Univ.-Prof. Dr. Katrin Muehlfeld

Holder of the chair

Short CV

Katrin Muehlfeld studied business administration at the University of Münster (WWU) from 1993 to 1998. As exchange student, she studied economics at the University of Cambridge for one year. She obtained her PhD from the University of Münster (WWU) in 2003. Following teaching and research posts among others at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the University of Groningen, Utrecht University and the University of Antwerp, she has been holding the Chair of Management, Organization Studies and Human Resource Management at Trier University since 2014. In addition to her work at Trier University, Katrin Muehlfeld contributed to the Centre for Distance Learning and Continuing Education (ZFUW) at the University of Koblenz until 2025.

In her research and teaching, Katrin Muehlfeld addresses a wide range of topics in the fields of organization studies, human resource management (HRM) and (strategic) management. Among others, she focuses on decision-making and learning at the individual, team, and organizational levels; biobehavioral influences and the influence of culture and foreign languages; and how increasing adoption of emerging technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence affects organizations, employees and prospective participants in labor markets (i.e., pupils and students). In addition, she is increasingly interested in matters of business ethics, sustainability, and socio-materiality. Katrin Muehlfeld publishes regularly in leading international journals, including Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Academy of Management Learning & Education, International Business Review, management review international (mir), and Computers in Human Behaviour. She regularly serves as a peer reviewer for national and international journals, conferences and funding bodies, is a member of several Editorial Review Boards, and has served as Associate Editor of Academy of Management Learning & Education (AMLE) since 2023.

In addition to her work as a university lecturer, Katrin Muehlfeld advises companies and public organizations.

Selected Publications

Muehlfeld, K., Joy, S., & Lindebaum, D. (2025). Words, Meanings, and the Worlds that we create - on the Generative Capacity of Language for Management Education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 24(4), 415-422. https://journals.aom.org/doi/epdf/10.5465/amle.2025.0530 

Ossadnik, J. & Muehlfeld, K. (2025). Familiarity breeds affinity – How personal experiences change employees’ attitudes towards a social robot. International Journal of Social Robotics. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12369-025-01268-9

Peter, A., & Muehlfeld, K. (2025). Job Choice Under Crisis Conditions: Differences in Motivational Systems and Job-Attribute Preferences of Young Adults. Journal of Career Development, 52(2), 153-172. doi.org/10.1177/08948453251313800

Muehlfeld, K., Loderer, A., Semrau, T., & Wilken, R. (2025). Foreign Language Use, Virtuality, and the Creative Performance of Dyadic Teams. Management International Review, 1-29.

Larson, B. Z., Moser, C., Caza, A., Muehlfeld, K., & Colombo, L. A. (2024). Critical Thinking in the Age of Generative AI. Academy of Management Learning & Education. https://https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2024.0338

Colombo, L., Moser, C., Muehlfeld, K., & Joy, S. (2024). Sowing the Seeds of Change: Calling for a Social-Ecological Approach to Management Learning and Education. Academy of Management Learning & Education. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2024.0086

Loderer, A., Muehlfeld, K., Wilken, R., Moritz, A., & Slomski, V. (2024). The language barrier as a springboard towards (team) creativity: An exploratory study of foreign language use in teams. International Business Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2023.102247 

Ossadnik, J., Muehlfeld, K., & Goerke, L. (2023). Man or machine - or something in between? Social responses to voice assistants at work and their effects on job satisfaction. Computers in Human Behavior, 149, 107919. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107919 

Loderer, A., Muehlfeld, K., & Wilken, R. (2023). Implications of Foreign Language Use for Creative Self-Evaluation Bias and Creative Performance. management revue, 34(3), 305-334. https://doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2023-3 

Schmidt, X., Muehlfeld, K., & Peter, A. (2022). Determinants of role-incongruent knowledge transfer behavior of apprentices and trainers in the context of the German apprenticeship system. German Journal of Human Resource Management, 36(4), 474–504. https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022211029291

Muehlfeld, K., Wang, M. (2022). Intellectual Property Rights in China - A Literature Review on the Public's Perspective. Frontiers in Sociology, 7. https://dx.doi.org/10.3389%2Ffsoc.2022.793165

Barth, J., Muehlfeld, K. (2021). Thinking out of the box - by thinking in other boxes: A systematic review of interventions in early entrepreneurship vs. STEM education research. Management Review Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-021-00248-3 

Geenen, N.Y., Muehlfeld, K., Urbig, D. (in press). Foundations of innovativeness in the international arena: Foreign language use and creative performance. European Journal of International Management. 

Urbig, D., Muehlfeld, K., Procher, V., van Witteloostuijn, A. (2020). Strategic Decision-Making in a Global Context: The Comprehension Effect of Foreign Language Use on Cooperation. Management International Review, 60, 351-385. 

Rigtering, C., Weitzel, U., Muehlfeld, K. (2019). Masse und Klasse: Durch Framing innovative Ideen fördern. Fachzeitschrift IM+io

Rigtering, C., Weitzel, U., Muehlfeld, K. (2019). Increasing quantity without compromising quality: How managerial framing affects intrapreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 34(2), 224-241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2018.11.002

Westbrock, B., Muehlfeld, K., Weitzel, U. (2019).Selecting Legal Advisors in M&As: Organizational Learning and the Role of Multiplicity of Mental Models. Journal of Management, 45(5), 2193-2224.

Van der Laan, G., Muehlfeld, K., Salomons, A. (2018). The Adaptive Gender – Female CEOs, Board Context, and the Completion of M&As in the U.S. Food Industry. In Lynne E. Devnew, Ronald J. Burke, Marlene Janzen Le Ber, and Mariateresa Torchia (Eds). More Women on Boards of Directors: An International Perspective (pp. 241-253). Charlotte (NC): Edward Elgar Publishing. 

Muehlfeld, K., Urbig, D., Weitzel, U. (2017). Entrepreneurs’ Exploratory Persistence in Learning Settings. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 41(4), 533-565.

Schmidt, X., & Muehlfeld, K. (2017). What's so special about intergenerational knowledge transfer? Identifying challenges of intergenerational knowledge transfer, Management Revue, 28(4), 375-411.

Schmidt, X., Ury, M., & Muehlfeld, K. (2017). Motivationsfaktoren zur Teilnahme am intergenerationellen Wissenstransfer im Rahmen von Mentoringprogrammen. In H. Surrey & V. Tiberius (Ed.). Die Zukunft des Personalmanagements 2025: Herausforderungen, Lösungsansätze und Gestaltungsoptionen (pp. 109-116). Zürich: vdf Hochschulverlag.

Paulus, P., Muehlfeld, K. (2017). Host country language skills and expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment in the presence of fear of terror. Journal of Global Mobility, 5(4), 418-442.

Gargalianou, V., Muehlfeld, K., Urbig, D., van Witteloostuijn, A. (2016). Foreign Language Anxiety in Professional Contexts - A Short Scale and Evidence of Personality and Gender Differences. Schmalenbach Business Review (sbr), 17, 195-223.

Urbig, D., Terjesen, S., Procher, V., Muehlfeld, K., van Witteloostuijn, A. (2016). Come on and Take a Free Ride: Contributing to Public Goods in Native and Foreign Language Settings. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 15(2), 268-286.

Geenen, N. Y., Urbig, D., Muehlfeld, K., van Witteloostuijn, A., & Gargalianou, V. (2016). BIS and BAS: Biobehaviorally rooted drivers of entrepreneurial intent. Personality and Individual Differences, 95, 204-213.

Muehlfeld, K., Weitzel, U. van Witteloostuijn, A. (2013). Individual Differences in Investors’ Motivational Systems and Fundamental Shocks in Asset Prices. Journal of Economic Psychology, 34, 195-209.

Muehlfeld, K., Rao Sahib, P. van Witteloostuijn, A. (2012). A Contextual Theory of Organizational Learning from Failures and Successes – A Study of Acquisition Completion in the Global Newspaper Industry, 1981-2008. Strategic Management Journal, 33(8), 938-964.

Kerstan, S., Kretschmer, T., Muehlfeld, K. (2012). The Dynamics of Pre-Market Standardization. Information Economics & Policy, 24, 105-119.

Muehlfeld, K., van Doorn, J., van Witteloostuijn, A. (2011). The Effects of Personality Composition and Decision-Making Processes on Change Preferences of Self-Managing Teams. Managerial and Decision Economics, 32(5), 333-353.

Muehlfeld, K., Rao Sahib, P. van Witteloostuijn, A. (2007). Completion or Abandonment of Mergers and Acquisitions: Evidence from the Newspaper Industry, 1981-2001. Journal of Media Economics, 20(2), 107-137.