In 2018 and 2019 Prof. Dr. Markus Launer of the Faculty of Trade and Social Work in Suderburg travelled through Asia to establish international contacts and cooperation. He visited several universities in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines. Not only the Faculty benefits from these international activities, but especially the two research projects “Digital Trust and Teamwork in Service Companies” and “Rationality, Heuristic, Intuition & Anticipation”, both funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), as well as an own research program "E-Learning" of professor Launer. Based on the established contacts, two international Service Management Congresses were held at the Campus in Suderburg.

One of many new contacts in Asia: At the Open University of Kaohsiung in Taiwan Professor Launer met with president Prof. Liu Chia-ju and her colleagues of the departments of research, e-learning and languages. It was the second visit after last year’s discussion about research on e-learning.

Targets of the international visit

The overall target of the international visits in Asia was to further advance the internationalisation of the Faculty of Trade and Social Work at the Campus Suderburg by the following means:

• Students should be able to study abroad at partner universities;
• Professors should be able to participate in international conferences;
• Professors should be able to teach abroad, e.g. as visiting professor;
• Professors should be able to research abroad and take part in international research projects and participate in academic conferences abroad;
• Scientific staff should be able to internationalise their research work and participate in international research projects.

In addition, for the ERDF research projects “Digital Trust and Teamwork in Service Companies” and “Rationality, Heuristic, Intuition & Anticipation” international partners who transfer their know-how to the district of Uelzen should be won. Also, important contacts to Open Universities were made for the Online Study Program “Business Administration” of the Faculty.

Preliminary Work

The universities had been selected systematically by publicly available rankings. As a result, Prof. Launer was invited to conduct personal discussions with various academic departments and selected scientists.

Firstly, personal contact with the offices for international linkages was established by Prof. Launer as described above. The University of the Philippines was of great help to establish further contacts in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. Stefan Nowatschin, head of the Vocational School in Uelzen (“BBS I”), used his contacts to China to connect Launer to Shenzhen Polytech University and Beijing Open University.

The respective heads of the International Relations Offices were connected with Holger Zimpel, head of the International Relations Office at Ostfalia, and Prof. Dr. Dirk Plickat, international officer for the Faculty of Trade and Social Work.

Research Process

The following specific academic activities were implemented for the research projects:

• Digital Trust and Teamwork: The topic is very popular in Asia at present. All visited professors were excited about the research project “Digital Trust and Teamwork in Service Companies” and will support it. They also wish to transfer their knowledge to the district of Uelzen. As an additional result, an international study about “Digital Trust at the Workplace” will be conducted. Co-Head of this study is Prof. Dave Marcial from Silliman University, who soon will be a Visiting Professor in Suderburg. Professors from the University of Electro-Communications (Japan), Siam University (Thailand), National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan) and the University of the Philippines already committed to the international study. Soon, Universities from Korea and India will join in as well. The respective professors also participated in the Second International Service Management Congress on Digital Trust in Suderburg and Uelzen in November 2018.
• Intuition: The topic of the ERDF research project “Rationality, Heuristic, Intuition & Anticipation” is of great interest in Asia as well, but it needs an interdisciplinary approach. Not business professors are needed but psychologists and sociologists. All visited professors, however, promised to connect the Faculty to respective experts. At the Third International Service Management Congress on E-Learning in Suderburg, the project was introduced to business professors who made helpful suggestions regarding further strategies. 
• E-Learning: Current research on didactics and technical implementation of e-learning was discussed. At Asian universities e-learning is mostly organised in Open Universities – which are separate entities of leading universities. Contacts were established to the Open University of the Philippines, the Taiwanese Open University of Kaohsiung and the Beijing Open University in China. Professors of these Open Universities already participated in lectures at campus Suderburg during the third International Service Management Congress on E-Learning in 2018. Of great help was Prof. Ricky Kwok from the Hong Kong University.

In Thailand Professor Launer visited Prof. Dr. Chanita Rukspollmuang and president Pornchai Mongkhonvanit of Siam University, Bangkok.

Implementation of Results

The journey was successful especially concerning the establishment of contacts and the planning of more international research.

• The implementation of research for the project "Digital Trust and Teamwork" has begun. In addition to the local implementation strategy, an international study will be conducted in 2019. The translations of the questionnaires have started. The international team of professors is committed to the project and will participate in their respective home country. The local German IT company Visoma offered the establishment of an Bitrix24 connection platform to unite all activities of the project.
• The ground work and theory building for the research project "Intuition" has been furthered. The common sense of all professors was to shift from single experiments towards questionnaire based evaluations in a broader approach. The professors promised to participate with their students at the study.
• The research on e-learning could not be conducted empirically, neither in Latin America (see article from 2018) nor in Asia. Too many approval processes of ministries would have been necessary for each country. Therefore, more personal interviews were conducted. The results were discussed in Suderburg at the Third Service Management Congress.
• All visited professors would like to be invited to a fourth International Service Management Congress.

For more information on this international activity please contact Prof. Dr. Markus A. Launer.