22.03.20243 questions for Johannes Luger

Since 1 January 2024, Johannes Luger has been Associate Professor of Evidence-Based Strategic Management at the Department of Business Administration. In a short interview, he tells us about his research focus, what he wants to pass on to the students and why he chose the University of Zurich.

What do you focus on in your research?

I use quantitative and experimental methods to understand how individuals or organizations can improve their strategic decision making. For a long time, it has been challenging to identify robust and generalizable patterns for these kinds of decisions because of their characteristics as being complex and unique. However, with the recent exponential growth in data and with a higher acceptance of experimental methods, we are making great progress in our understanding of them. Of course, many challenges remain, and examples include ongoing difficulties with identifying strategic decisions rigorously, designing realistic counterfactuals (what is the alternative to any given decision?), and many others. However, overall, the goal of my research is to develop more solid and objective insight about strategic decision making, eventually with the goal of improving them. In recent years, my research has also focused on studying the collaboration of humans with AI agents when making strategic decisions.

What would you like to convey to your students? 

Most directly, I aim to convey the latest insights from the field. I hope that students will directly apply these insights to their own decisions but also in their work settings once they are confronted with complex or strategic decisions in their professional life. But on a higher level, I also hope that my teaching encourages students to question the status quo, their own long-held beliefs about how they address important decisions. Experiments are very helpful for this. I regularly use experiments in my classes and encourage students to implement ‘little’ experiments into their daily lives. Not all experiments need to fulfill high academic standards but when done reasonably, can tell a great deal. Life is just one big experiment!

What were the decisive factors for you to join the University of Zurich? 

This is first and foremost about my colleagues - my colleagues at the Institute but also at the Faculty of Business, Economics, and Informatics. At UZH, there are many distinguished experts concerning the main methods, theories, and domains that are of core importance to my work. I benefit from these colleagues every day and they are one of the most important drivers of my work.

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