This course will examine critical issues, current debates and key concepts related to digital transformation of society, with a focus the development, deployment and regulation of disruptive technologies in the public sector. Topics will explore contemporary issues and challenges faced by public managers and civil servants in digital environments, particularly related to the areas of leadership culture, interactions with citizens, employee behaviour, internal efficiency, job displacement, and the future of work. The course will be divided into project teams working on different topics around a real-world case study. Each team will meet regularly with the supervisor to design and execute the project, to discuss progress, results and final output.

(i) Assessing Municipality Digital Presence and Professionalism (contact: jurgen.willems@wu.ac.at): Austria has many municipalities, and they vary in many ways. Regardless of these differences, municipality administrations need to be close to the citizens for information provision and for delivering services to citizens. Some Austrian municipalities are international examples for how they have developed their digital presence, while for other municipalities a static social media account is badly maintained. Starting from the literature that is relevant to make sound statements on ‘good digital presence’ for municipalities, the aim of this project is to document and assess the digital presence of municipalities in Austria.

(ii) Attitudes to Public Sector Artificial Intelligence (contact: shefali.virkar@wu.ac.at): Significant coverage has been given over to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the popular press, and its potential to transform the public sector – but what does the average Austrian citizen think? The aim of the research project is to investigate how the general public perceives and responds to the proposed transformation of the Austrian public sector through the increased use of Artificial Intelligence-based technologies. The project seeks to uncover the degree to which citizens’ attitudes towards AI align with the cautiously optimistic view of these technologies taken by the government as evidenced through the national AI strategy.

(iii) Generative Artificial Intelligence and Education (contact: shefali.virkar@wu.ac.at): The release and subsequent explosive take-up of applications such as ChatGPT have turned the spotlight firmly on an emerging sub-set of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies - Generative AI (GenAI). Universities are scrambling to adapt to these rapidly evolving tools; experimenting with rules and policies to curb the negative effects of these technologies on student learning, whilst at the same time using them in classes to facilitate innovative teaching. All this often occurs in an atmosphere of great uncertainty – often lecturers and administrators are still in the process of formulating their own attitudes and opinions towards GenAI and the implications for their profession. The aim of the research project is to investigate how the scholars of management and university administrators perceive Generative AI technologies, and their increased use in teaching and learning contexts.

Upon completion of the course, students are able to

- Critically evaluate a research question in the broad topic of Digital Economy from the view of (micro)economics and information systems
- Plan a research project to answer such a research question
- Perform a structured literature search on a given topic
- Design an experiment or empirical study for a specific research question
- Identify appropriate analysis methods
- Conduct appropriate statistical analyses for said data
- Interpret the results of said analyses and evaluate them critically
- Write a research paper according to current academic standards from the relevant disciplines describing the research project and its outcomes

Attendance is mandatory.

Pursuant to the general guidelines issued by the Vice-Rector for Academic Programs and Student Affairs, the attendance requirement is met if a student is present at least 80% of the time.

Students conduct an interdisciplinary research project spanning all stages: from defining a research question, doing a literature research, to stating hypotheses, implementing an experimental or empirical study, analysing the experimental or empirical data and interpreting and critically reflecting the findings. Besides acquiring methodological knowledge, students gain practical experience in planning and carrying out a research project and also take the perspective of a project manager. Students work in groups and are coached regularly by the two lecturers.

1. Research project plan incl. tasks, responsibilities and milestones (15%)
2. Intermediate result report incl. update of research project plan, draft of research paper (15%)
3. Peer review (10 %)
4. Final report (40%) incl. research paper, critical reflection of project plan and project work („lessons learned“), project result poster
5. Final presentation (20%)

Grading scale:

90% to 100% Excellent (1)

80% to <90% Good (2)

70% to <80% Satisfactory (3)

60% to <70% Sufficient (4)

<60% Fail (5)

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