MCI professorship for Aleksander Groth

In recognition of his outstanding achievements in research and teaching and his exemplary contributions to the further development of the Entrepreneurial ^School®, the MCI recently awarded the title of Professor to Aleksander Groth from the Department of Management, Communication & IT . In the presence of family, friends and colleagues, he received the honours from MCI Rector Andreas Altmann and Head of the University College Franz Pegger before giving an exciting insight into his research areas in his subsequent inaugural lecture.

Aleksander Groth graduated in business administration with a focus on strategic management as well as tourism and service management and completed his doctorate in organisation studies at the University of Innsbruck. He has been teaching at MCI since 2016, focusing on User Experience & Interaction Design, Digital Behaviour, applied projects with corporate partners and methodological courses such as Applied Statistics and Research Design.

In particular, he deals with the forms of expression and modes of action of digital technologies in the context of human habits. This includes the integration and use of technologies within personal lifeworlds on the one hand and collective actions in online communities as a form of communicative expression (e.g. Firestorms as a collective voice) on the other. Of particular interest here is the area of video games as a socio-cultural form of expression (collective identity, eSports, etc.).

His inaugural lecture entitled "Communicative Chain Reactions on Reddit - How a Firestorm Ignites Online", which focussed on the constitution of a digital counter-reaction of an online community to an announcement by a game developer, also revolved around this exciting area of research.