BTU overview
Faculty 5
Chair of General Business Administration, in particular Aspects of Organisation and Corporate Governance Vertret.-Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Alexander Martin

Dr. Sophia Bittner-Zähr

Business Administration, Dr., Research Associate

Contact information

Lehrgebäude 10, Room 411a
Erich-Weinert-Straße 1
03046 Cottbus

Phone: +49 (0) 355 69 3618
Fax: +49 (0) 355 69 3990

sophia.bittner-zaehr(at)b-tu.de

Office hours

On appointment only

Research Focus

  • Identities and Emotions in organizational contexts
  • Former organization members (alumni)
  • Temporality and spatiality

Publications and Research Conferences

  • Bittner-Zähr, Sophia, Tallarek, Marie (2025): Organizational practices and emotion work: a conceptual framework using the example of the emotionally demanding field of clinical maternity care. Paper Development Workshop in Organization Studies and Theory for Advanced PhD Students, Early Career Researchers, and Junior Faculty in Western and Central Europe, Winterthur, Schweiz, 1. – 3.10.25
  • Bittner-Zähr, Sophia (2024): Becoming Strong: Role identity development after the transfer to another context. Herbstworkshop der Wissenschaftlichen Kommission Personal im Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaftslehre e.V. (VHB), Hannover, 4.-6.9.2024
  • Bittner-Zähr, Sophia (07/2023): Becoming strong: New role identity development in organizational opening processes. 38th European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Cagliari, Italy, 6. - 8. July 2023.
  • Bittner-Zähr, Sophia (06/2023): One step forward and two back: Organizational opening toward former members as external stakeholders. German-Israeli Minerva School 2023: „Creativity, Innovation and Inter-Organizational Collaboration – Process Views”, Berlin, Germany, 29. June - 1. July 2023.
  • Bittner-Zähr, Sophia (05/2023): “Where we`re going, together”: Identity regulation beyond organizational membership. 10th Austrian Early Scholars Workshop in Management, Universität Graz, Austria, 4. - 5. May 2023.
  • Bittner-Zähr, Sophia (2022): “Where we're going, together”: the breeding of a legacy identification by organizations through interrelation building between past, present and future”. European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), Vienna, Austria, 7. - 9. July 2022.
  • Bittner-Zähr, Sophia (2017): „Alumni as boundary spanners in increasingly open and dynamically evolving universities“. Summer School Boundaries in Science and Higher Education (Research), INCHER Kassel, Germany, 9. – 13. October 2017.
  • Zähr, Sophia (2017): „Alumni as strategic resource for innovativeness and competitiveness- Insights from a structured literature review on university and firm alumni”. DRUID Academy, Odense, Denmark, 18. – 20. January 2017.
  • Zähr, Sophia/ Geißler, Matthias (2016): Alumni, former employees and knowledge backflows to parent organizations – insights from a structured literature review on university and firm Alumni. Annual Meeting of the Technology Transfer Society (T2S), Phoenix, USA, 3. -5. November 2016.
  • Zähr, Sophia (2016): Alumni und deren Bedeutung im akademischen Gründungskontext - Erkenntnisse auf Basis eines systematischen Literaturreviews. 20. Interdisziplinäre Jahreskonferenz zu Entrepreneurship, Innovation und Mittelstand (G-Forum), Leipzig, Germany, 5. – 7. October 2016.

Memberships

  • Association of University Professors of Business Administration (VHB)

Professional Background

Since 11/2024BTU: Chair of General Business Administration, in particular Aspects of Organization and Corporate Governance
08/2024 - 11/2024TUC: Chair of Human Resource Management and Leadership Studies
10/2023 – 07/2024Research Associate, Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau, Chair of Strategy, Innovation and Cooperation
06/2021 – 10/2023Research Associate, Technische Universität Dresden, Chair of Business Administration, esp. Organization
07/2015 – 05/2021Research Associate, Technische Universität Dresden, Nachwuchsforschergruppe Wissens- und Technologietransfer
2012 - 2015Studies of Business Administration (M.Sc.) at the Technische Universität Dresden
01/2010 – 10/2011Deputy manager, Frauensportstudio Pour la femme, Görlitz
2007 - 2010Studies of health management (B.A.) at the Hochschule Mittweida

Other activities

2017Research stay at the University of Cambridge, UK (funded by the Dr. Händel Prize of the Faculty of Economics of TU Dresden)
2016Research stay at the Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel (funded by a scholarship from the Saxon Ministry of Science and Arts)
2026 - 2018Member of the Doctoral Council at TU Dresden