Oliver Som receives MCI professorship

The Entrepreneurial School^®, Innsbruck honors Dr. Oliver Som with the title of Professor

In appreciation of his achievements in teaching, research, and the transfer of knowledge the Entrepreneurial School^® recently conferred the title of Professor to Dr. Oliver Som. Som has profound scientific qualifications, excellent teaching skills, and several years of professional experience outside of the university sector and has made an outstanding contribution to MCI with respective achievements.

Oliver Som is a political and social scientist with specialization in the field of innovation management. After his graduation from the University of Stuttgart, he obtained a doctorate from the University of Flensburg. After completing his studies he worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, Karlsruhe and as a consultant to, among others, the German Government and the European Commission.

Since 2016, Oliver Som has been working full-time in research and teaching for MCI and, additionally, been acting as study coordinator responsible for innovation. In this position he has made substantial contributions to the development of the Department of Business & Management as well as the Entrepreneurial School® itself.

Recently, Som was able to once again demonstrate his substantial scientific qualifications and outstanding teaching skills in his inaugural address. In the presence of family members, companions, colleagues, and students, he spoke of the innovative power of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In his lecture with the title “How SMEs innovate – an empirical inventory of species diversity in innovation behavior“ Som presented the results of the study he was assigned with by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Although SMEs make up the majority of enterprises, innovation activities of both German and Austrian companies tend to focus on only a few large concerns. Som’s study addresses the question of how technological innovators operate without individual R&D activities in comparison to non-technological innovators, with the goal of eventually being able to identify patterns of innovation. The study reveals that there are four basic types of innovators: knowledge-intensive product developers, customer-driven, technical problem solvers, specialized suppliers, and specialized final product manufacturers.

After the talk, MCI Rector Andreas Altmann and Professor Franz Pegger, Head of the Academic Council, handed over the certificate of appointment.

Press contact
Mag.(FH) Ulrike Fuchs
+43 512 2070-1527
ulrike.fuchs@mci.edu