Before coming to the UK, Thoralf obtained a Master degree from the Technical University of Ilmenau, and has worked in Project Management at a leading car manufacturer Germany.
He then obtained an MSc in Business Research for Birmingham University and proceeded with PhD research at Aston University, which he completed in 2004. Before joining Westminster Business School, Thoralf has worked as a research fellow at the Cranfield School of Management and at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, following which he took up a Lecturer B position at Salford Business School.
Education
PhD, MSc Business Research, Dipl-Wirtsch.-Ing, PG Cert
Professional Memberships
Executive Committee Member of the Association for Heterodox Economics; Sernior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy
Thoralf always had a keen interest in the area of Strategy. His PhD therefore looked at the economic strategies of governments across the EU to conduct the transition of monopoly supply to competitive markets. The main contribution of this research was a framework which explains, and predicts, which strategies of market intervention most efficiently lead to effective competition.
Later, Thoralf's research focussed on government strategies with which to remove barriers, and encourage entry, to industries that see a significant number of businesses owned by the migrant community.
Thoralf's research has the common underlying theme of value creation. His current research therefore focuses on value creation within the resource-based view of the firm. This research seeks to align more closely, conceptually and in terms of measurement, a firm’s internal and external environments. This work has led to novel conceptualisations and measures of superior resource endowment and deployment within firms. In the near future Thoralf hopes to gain deeper insights into the relationship between the amount of value a firm creates and the amount a firm captures in its product market.
