Welcome aboard!“Digitalization in managerial accounting can be the key to better decisions and sustainable entrepreneurial success.”Prof. Dr. Yannik Gehrke strengthens business administration.

1 August 2024, by Gehrke/Red.

Photo: Sarah R. Kriener

Prof. Dr. Yannik Gehrke

Every year, the University of Hamburg welcomes numerous new researchers. This series introduces them and their areas of research. This time: business economist Prof. Dr. Yannik Gehrke.

Prof. Dr. Yannik Gehrke left the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen to join the Faculty of Business Administration (Hamburg Business School) in the summer semester, where he is now a professor of business administration with a focus on managerial accounting and digitalization.

My research area in 3 sentences:

As a managerial accountant, my research focuses on the question how companies can be led more effectively and efficiently. The potential related to the use of digital technologies, such as AI, robotic process automation, and data analytics also play a significant role. This is why I am focusing on, among other things, how digitalization potential can be realized in the context of business management, what that changes in economic activity, and how this transformation can be responsibly shaped in companies.

This is how I explain my research to my family:

Everyday life shows how vast and radical the changes can be that go hand-in-hand with digitalization. The smart phone, for example, has completely changed communication with other people, but also transformed other everyday-processes such as paying at supermarkets, navigating from place to place, and mobility. Thanks to the spread of generative AI, for example ChatGPT, we are on the threshold of further radical social changes.  

And in businesses, digitalization has vast potential, the realization of which can fundamentally transform the roles, processes, and structures in companies. By making decisions, managers have an especially important role in shaping this transformation. This is why I a looking at, for example, the following questions: What new skills are required of managers? What challenges will managers have in dealing with their staffs? How should incentives for managers be designed to best advance the use of digital technologies?

That’s why I’m looking forward to Hamburg—both the city and the University.

I am especially looking forward to more frequently meeting old university friends who now live in Hamburg and to getting to know the city in all of its diversity. One highlight for me is the Alster’s many branches and the chance to explore them or do stand-up paddling. But I also want to take advantage of the wide range of cultural activities as soon as possible.

I see the University of Hamburg as very dynamic, ambitious, and open. I am really looking forward to becoming a part of this University and the cooperation with my new colleagues.

These are my plans at the University of Hamburg:

Together with my colleagues, I want to contribute to the ongoing development of the Faculty of Business Administration. I would like to complement the curriculum with material from the areas of steering a business, managerial accounting, and digitalization and foster the faculty’s interdiscplinary and international networks in join research and knowledge-exchange projects.

This is why students should attend my courses:

Companies operate today in a very dynamic world. This is why the classic curriculum often fails the mark at preparing people optimally for real-world business. Especially in information-intensive and decision-making positions such as managerial accounting, being sensitive to the impact of digitalization is an important step on the way to successfully entering real-world business.

In addition to getting to know the still-important classic material of managerial accounting, students should be prepared in an application-oriented way for the role of management accountant in the digital era.

My research is important to society because: 

Because it yields information for making decisions and shapes incentive- and steering mechanisms, managerial accounting is an extraordinarily significant job in companies. Finally, managerial accounting work has a large influence on the quality of fundamental decisions.

More efficient and effective managerial accounting, for example, by making sound use of digital technologies, can minimize poor decision-making in companies and, in the best case, realize long-term competitive advantages. This, in turn can lead to wealth increase, which is very significant to economic centers and societies.