Wolfgang Messner

Clinical Professor of International Business University of South Carolina

  • Columbia SC

International Business, Marketing, and Management | Management Consulting | Data Analysis

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Biography

Wolfgang Messner is a clinical professor at the Darla Moore School of Business. He earned his Ph.D. in economics and social sciences from the University of Kassel (Germany), MBA in financial management from the University of Wales (UK), and B.Sc. and M.Sc. in informatics and economics after studying at the Technical University Munich (Germany), University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK), and Università per Stranieri di Perugia (Italy).

Prior to coming to the University of South Carolina in 2016, Messner was a professor of international management at the MYRA School of Business in Mysore (India). As an adjunct faculty, he also taught at the Indian Institutes of Management Bangalore, Indore and Kozhikode (India), Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (Germany), Royal Docks Business School at the University of East London (UK), and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany). During that time, he co-founded GloBus Research in the UK and India as a niche consulting and training company with the objective of helping resolve international business and leadership challenges. Messner provided trainings in big multinationals like Capgemini, Ericsson, Hitachi, Infosys, McKinsey, Microsoft, Siemens, and selected mid-caps across industry verticals.

Before joining academia, Messner worked for 18 years as a business analyst, project manager, and management consultant with Capgemini (2006-11), BMW Group (2003-05), The Information Management Group IMG (1999-2002), and Deutsche Bank (1995-99).

Industry Expertise

Market Research
IT Services/Consulting
Hospitality
Banking
Advertising/Marketing
Information Technology and Services
Professional Training and Coaching
Outsourcing/Offshoring
Airlines/Aviation
Education/Learning
Human Resources
Management Consulting

Areas of Expertise

Data Analysis
Statistics
Marketing
Managing Global Teams
Selling & Marketing
Offshoring
Intercultural Communication
India
Strategy
Data & Analytics

Accomplishments

Globalization of Professional Services

Book co-editor
Springer, 2012

Intelligent IT Offshoring to India. Roadmpas for Emerging Business Landscapes

Book author
Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

Working with India. The Softer Aspects of a Successful Collaboration with the Indian IT & BPO Industry

Book author
Springer, 2009

Education

University of Wales, U.K. with Open University Hagen, Germany & Allfinanz Akademie, Germany

M.B.A.

Financial Management

1989

University of Kassel, Germany

Ph.D.

Marketing

2005

Harvard Business School, U.S.

(Exec. Education)

Strategic Marketing Management

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Testimonials

Development Director Central Europe

Torex, Berlin, Germany

Many thanks for the excellent training! It has been very well received by my team and myself; I am sure it is going to be helpful to master our upcoming challenges

Delivery Manager

Capgemini, Italy

Great training, showing the cultural differences and how to bridge them. Thanks. Was a great time!

Principal Consultant

Infosys, Bangalore, India

Doing business and meeting cultural differences is a given. But when you understand why people behave the way they do, things become far simpler. I thought I knew the nuances of how to do busi-ness – but this session helped me to look beyond the obvious.

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Event Appearances

Title

NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2010  Mumbai, India [Feb 2010]

Meeting Local Requirements in a Global Market. How to Sustain the Firm's Talent Base?

9th Indo-German NASSCOM/BITKOM ICT Conference  Cologne, Germany

2012-06-13

Title

BITKOM ICT Conference  Cologne, Germany [Apr 2009]

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Sample Talks

The Current State and Future Perspectives of India's IT & BPO Industry

What started as a labor-arbitrage body shop, is now not only the topic of Presidential debates, but has become a fear for joblosses in the developed world. What is really behind the headlines of India's IT & BPO Industry? What can one expect out of an India project? How mature is it? And how good are the people? Where is the industry going to be in 2020

Style

Availability

  • Keynote
  • Moderator
  • Panelist
  • Workshop Leader
  • Author Appearance
  • Corporate Training

Fees

$2500 to $10000*Will consider certain engagements for no fee

Research Focus

International Business, Marketing, and Management

In his research, Messner attempts to advance methods for measuring cultural differences and diversity. He develops novel approaches that include the use of machine learning and other advanced data analytics methods. His findings are published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Journal of International Management, Journal of International Marketing and Journal of World Business.

In a second stream of research, he aims to better understand how consumer behavior differs across countries and cultures. He pursues this program by examining how culture influences customer engagement and postings on online opinion platforms. The results are published in the Journal of Air Transport Management, Journal of Strategic Marketing and Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing.

More recently, he has also looked at cultural differences in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results are published in Health Science Reports, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, PloS ONE and Public Health.

Taken together, Messner has published 27 peer-reviewed articles, 11 book chapters, and 27 articles in practitioner magazines and periodicals. Additionally, he has authored five books and edited three handbooks, which are published by Palgrave Macmillan and Springer. He has designed five teaching cases on aspects of global marketing and business, which are published by Ivey Publications and SAGE Business Cases Originals. His research was featured in the 2021 Breakthrough magazine by the University of South Carolina. Messner was awarded the 2020 Moore School professional track faculty research award. Additionally, he has also received a number of external recognitions, such as the Emerald Literati Network Awards of Excellence (highly commended, 2016 and 2014) and being a best-paper finalist at conferences (AIB US SE 2020, AIB 2018, and AIB US SE 2017).