Dr. Sophia Gaenssle submitted a dissertation on "Audiovisual and Interactive Entertainment in the Digital Age - An Economic Perspective". The disputation and defence of the thesis took place on 08.12.21 and, like the dissertation, was awarded the highest grade (summa cum laude). The doctoral committee, chaired by Prof. Dr. Thomas Grebel (Department of Economic Policy), also consisted of the reviewers Prof. Dr. Oliver Budzinski (Department of Economic Theory) and Prof. Dr. Arne Feddersen (University of Southern Denmark, Esbjerg Campus) as well as Prof. Dr. Andreas Will (Department of Media and Communication Management) and Dr. Sebastian Jaenichen (Department of Finance).
Dr Sophia Gaenssle's dissertation examines questions of the functioning of digital markets for entertainment goods in the economic subfields of media and cultural economics. She uses modern empirical methods to derive new insights into the star economy of social media stars (also known as influencers) on YouTube and Instagram. Her research also provides new insights into competition in markets for audiovisual goods (e.g. video-on-demand).
Already as a PhD student, Dr Gaenssle has published the impressive number of eight research papers in peer-reviewed academic journals, including the Journal of Media Economics, the Review of Network Economics, the Journal of Media Business Studies and World Competition. Further publications on conference proceedings and manuals - among others on the topic of algorithmic search and recommendation systems - are available.