MCI professorship to Christiane Aufschnaiter

In recognition of her outstanding achievements in research and teaching and her exemplary contributions to the further development of the Entrepreneurial School^®, the MCI recently awarded the professorship to Christiane Aufschnaiter from the department of Business Administration Online. In the presence of family, friends, and colleagues, she was presented with her certificate by MCI Rector Andreas Altmann and Head of the Academic Council Franz Pegger, before giving fascinating insights into her research areas in her subsequent inaugural lecture.

Prof. Christiane Aufschnaiter began her academic career in 2005 at the University of Innsbruck, where she obtained a diploma in International Economics and Business Studies and a bachelor's degree in Russian. She then worked as a project manager in communications and consulting at the Upper Austrian Economic Chamber before taking on the position of Marketing Manager at karriere.at in 2014.

In 2017, she not only returned to Innsbruck, but also to the academic world and started her PhD in Management with a focus on branding at the University of Innsbruck. At the same time, she found her way to the MCI, where she first worked as a research assistant and then as a lecturer. In 2021, she subsequently took over the project coordination of the eStudy program. Since 2022, she has been Head of the bachelor's program Business Administration Online and Deputy Head of the corresponding department. She has been the academic director of the bachelor's program (CE) General Management since 2023.

In her research and teaching, she focuses in particular on marketing and consumer research, which she also discussed in her inaugural lecture entitled "Exploring consumers in the digital age: insights into culturally-oriented consumer research". She presented how culturally-oriented approaches in consumer research work and why understanding consumer behavior is an essential part of successful marketing.