Prof. Dr. Stefan Lacher was already appointed to the Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society for the summer semester 2018. He teaches and researches in business administration with a focus on different areas of management, e.g. international management, innovation management, business development. Now the Department of Management, Controlling, Health Care invited to the public inaugural lecture of Prof. Dr. Stefan Lacher. The title 'Social innovations - moral fig leaf or social savior' aroused the curiosity of professors, staff and students alike, and many interested people accepted the invitation to attend the event in the auditorium.

In his lecture, Stefan Lacher began by establishing a common understanding of social innovations and explained by way of example the urgent social need for change in a wide variety of policy areas (e.g. climate change, income poverty and shortage of nursing staff).  He then highlighted opportunities and risks inherent in a stronger focus on social innovation. In particular, he called for closer interaction between technical and social innovations in order to increase the acceptance and thus the success potential of technically driven innovations in society in this combination. At the same time, however, he pointed out that social innovations have been neglected in recent years by those responsible for innovation management in academia, corporate practice and the public sector. Accordingly, there is currently a lack of sufficient research findings and suitable methods for successfully dealing with social innovations.

In Prof. Dr. Stefan Lacher's view, this offers great potential for the Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society. In recent months, Lacher has been involved in the preparation of three research project proposals together with various actors at the university. One of these applications has already been successful in the "Innovation Hubs@Campus" competition organized by the Donors' Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany and the Dieter Schwarz Foundation. The university is using the corresponding funds to set up a Social Innovation Lab as a creative space in Ludwigshafen's city center.  In the future, economic and social actors or cooperation partners, university lecturers and students will exchange ideas there about the challenges of the future.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Lacher concluded his presentation by inviting colleagues from all departments and focus areas to participate in the interdisciplinary activities on social innovations at the University of Applied Sciences for Business and Society. 

Personal details:
Since the summer semester of 2018, Dr. Stefan Lacher has been teaching and conducting research as a professor of business administration with a focus on international management at the Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society. Prior to his appointment, Stefan Lacher, himself an alumnus of the university, most recently worked as Head of Sponsorship Innovations at SAP SE. During his professional career, he always remained connected to the university through teaching assignments and, thanks to his many years of experience in innovation management, among other things, he can now impart theoretical and practical expertise to students first-hand as a professor.