Doctorate underlines cutting-edge research
SCO-TTi researcher Fabian Lindner successfully completes his doctorate on management visualization with a focus on the semiconductor industry.
Through his collaborative PhD thesis between Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the Vienna University of Economics and Business—as part of the EU project AIMS5.0, which focuses on the semiconductor industry — Fabian Lindner has demonstrated the practical, cutting-edge research conducted by the SCO-TTi team .
The flood of information and data we are confronted with continues to grow, both in our everyday lives and in our professional environments. In business management in particular, data-driven decisions are of great economic and strategic importance for remaining competitive in a complex environment. Visualizations are often used to reduce the complexity of the data and provide managers with a decision-making basis 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, however, been little studied to date. How do visualizations influence our cognitive biases in economic decisions, such as when making decisions under uncertainty or when dealing with risk? Do modern visualization tools like Tableau actually always provide us with the most meaningful representation, or might they—perhaps unintentionally—reinforce irrational decision-making behavior by over- or underrepresenting certain data? And how should visualizations be designed so that they “nudge” decision-makers toward more rational behavior?
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 finally successfully defended his dissertation at the Institute for Production Management at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna) before his advisor, Univ.Prof. Mag.Dr. Gerald Reiner (WU Vienna), and the other members of the doctoral committee, Univ.Prof. (ret.) Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Werner Jammernegg (WU Vienna) and Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Sophia Keil (HSZG).
The results of the dissertation show how, across various functional areas—from product development to production planning and supply chain management—different visualization methods can elicit cognitive, social, and even emotional effects, thereby positively influencing our imagination, problem-solving abilities, or sense of identification. Behavioral experiments have also shown that the targeted visualization of selected problem characteristics can protect decision-makers from certain cognitive biases in inventory management, thereby enabling them to act in a more economically rational manner.
After the written thesis was submitted and evaluated following the defense, this outstanding doctoral dissertation was once again honored in Zittau: On August 11, the SCO-TTi research group at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG) welcomed experts from Infineon Dresden and SYSTEMA, two leading high-tech companies in Silicon Saxony. There, those in attendance jointly honored the achievements of Fabian Lindner.
Fabian Lindner’s doctoral dissertation exemplifies the excellence of practice-oriented research at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. In his dissertation, “Essays on the Behavioral Dimensions of Visualization in Operations Management,” he combines academic depth with high relevance to industrial practice—particularly with regard to the design of human-centered, visual decision-making aids. The close and productive collaboration with Infineon as part of the EU project AIMS5.0, as well as with the Vienna University of Economics and Business, was a great asset and demonstrates how international research and industry partnerships enrich our work in the long term.
”We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Fabian Lindner on his outstanding doctoral dissertation. We would also like to thank Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences for our long-standing partnership. Fabian Lindner made a significant contribution to the success of the AIMS5.0 EU project, coordinated by Infineon. We look forward to continuing our successful collaboration in the future.
”I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Fabian Lindner on his excellent doctoral thesis. He has shown that he is capable of developing and conducting scientific studies at an excellent methodological level. With his studies, he has made an outstanding contribution to the interdisciplinary further development and integration of 'Behavioral Operations Management' and 'Information Visualization Presentation' as well as to the development of disruptive innovations for the companies involved. We are already looking forward to the implementation of the further publication projects already planned.
”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.
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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.