Directors

Prof. Dr. Nils Urbach is Professor of Information Systems and Strategic IT Management at the University of Bayreuth. Furthermore, he is deputy director of the Finance & Information Management (FIM) Research Center and the Project Group Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT as well as co-founder and director of the Fraunhofer Blockchain Lab. 

In research and teaching, Nils Urbach mainly addresses questions in the areas of digitalization and strategic IT management. In this context, his focus is on the investigation of adoption, usage and success of digital innovations and, based on this, the derivation of design recommendations as well as the analysis and design of solutions for managing IT organizations and digital organizational units. Recent research projects concentrate on digital transformation in the individual and organizational context. Here, he is concerned with both the technological drivers of digitalization (e.g., smart devices, blockchain, workplace technologies, cloud computing) and the implications on management (e.g., agile organizations, workplace of the future, IT management in the digital ages). In his research, he applies both empirical and design-oriented research methods as complementary approaches. 

Nils Urbach regularly publishes in international top journals such as the Journal of Information Technology (JIT)​, Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS), IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (IEEE TEM), Information and Management (I&M), Business & Information Systems Engineering (BISE), Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA), Business Process Management Journal (BPM), and Journal of Economics and Business (JEB). Furthermore, he presents his research results at leading international conferences such as the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Internationale Tagung Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI), and Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS). Moreover, the published the books “IT-Management im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung”, “IT Management in the Digital Age” and “Digitalization Cases”. Among others, Nils Urbach was awarded with the Best Paper Award of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2017) for his research work. 

In the international information systems community, Nils Urbach is actively involved as guest editor, track chair, associate editor, and reviewer. Among others, he has served as guest editor for MIS Quarterly Executive (MISQE) as well as the Business Process Management Journal (BPMJ). He has also been particularly engaged in the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), for which he has served as track chair on a regular basis since several years. Furthermore, Nils Urbach is active in the editorial boards of MIS Quarterly Executive (MISQE) and Electronic Markets (EM). Moreover, he has acted as reviewer for several academic journals such as the European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS), Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS), the Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS), the DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems and many more. 

Nils Urbach is strongly engaged in publicly and privately funded research projects, in which he aims to contribute to the solution of relevant business problems. In this context, he partners both with large corporation and with small and medium-sized companies. For example, he has already been collaborating with industry partners such as BAUR, Deutsche Bahn, HEINZ-GLAS, Horváth & Partners, Helaba, Hilti, infosys Consultung, it-economics, Freudenberg, medi, Nord/LB, NÜRNBERGER Lebensversicherung, PwC, RAPS, REHAU, Siemens, Union IT-Services, ZF Friedrichshafen, and Volkswagen. His publicly research projects were funded by the European Social Fund (ESE), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMV), the Bavarian Research Foundation (BFS), the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Energy and Technology, as well as the Adalbert Raps Foundation, among others. 

As a popular speaker, Nils Urbach regularly gives talks for specialists and managers on various aspects of digitalization, strategic IT management, as well as blockchain technology and its application. To foster the transfer of research results into practice and to strengthen joint research activities with corporate partners, he has established the CIO Round Table in the Upper Franconian region. Furthermore, Nils Urbach is member of the expert advisory committee of the „Best of Consulting“ competition of WirtschaftsWoche as well as head of the User Group „Governance, Risk, Compliance in IT“ of SoftwareForen Leipzig. 

Between 2000 and 2004, Nils Urbach studied at University of Paderborn from which he received a diploma in business information systems in 2004. Subsequently, from 2004 to 2006, he worked as consultant with Accenture in Frankfurt, focused on clients in the financial service sector. After moving to EBS Business School in Wiesbaden, he started working as a research assistant at the Institute of Research on Information Systems where he received his doctorate in January 2010 graded “summa cum laude” (first supervisor Prof. Dr. Gerold Riempp, second supervisor Prof. Dr. Christine Legner). Subsequently, he held the position of an Assistant Professor where he was head of the Strategic IT Management Competence Center. Complementary to his academic work, he was Managing Consultant with Horváth & Partners in Frankfurt for the CIO & Project Advisory Competence Center. Nils Urbach gathered international experience during his research stays at the University of Pittsburgh (Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business) in 2008 and at Université de Lausanne (Hautes Etudes Commerciales) in 2012.