrift "Wirtschaftsordnung durch Zivilgerichte" von Rupprecht Podszun ist mit einem Roman-Herzog-Forschungspreis Soziale Marktwirtschaft ausgezeichnet worden. Der Preis wird vom Verband der Bayerischen Wirtschaft und dem Roman Herzog Institut vergeben. In gedruckter Form ist die Arbeit gerade in der Reihe Jus Privatum im Verlag Mohr Siebeck erschienen.

Rupprecht Podszun war von 2007-2012 Wissenschaftlicher Referent am Institut im Team von Prof. Dr. Josef Drexl. Inzwischen wurde Rupprecht Podszun auf einen Lehrstuhl an der Universität Bayreuth berufen, dem MPI ist er als Affiliated Research Fellow weiterhin verbunden. In seiner Habilitationsschrift untersucht er die Frage, wie die Zivilgerichte mit Streitigkeiten umgehen, die in der Folge von Deregulierungs- und Privatisierungsmaßnahmen neu entstanden oder aus dem Bereich des Öffentlichen Rechts in das Privatrecht wanderten. 

Fabian Kühnhausen, Research Fellow at the MPI and PhD Candidate at the LMU Munich, received the "Outstanding Doctoral Student Paper Award" for his paper "Financial Innovation and Fragility" from the Eastern Finance Association. He presented the paper at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Eastern Finance Association in Pittsburgh, USA.In his paper, Fabian Kühnhausen empirically investigates the relationship of innovative activity by financial services firms on their individual stability. Using a unique data set that counts financial innovation in the USA, he can show that financial innovation negatively affects firm stability.The paper is available at SSRN.

Participating researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition are Dietmar Harhoff, director at the institute and head of the economics department, and Frank Mueller-Langer, Senior Research Fellow.

Empirical studies to verify and refine theoretical models are increasingly important in economics. This is reflected in a rising number of empirical contributions to journals where the authors have collected their own research data or used external datasets. However, so far there have been few effective means to replicate this research data within the framework of the corresponding article in order to verify it, to make it available for repurposing or to use it to support scholarly debate.

The DFG-funded project EDaWax is intended to meet these challenges. One of the main objectives is the development of a publication-related data archive for journals.

During the first phase of the project, analysis systematically redacted the current challenges as manifested mainly by the lack of incentive structures for the replication of research results and the multiple use of data. At the same time, currently existing technical and organizational solutions within the context of economics journals and data archives were analysed and investigated with regard to their suitability for the requirements of the EDaWax project and with particular attention to the legal framework.

During the second phase of the project, for which the funding has now been granted, a metadata schema for the description and labelling of the data will be developed, based on the results of this analysis. A set of rules for the schema-compliant transformation of the descriptions and data will also be established.

Further information:

EDaWaX II - Enhancing the project's pilot application towards an integrated solution for managing research data in economics journals

ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften

EDaWaX - European Data Watch Extended

This year's winners are Ulrich Kaiser, Department of Business Administration - Entrepreneurship, University of Zurich, and Nikolaj Malchow-Møller, Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark, with their article "Is Self-Employment Really a Bad Experience? The Effects of Previous Self-Employment on Subsequent Wage-Employment Wages", published in Journal of Business Venturing (2011). The award was presented by Prof. Dietmar Harhoff, Ph.D., director at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition and head of the economics department.

The Stephan Schrader Award is bestowed with 5000€ and sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Germany Foundation. Awarded are publications in high-ranking international academic journals, contributing significantly to the research in the respective area and being of high practical relevance.

The prize is awarded in memory of the outstanding researcher Prof. Dr. Stephan Schrader who founded the Institute for Innovation Research and Technology Management (INNO-tec) at the LMU Munich in 1994. He directed the Institute until his untimely death in 1997. His colleagues and students will always remember his inspiring personality.

The selection of the laureates is carried out by a scientific committee. Along with Dietmar Harhoff the members are: Oliver Alexy (Technische Universität München), Dominique Foray (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), Joachim Henkel (Technische Universität München), Eric von Hippel (Massachussetts Institute of Technology), Holger Patzelt (Technische Universität München), Ammon Salter (University of Bath), and Achim Walter (Kiel University).

As part of the event "Munich Best Paper Awards", Joachim Henkel, Technische Universität München, presented also the Theo Schöller Award - Munich Best Paper Award in Innovation Management Studies. Winner is Katja Rost, Institute of Sociology, University of Zurich, with her article "The Strength of Strong Ties in the Creation of Innovation", published in Research Policy (2011).

Further Information:

Prof. Dr. Katja Rost, Institute of Sociology, University of Zurich

Dr. Theo Schöller-Stiftungslehrstuhl für Technologie- und Innovationsmanagement, TUM School of Management

Scholarship Holder Ma Li's doctoral thesis "Study on performers' rights legal systems" was one of three PhD theses this year to earn a "2013 Excellent Doctoral Thesis in IP Law in China" award. This thesis competition was organized by the Intellectual Property Law Publisher of China which is affiliated with the State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C. and is a top 100 publisher in China. This is the 6th year of this award, which is aimed to promote the development of intellectual property law in China and to cultivate more talented intellectual property law researchers. PhD theses in the field were selected from across China and reviewed by 15 leading intellectual property law professors from top universities and intellectual property research centers. The winners have the opportunity to publish their doctoral theses for free in a serial of excellent IP law doctoral theses from the Intellectual Property Law Publisher of China.

Ma Li's doctoral thesis, "Study on performers' rights legal systems", is the first thesis in the field of intellectual property doing systematic research on performers' rights. Her doctoral thesis was focused on both the international experiences regarding the protection of performers' rights and special issues for China against the background of the new international "Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances" and the third revision of China's copyright law. She earned her PhD from Renmin University of China in 2013 and was supervised by Professor Wu Handong, who is the director of Center for Studies of Intellectual Property Rights in Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, the former president of Zhongnan University of China, and was named one of the " Global 50 Most Influential People in IP" in 2009 and 2011 by Managing Intellectual Property (MIP).

Ma Li spent one year, from Sep. 2011 to Aug. 2012, in the Max Planck Institute to write her doctoral thesis as a visiting student. During her year with the Max Planck Institute, her thesis benefited from the rich materials and expert advice available here, especially from Prof. Dietz and Prof. Hilty. Ma Li is currently continuing her research on audiovisual performers' right in the institute as a scholarship holder supervised by Prof. von Lewinski, focusing on "Balancing Interests in the Protection of Audiovisual Performers' Rights".

Scholars and practitioners interested in the economic, legal, political and managerial aspects of intellectual property rights are encouraged to attend the conference. The conference will explore how the IP systems in Europe can further growth and innovation.

EPIP is an international, independent, interdisciplinary, non-profit association of researchers that grew out of a network financed by the European Commission from 2003 to 2005. Dietmar Harhoff and Reto M. Hilty, directors at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, are members of the board. The objectives of the Association are to be a leading European platform for the analysis and discussion of intellectual property systems and intangible assets; to encourage research regarding economic, legal, social, political and historical aspects of intellectual property rights at national, European and international levels; and to contribute ideas, concepts and discussions that will promote innovation, productivity and growth in Europe and beyond.