Ressort Presse

• von Dr. Alexandra Nießen
• 20.03.2026

Digitalisation, social justice, climate change: more and more companies are using such criteria as the basis for business decisions. Prof. Dr. Lucia Bellora-Bienengräber is investigating how they can also help shape social transformation processes in this way. She has taken up the Chair of Controlling and Sustainability at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE).

“I am interested in how companies respond to social change and how important leadership is in this context,” says Prof. Dr Lucia Bellora-Bienengräber. This leadership is not about controlling the workforce. “Workplaces should become fairer, more adaptable and thus more sustainable.” The economist at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) analyses how performance bonuses, planning tools, financial and non-financial indicators, as well as training programmes and corporate values, support employees in meeting the company’s existing expectations of them.

If artificial intelligence (AI) is added to the mix at work, employees see this as a further source of irritation, says Bellora-Bienengräber. “Many often react negatively to AI’s promises of increased efficiency and effectiveness. They believe they are being sidelined by their bosses and that AI is being favoured.” The professor of management accounting is conducting empirical research into how the workforce’s reaction to AI can be amplified or mitigated through appropriate leadership; this is being carried out, amongst other things, in a third-party funded project supported by the Foundation for Auditing Research. “I want to find out how companies ensure that their employees view AI as a support that offers them good solutions.” However, the use of AI often leads to ‘quiet quitting’ or job-hopping. It is important, however, to value one’s own employees and to demonstrate this in day-to-day working life, according to the UDE professor.

Bellora-Bienengräber studied business administration at TU Dresden, where she obtained her PhD in 2013 on the topic of controlling innovation. She subsequently served as a visiting professor in the USA at Johns Hopkins University (2016) and Clemson University (2017–2019; 2022–2024), as well as an assistant professor at the University of Hamburg (2014–2020) and an assistant, later associate professor, at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands (2020–2025). She is strongly committed to the transfer of knowledge between academia and practice. In 2025, she was appointed to the Working Group on Internal Accounting and Controlling of the Schmalenbach Society for Business Administration, and in 2026 to the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Institute for Compliance.

Further information:
Faculty of Economics, Managerial Accounting and Sustainability: mas.wiwi.uni-due.de
Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Lucia Bellora-Bienengräber, Lucia.Bellora-Bienengräber@uni-due.de

Editor: Dr. Alexandra Nießen, Tel. 0203/37-91487, alexandra.niessen@uni-due.de