SCO-TTi researcher Fabian Lindner successfully completes his doctorate on management visualization with a focus on the semiconductor industry.
With his cooperative PhD thesis between the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the Vienna University of Economics and Business - as part of the EU project AIMS5.0 with a focus on the semiconductor industry - Fabian Lindner has demonstrated the cutting-edge practical research of the SCO-TTi team impressively underlined.
The flood of information and data that we are confronted with is constantly increasing, both in our everyday lives and in our professional environment. Data-supported decisions are of great economic and strategic importance, especially in corporate management, in order to be able to act competitively in a complex environment. Visualizations are often used to reduce the complexity of the data and provide managers with a basis for decision-making that is as easy to process as possible.
Although a picture is often worth a thousand words, the systematic influence of different visualization options on decisions in production management has so far been little studied. How do visualizations influence our cognitive biases in economic decisions, e.g. decisions under uncertainty or risk? Do modern visualization tools such as Tableau really always provide us with the most meaningful representation or do they perhaps even unintentionally reinforce irrational decision-making behaviour by over- or under-representing certain data? And how should visualizations be designed so that they "nudge" decision-makers towards more rational behaviour?
Fabian Lindner addressed these and other questions in his dissertation in four essays with his co-authors, which were presented at international conferences and published in international journals:
Lindner, F., & Reiner, G. (2023). Industry 5.0 and Operations Management-the Importance of Human Factors. In NOMS 2023 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium, Miami, FL, USA ( pp. 1-4). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/NOMS56928.2023.10154282
Lindner, F., Reiner, G., & Keil, S. (2025). A Behavioral Perspective on Visualization in Manufacturing and Operations Management: A Review, Framework, and Research Agenda. Operations Management Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-024-00534-9
Lindner, F., Reiner, G., & Keil, S. (2022). Visualizations and cognition in behavioural operations management: (de-)biased decision-making. In 29th EurOMA Conference 2022, Berlin, Germany.
Lindner, F., Silbermayr, L., Reiner, G., & Keil, S. (2025). Visualization in inventory decisions: De-biasing individual ordering behavior. Working paper (submitted).
On December 12, 2024, Mr. Lindner was finally able to successfully defend his thesis at the Institute of Production Management at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in front of his supervisor, Prof. Gerald Reiner (WU Vienna), and the other members of the doctoral committee, Prof. Werner Jammernegg (WU Vienna) and Prof. Sophia Keil (HSZG).
The results of the work show how different visualization methods can evoke cognitive, social and emotional effects in the various functional areas from product development to production planning and supply chain management and thus positively influence our imagination, problem-solving ability or identification. Finally, behavioural experiments have also shown that the targeted visualization of selected problem characteristics can protect decision-makers from certain cognitive distortions in inventory management, enabling them to act in a more economically rational manner.
After the written thesis was submitted and evaluated after the defense, the outstanding doctorate was now also honored again in Zittau: On August 11, 2025, the SCO-TTi research group of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG) received experts from the high-tech sector from Infineon Technologies Dresden and SYSTEMA, two leading industrial companies in Silicon Saxony. Here, the attendees jointly honored Fabian Lindner's achievements.
Fabian Lindner's doctorate exemplifies the excellence of practice-oriented research at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. In his thesis 'Essays on the Behavioral Dimensions of Visualization in Operations Management', he combines scientific depth with high relevance for industrial practice - especially with regard to the design of human-oriented, visual decision-making aids. The close and productive cooperation with Infineon as part of the EU project AIMS5.0 and the Vienna University of Economics and Business was a great benefit and shows how international research and industry partnerships enrich our work in the long term.
”We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Fabian Lindner for the many years of extremely fruitful cooperation between the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and our company Infineon Dresden. Especially in his role as deputy work package leader in the AIMS5.0 project, Mr. Lindner has not only successfully implemented his own tasks at the HSZG through his committed and coordinating work, but has also made a significant contribution to ensuring that all project participants were able to achieve their goals. His ability to develop and implement new ideas and approaches has enriched the AIMS5.0 project and helped us to achieve our common goals. We greatly appreciate working with Mr. Lindner and look forward to continuing our successful collaboration in the future.
”Since April 1, 2025, in addition to his work at the HSZG, Mr. Lindner has also held the professorship for Business Administration / Production Management and Logistics at the HTW Dresden as a substitute professor. There, he will continue his work on behaviour-oriented operations management, data visualization for decision support and Industry 5.0 in teaching and research.
Together, all those involved want to further expand their collaboration - and thus pave the way for an innovative, sustainable and human-centered Industry 5.0 in Europe and Saxony.
The AIMS5.0 project is supported by the Chips Joint Undertaking and its members, including funding from the Federal Ministry of Education, Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) under grant agreement no. 101112089.
