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Master's students conduct cross-disciplinary research on negotiation strategies

02.02.2026, Study:

The “Strategic Growth and Sales” seminar at the Faculty of Economics not only combined theory and practice for the first time in the winter semester, but also linked study modules with each other: Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Sascha Fabian and Maike Netscher, seven teams from two degree programs addressed several topics related to negotiations in a B2B context and developed their own research projects based on these topics.

The course combined the two seminars “Market Research” (led by Prof. Dr. Sascha Fabian) and “Strategic Growth” (Maike Netscher) to give students in the master's programs “Advanced Sales Management and Intelligence” (SMI) and “Advanced Management” (MAM) an in-depth and interdisciplinary look at negotiation theories.

Teamwork research: literature review and MaxDiff analysis

Working in teams, the participants each tackled a key topic related to negotiations in a B2B context, and they did so with high standards: the goal was to develop a complete research project that included systematic literature research and MaxDiff analysis, a market research method used to survey customer preferences. The focus was on closing techniques, negotiation styles, personal skills, and objection handling in negotiations, among other things.

In their literature research, the students first determined which negotiation approaches are considered critical to success and how these are conceptualized in theory. They then examined which of these factors actually have statistical relevance in practice.

Conceptual depth meets empirical validation

In this way, the seminar format combined conceptual approaches with empirical validation and built a bridge between research and teaching, which was very well received by the students. Prof. Dr. Sascha Fabian and Maike Netscher, who were responsible for the module in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Alexander Kracklauer, drew a thoroughly positive conclusion and particularly praised the analytically sound and methodologically sound work as well as the high level of commitment shown by the students.

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Maike Netscher 

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The titles of the research projects developed independently by the students