Competence Centers

WU’s six competence centers support the university in its third mission activities. They also provide additional assistance to researchers through knowledge transfer and networking activities.

Business Languages

Head: Alexander Beer

The “Center for Business Languages” was established in 2018 and consists of two institutions:

WU Business Language Center offers language courses for students and the public according to modern didactic methods. Basic courses (level A1 and A2) in French, Italian, Spanish and Russian prepare students for their assignments in Business Communication. Courses for German as a foreing language are availale in all levels as well as basic courses on some other languages such as Arabic or Portuguese. Further courses are available in Arabic or Portuguese, for example.

Raiffeisen Sprachlernzentrum focuses on autonomous learning and offers materials for more than 40 languages. Also available is counseling for language learners and a tandem program.

Emerging Markets & CEE

Head: Phillip C. Nell

The Competence Center for CEE expanded its profile to include emerging markets in 2016. Emerging markets are claiming an ever increasing segment of the global economy, and the competence center’s main goals are to stimulate the interest of both students and the general public in these countries, communicate WU’s diverse research work, and contribute to a closer connection between research, teaching, and the business community.

Empirical Research Methods

Heads: Manfred Lueger, Regina Dittrich

The function of this competence center is to ensure the high quality of empirical research at WU and concentrate existing methodological competence and know-how to make it easily accessible. The team’s work focuses on three main areas: expert advice for WU researchers on how to use methodological approaches and empirical methods, support for researchers in the project proposal and publication phases, and the further development and application of research methods.

Entrepreneurship Center

Head: Nikolaus Franke

The Entrepreneurship Center’s main goal is to increase entrepreneurial spirit at WU, and thus contributing to encouraging a campus-wide “can-do” mentality with regard to business start-ups. Ideally, this will result in independent, innovative entrepreneurial activities, both by students and faculty: Innovation is welcomed, unavoidable risks accepted, and starting a business is recognized as a valid career path and chosen accordingly. Long term, this should lead to more and better start-ups by members of the WU community.

Experimental Research

Head: Ben Greiner

In recent years, the method of experimental research has established itself in many areas of business administration and economics, and even in the legal sciences. At the WU Competence Center for Experimental Research, researchers from the fields of finance, management, marketing, strategy and innovation, economics and business informatics are working together to investigate key economic issues in an experimental way.

Nonprofit Organizations and Social Entrepreneurship

Heads: Michael Meyer, Christian Schober

This competence center’s main objectives are NPO and social entrepreneurship-related academic research and facilitating networks, encouraging contact and cooperation between researchers and the nonprofit and social entrepreneurship community. The center organizes regular conferences, workshops, research dialogs, and leadership training events. Research topics include impact-oriented evaluation, the analysis of social return on investment (SROI), innovation, civil society, and managing organizations dedicated to facing social challenges.

Sustainability Transformation and Responsibility (STaR)

Heads: Sigrid Stagl, Günter Stahl

The WU Vienna Competence Center for Sustainability Transformation and Responsibility is an interdisciplinary home for research, teaching and broader societal engagement concerned with the grand challenges of our times, such as the ones embodied in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The overarching aims are to provide a collaborative platform for networking, knowledge exchange and dissemination of exemplary academic scholarship on environmental, social, and economic sustainability, and to support WU’s societal responsibility as a driver of sustainable transformations. In order to meet these aims, the center hosts academic and public events, organizes workshops, provides online space for sharing relevant content, and serves as a liaison between WU community (students, faculty, staff) and external stakeholders.