Bernd Irlenbusch

Bernd Irlenbusch is Professor of Corporate Development and Business Ethics at the University of Cologne, where he serves as Speaker of the Center for Social and Economic Behavior (C-SEB) since 2023. He is a Principal Investigator in the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute: Markets and Public Policy since 2019 and has been Professor in the Department of Management since 2010. Previously, he held positions as Reader at the London School of Economics (2005-2010) and Assistant Professor at the University of Erfurt (2000-2004).

His educational background spans multiple disciplines: Computer Science (Diplom Informatiker, 1992), Economics (Diplom Volkswirt, 1994), and Business Administration (Diplom Kaufmann, 1996), culminating in a PhD from the University of Bonn in 2000, for which he received the Heinz Sauermann Dissertation Prize. He completed his Habilitation in 2004 at the University of Erfurt.

Irlenbusch's research centers on experimental investigations of ethical behavior, organizational design, and economic decision-making. His work examines how social norms, image concerns, and behavioral biases influence (un)ethical choices in organizational contexts. He specializes in designing controlled laboratory experiments to study corruption, cooperation mechanisms, incentive structures, and the impact of AI on moral decision-making. His research often employs cross-cultural methodologies, as demonstrated in his multi-national bribery studies across 18 countries.

His publication portfolio reveals consistent focus on behavioral foundations of economic decision-making, with increasing attention to technological influences on ethics in recent years. The research trajectory shows evolution from foundational work on cooperation mechanisms and tournament behavior to contemporary investigations of AI's impact on honesty and cross-cultural corruption patterns.

• Heinz Sauermann Dissertation Prize (2002)
• IZA Research Fellow since 2003
• Member of scientific advisory board of the association of German compliance managers

Irlenbusch leads significant research initiatives including the Center for Social and Economic Behavior (C-SEB) and participates in the Reinhard Selten Institute. His work receives funding through Germany's Excellence Strategy, particularly through the ECONtribute Cluster of Excellence. He has established collaborations across multiple disciplines including psychology, economics, and computer science to address complex questions about ethical behavior in organizational contexts. His recent work on AI-generated advice indicates forward-looking research directions addressing emerging technological challenges to ethical decision-making.