Stefan Wengler

Prof. Dr. Stefan Wengler is a Professor of Marketing at Hof University of Applied Sciences, where he serves as Head of the Research Group "Empirical Research & User Experience" (ERUX) at the Institute for Information Systems (iisys) since 2024. He has extensive experience in both academia and industry, with many years of professional experience in marketing & sales, including expertise in digital transformation.

His educational background includes:

• Ph.D. on "Economic Value of Key Account Management" with Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Kleinaltenkamp at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
• Studies of Business Administration and Economics (Degree: Diplom-Kaufmann) at Julius Maximilians University, Würzburg, Germany
• Additional studies at University of Texas at Austin, Texas, U.S.A. and Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany

Prof. Wengler's research primarily focuses on digital transformation in sales, autonomous driving & customer acceptance, multi-stage marketing in business markets, strategic global/key account management, and international product development. His international perspective is particularly evident in his work on "Doing Business in India," where he has developed expertise in market entry strategies for the Indian market and global expansion strategies of Indian companies. His research aims to create more customer-oriented digital systems by improving human-machine interfaces and making digital systems more intuitive to use.

His publications demonstrate significant trends in human-machine interaction research, particularly in automotive contexts, and digital transformation in sales processes. Recent work shows increasing focus on sustainability issues, cross-cultural marketing challenges, and the evolving skill requirements for sales professionals in the digital age.

His scholarly contributions have been recognized with the "Outstanding Paper Award 2022" from the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing (JBIM). He serves as a reviewer for multiple prominent marketing journals and as an external examiner for Ph.D. theses at international universities.

Prof. Wengler is actively involved in thesis supervision, requiring students to have completed one of his courses with at least a grade of 2.0 and to conduct their research in cooperation with a company. He has also served as Head of the MBA program "German Indian Management Studies" and was International Representative of the Faculty from 2010-2016. His research group ERUX, which he co-leads with Dr. Joachim Riedl, focuses on making human-machine interfaces more user-friendly and digital systems more intuitive to use.