Dr. Oliver Thomas

Work at ZHAW

Position

Senior Lecturer in Research Design, Entrepreneurship, International Management, Strategic Management, and Negotiation Management; Academic research in the field of Entrepreneurship and Marketing

Focus

Research focus: cognitive psychology in entrepreneurship and marketing. Expertise: Corporate strategy, corporate governance, start-up financing, quantitative research

Teaching

Lecturer in Research Design, Entrepreneurship, Fact-Based Marketing, International Marketing, Strategic Management and Negotiation Management

Experience

• Senior lecturer
  ZHAW
  09 / 2018 - today
• Senior lecturer
  Münster University of Applied Sciences
  07 / 2014 - 07 / 2018
• Project Manager/Managing Director for South America
  German Cooperative Banking Association
  09 / 2011 - 06 / 2014
• Various positions (credit analyst, corporate client advisor)
  Banking sector
  09 / 1997 - 09 / 2005

Education and Continuing education

Education

• PhD / Business Administration
  Philipps University Marburg
  09 / 2014 - 03 / 2018
• Master (M.Sc.) in Management / Business Administration
  HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management
  07 / 2009 - 07 / 2011
• Bachelor (B.A.) / German-Latin American Business Administration
  University of Applied Sciences Münster (Double degree with Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica)
  09 / 2005 - 12 / 2008
• Banking Specialization / Banking
  Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
  09 / 1999 - 09 / 2001

Network

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1634-6589

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

• Thomas, O., & Hess, M. (2025). Scaling in the beauty industry : the high-stakes quest for investor capital. International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 15(4), 331–351. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJTCS.2025.149408
• Thomas, O. (2022). Entrepreneurship education : which educational elements influence entrepreneurial intention? Industry and Higher Education, 37(3), 328–344. https://doi.org/10.1177/09504222221121065
• Thomas, O., & Reimann, O. (2022). The bias blind spot among HR employees in hiring decisions. German Journal of Human Resource Management, 37(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022221094523
• Thomas, O., & Wulf, T. (2021). Success factors of academic entrepreneurship education : a new approach. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 43(4), 531–547. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJESB.2021.117346
• Thomas, O., Kucza, G., & Schuppisser, S. (2021). Can sports sponsorship affect consumers’ motivation for sports consumption? Journal of Promotion Management, 28(7), 893–922. https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2021.2009611
• Thomas, O., & Wulf, T. (2019). Entrepreneurship education and intention to start a business : the moderating role of cognitive biases. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 11(5), 413–439. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJEV.2019.10021564
• Thomas, O. (2018). Two decades of cognitive bias research in entrepreneurship : what do we know and where do we go from here? Management Review Quarterly, 68(2), 107–143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-018-0135-9

Books, peer-reviewed

Thomas, O. (2018). New venture creation : the role of entrepreneurship education and cognitive biases [Doctoral dissertation]. Philipps-Universität Marburg.

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

• Thomas, O., Reimann, O., Nagengast, L., & Kucza, G. (2024). The impact of store atmosphere and retailers’ price positioning on economy, standard, and premium private labels [Conference paper]. Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy, 122610.
• Reimann, O., Nagengast, L., Thomas, O., & Kucza, G. (2024). Private labels and negative marketing events : inter-category spillover effects to competing retailers’ private labels [Conference paper]. Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy, 122609.
• Reimann, O., Thomas, O., Nagengast, L., & Kucza, G. (2023, September 29). Private labels and negative information : effects within a retailer. EMAC Regional Conference, Athens, Greece, 27-29 September 2023.
• Nagengast, L., Thomas, O., Reimann, O., & Kucza, G. (2023, September 29). Private labels and negative information : effects across retailers. EMAC Regional Conference, Athens, Greece, 27-29 September 2023.
• Reimann, O., Thomas, O., & Kucza, G. (2022). Private labels, product harm crises, and cross-brand learning. Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy.
• Reimann, O., Thomas, O., Kucza, G., & Schuppisser, S. (2021). First insights on brand attitude towards a retailer’s individual private labels [Conference paper]. In F. J. Martínez-López & J. C. Gázquez-Abad (Eds.), Advances in National Brand and Private Label Marketing (pp. 20–23). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76935-2_3
• Reimann, O., Thomas, O., & Kucza, G. (2021). Attitude formation toward economy, standard and premium private label [Conference paper]. Proceedings 2021 AMA Summer Academic Conference, 32, 535–538. https://www.ama.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-Summer-AMA_Proceedings-Cover_v1-3-merged.pdf
• Reimann, O., Thomas, O., & Kucza, G. (2021). Do PWYW labels affect internal reference prices and prices paid? [Conference paper]. In T. Williams Bradford, A. Keinan, & M. Thomson (Eds.), Advances in Consumer Research Volume 49 (pp. 523–524). Association for Consumer Research.

Oral conference contributions and abstracts

Reimann, O., Thomas, O., Kucza, G., & Schuppisser, S. (2020). How sport sponsorships affect motivation for sport consumption : the role of perceived brand sincerity. 20th EURAM Annual Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 4-6 December 2020.

go back