Blog
Part-time Distance Learning: Why Online Study is a Viable Study Format for Professionals
A part-time distance learning program combines academic qualifications with continued employment. It opens up educational pathways that often fall through the cracks in traditional on-campus programs because work schedules, family responsibilities, or mobility requirements do not allow for regular campus attendance. The quality of this form of study is evident in its pedagogical design, reliable support, and a program structure that fosters self-directed learning without leaving students to fend for themselves. Part-time distance learning is by no means a marginal form of education […]
Building Bridges Between Medicine and Management: Why Business Acumen is Becoming a Leadership Resource in Healthcare
Medical care arises in organizations that must operate under legal, personnel, and financial conditions. Those who bear medical responsibility often decide on processes, resources, and priorities, even when the formal leadership role lies with others. Business management competence expands the scope of action in such contexts because it translates budgets, processes, personnel, and strategy into a comprehensible management logic. An MBA program [...]
Studying Business Education via Distance Learning: Vocational Training, Continuing Education, and Digital Teaching Competence
A distance learning program in business education combines business administration content with pedagogical and didactic perspectives, addressing vocational training, corporate qualifications, and adult education. Business education is relevant in vocational schools, corporate training, and adult education, providing a disciplinary language for goal definition, justification of learning tasks, and assessment of learning outcomes. Distance learning in business education at Allensbach University combines business administration and economics content with pedagogical components. Business education […]
Digital Distance Learning: How the Modern University Format Works
Digital distance learning programs transfer academic teaching into learning environments that are supported by platforms, digital materials, and online organized examinations. Learner success depends on didactic decisions, reliable support, and study organization that takes into account the daily lives of working students. Quality for digital distance learning is achieved when content, assignments, feedback, and examinations are integrated within a consistent competency logic. […]
What Leadership Can Learn from the Middle Ages: Reading „Parzival“ and the „Nibelungenlied“ Differently
The following contribution reads Wolfram von Eschenbach's „Parzival“ and the „Nibelungenlied“ as texts that model leadership as a problem of legitimation, commitment, and conflict, without turning medieval figures into management case studies. After all, these texts do not provide instructions for action. Rather, they outline constellations in which authority is established, loyalty binds, and violence is limited or escalates. The [...]
Diversity Management: Strategic Steps for Sustainable Business Success
Diversity has become the norm in a globalized world. Therefore, modern management faces the strategic challenge of generating sustainable business value from heterogeneous workforces. Diversity management – understood as a systematic organizational approach to the targeted promotion and utilization of diversity – has thus developed from a primarily compliance-oriented measure into an evidence-based business instrument that creates measurable [...]
Generative AI Solutions in Healthcare: Potential and Current Obstacles
The healthcare sector requires a digital transformation due to population growth, changing disease patterns, and escalating costs. Generative AI models, such as GPT, offer significant potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery, particularly through the automation of administrative processes and support in diagnosis. However, the implementation of these technologies necessitates modernization of the digital infrastructure, especially improved interoperability and adaptable legal frameworks. […]
Leadership Ethics and the Technological Singularity
The increasing development of Artificial Intelligence, especially the path towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), poses fundamental questions for organizational leadership ethics. Leaders are shaping the age of the singularity through their ethical decisions today. The connection between leadership ethics and the Technological Singularity thus becomes a crucial strategic factor. By Prof. Dr. Patrick Peters, Professorship for Communication and [...]
Professional Learning Culture in Transition: On the Necessity of Reformed Performance Assessment
Performance evaluations in schools, colleges, and universities influence the learning paths and opportunities of young people. A reformed evaluation culture that prioritizes support over selection and understands development as a guiding principle is necessary. Pedagogical diagnostics, particularly learning process diagnostics, offer tools for individual support through targeted observation and collaborative feedback. A systematic reform, based on collegial consensus, combines competence orientation with practical applicability. [...]
Foundation Publicity - How Much Transparency Is Necessary?
With the new foundation register coming into effect on January 1, 2026, a new era of transparency and bureaucracy will begin for foundations in Germany. For the first time, a nationwide, publicly accessible register will be established, which will compulsorily record all existing and newly founded foundations by the end of 2026. The electronic register will eventually replace the previous state-level foundation directories and document the entire [...]
Harvard concept as a sign of constructive communication: negotiating with understanding and attitude
Objective, constructive, solution-oriented - this is how a good negotiation should proceed. The Harvard concept shows how clear principles and empathetic communication can lead to viable agreements even in difficult situations. The practical implementation of the four basic principles of the Harvard model shows why communication skills in particular make the difference between escalation and agreement. By Prof. Dr. Patrick Peters, Professor [...]
Semiotics according to Roland Barthes and its relevance for PR and communication: Between sign and meaning
What do an advertising poster, a brand name and a political slogan have in common? They are all signs - and they all convey more than what is visible at first glance. Roland Barthes, one of the most influential semioticians of the 20th century, has shown how deeply our everyday communication is embedded in cultural structures of meaning and why this is important for the [...]
Internal communication and successful team development
Internal communication is a key factor for successful team development. It not only influences the effectiveness and efficiency of work processes, but also the social dynamics within a team. The ability to exchange information, resolve conflicts and create a common understanding forms the foundation for productive and coherent collaboration. Communication science findings provide valuable [...]
Artificial intelligence in internal communication
Advancing digitalization presents companies with new challenges in internal communication. A flood of information, a lack of transparency and inefficient processes make collaboration more difficult and reduce productivity. At the same time, modern technologies such as artificial intelligence offer innovative solutions for internal communication. This helps to optimize communication channels, reach employees in a more targeted manner and improve the strategic orientation of internal communication.
Semiotics according to Umberto Eco: Signs, meaning and culture
With his theory of semiotics, Umberto Eco has shown how signs operate in cultural systems and how they contribute to shaping perception and ideology. His approaches are indispensable for understanding the mechanisms behind media, art, literature and popular cultural phenomena that shape our society. By Prof. Dr. Patrick Peters, Professor of PR, Communication and [...]
Semiotik und Kommunikation wichtig für PR- und Kommunikationsmanager
Die Semiotik, die Lehre von Zeichen und Zeichensystemen, ist ein zentraler Bestandteil der Kommunikationswissenschaften. Sie untersucht, wie Zeichen – seien es Worte, Bilder oder Symbole – Bedeutung erzeugen und kommunizieren. Für PR- und Kommunikationsmanager ist ein fundiertes Verständnis von Semiotik und Kommunikation unerlässlich. Es ermöglicht ihnen, Botschaften gezielt zu gestalten und die Wirkung von Kommunikation […]
Friedemann Schulz von Thun's four-sided model: understanding messages better
The four-sided model, also known as the communication square or message square, was developed by the German psychologist and communication scientist Friedemann Schulz von Thun. It states that every message has four aspects or sides: the factual content, the self-revelation, the relationship cue and the appeal. These aspects are always contained simultaneously in every message, whether consciously or unconsciously. By Prof. Dr. Patrick [...]
Non-violent communication and its role in internal communication
Non-violent communication (NVC), developed by Marshall B. Rosenberg, is a method of interpersonal communication based on empathy and honest, respectful interaction. The aim is to resolve conflicts and improve the quality of interpersonal relationships. This form of communication is not only used in personal relationships, but increasingly also in organizational contexts. Through the [...]
ChatGPT in the healthcare sector - opportunities and risks
ChatGPT initially appears inconspicuous and unspectacular. It is a kind of chatbot. This "intelligent" variant apparently knows the answers to many medical questions. Around one in four of Generation Z is familiar with this application. By Prof. Dr. Volker Nürnberg, Professor of Management in Healthcare at Allensbach University ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI, a Californian AI research company, [...]
The impact of the case law of the European Court of Justice on German inheritance and gift tax law - a review and outlook
German inheritance tax law is regularly the subject of rulings by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). This mostly concerns cases with a foreign connection, in which inheritance tax benefits are not granted to foreign heirs or donees, or only to a limited extent. This article aims to provide an overview of the current state of affairs. By Prof. Dr. Maximilian A. Werkmüller, Professor [...]
Opening or liquidation? Analysis of the situation of the currently closed bond fund "Deutscher Mittelstandsanleihen FONDS"
- Abridged version of a working paper available here - By Prof. Dr. Gunnar Stark, Professor of Finance and Head of the M.A. Finance program at Allensbach University "Deutscher Mittelstandsanleihen FONDS" (hereinafter referred to as "DMAF" or "Fund") is the name of an open-ended investment fund that invests primarily in comparatively high-yield, rarely traded bonds issued by German medium-sized companies. Launched almost ten years ago, it has achieved [...]
Hermann Hesse's "Die Morgenlandfahrt" and the servant leadership concept
In his story "Die Morgenlandfahrt", the German writer Hermann Hesse creates a special image of service. From this, the American thinker Robert K. Greenleaf developed the idea of servant leadership. According to this concept, a leader who enjoys the trust of his or her followers is first and foremost a servant. By Prof. Dr. Patrick Peters, Vice-Rector for Research and Academic Development [...]
Ethics and digital communication: partners or conflicting parties?
How are ethics influenced by the constant development of digital communication? How do communication parties ensure a common ethical understanding? And do ethics still play a role at all in these developments? These questions are particularly relevant to interpersonal communication. Ethics and digital communication are closely linked. By Prof. Dr. Patrick Peters, [...]
Exception to antitrust law: fixed prices as protection for books as cultural assets
As an exception to the general antitrust regulations, books, including e-books, must comply with a price set by the publisher in Germany. This is justified by the special status of the book as a cultural asset. Fixed book prices do not apply, for example, to used books, second-hand copies and collective orders for school lessons. By Prof. Dr. Patrick Rösler, Professor of Banking Law at Allensbach University [...]
Broadening the horizon? On the connection between semiotics and digitization
Semiotics is the science of sign processes in culture and nature. Without sign processes, perception, learning, remembering, communication and cultural meanings would not be possible. This plays a particularly important role in the age of digitalization. By Prof. Dr. Patrick Peters, Professor of PR, Communication and Digital Media and Vice-Rector for Research and Teaching Material Development at Allensbach University [...]
The new teachers
A current diagnosis of the times for the new educators with a practical view of the future tasks of in-company further and continuing education in adult education By Prof. MMag. Dr. Martin Bauer, Professor of Vocational Education and Business Education and Head of the M.A. Business Education program at Allensbach University Education and the time to take up education also play a role in a time of social distancing, according to [...]
On the choice of fixed interest rate
By Prof. Dr. Gunnar Stark, Professor of Finance at Allensbach University In the last decade, market participants have almost become accustomed to extremely low, sometimes negative interest rates. In the course of this year, however, interest rates have risen again considerably and the previously common phenomenon of significant interest rate differences between fixed-interest periods has returned. Thus [...]
Amazon Prime price increase of up to 30%: Legally permissible?
Amazon is increasing the prices of its Prime subscription by up to 30%, depending on the type of subscription. Amazon sends emails to its customers and refers to a provision in its General Terms and Conditions to legitimize the increase. Against the background of a decision by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in the field of banking law, this approach is not without legal problems. By Prof. Dr. [...]
Legislative changes worth knowing in July 2022
Legal framework conditions often change at the beginning of the year and in the middle of the year on July 1, before parliament's summer recess. This year is no exception. Some important changes are briefly addressed here. By Prof. Dr. Patrick Rösler, Professor of Banking Law at Allensbach University Termination of consumer contracts on the Internet All websites on which [...]
Immorality of commitment interest on loans
For loans that are not drawn down immediately or that are only drawn down in tranches, the bank holds the loan from the closing date until the borrower has drawn down the loan in full. This period can easily extend over many months or even over a year. For this holding period, the bank requires [...]
