Research Projects

I believe that the purpose of scholarship is to generate usable knowledge to solve real-life problems. In the spirit of open science, please feel free to contact me if you are interested in any of our projects!

Deliberative Quality in Trade-related International Organizations (SNIS)

Corruption in the Public Sector (CorPuS)

Risk in Public Private Partnerships (RiPPP)

3. Deliberative Quality in Trade-related International Organizations (SNIS)

An international research project funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS) (Jan. 2022 - Dec. 2023)

• Project coordinators: Jean-Patrick Villeneuve (Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland); Alberto Bitonti (Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland)

• Principal members: Xiankun LU (University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) of China); Kristina S. Weißmüller (Universität Bern, Switzerland); Gianluca Miscione (University College Dublin, Ireland; Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland); Pablo Contreras Vásquez (Universidad Autónoma de Chile); Shaila Seshia Galvin (IHEID The Graduate Institute of Geneva, Switzerland).

• Research objectives: This project develops the concept of Deliberative Quality, focusing on its application in trade-related International Organizations (IOs), analyzing decision-making processes and stakeholder engagement strategies of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nation Conference on Trade And Development (UNCTAD), and the International Trade Centre (ITC). Each of these organizations plays a different role in the international trade system, and has a different approach to decision-making/negotiations and stakeholder engagement. Using the lenses of Public Administration/Political Science, Behavioural Sciences, and Science and Technology Studies on one side, and the contribution of Anthropology, Law, and International Trade/Business on the other, this project develops a transdisciplinary framework of analysis, aiming to: 1) assess the Deliberative Quality produced in the three trade-related IOs, and 2) provide insights and recommendations to structurally achieve higher Deliberative Quality in decision-making processes, making them more inclusive, accountable, legitimate, and thus more impactful.

In the face of strong headwinds against multilateralism, eroding trust, and decreasing perceived legitimacy and relevance of trade-related IOs, a solid and effective strategy of Deliberative Quality allows to better address such challenges, paving the way for a renovated role for IOs. The three organizations will be directly engaged not only through the case studies carried out in the project - formal trade negotiations at WTO (case of fisheries), trade analysis and reporting at UNCTAD (e-commerce strategy), and trade empowerment at ITC (women and trade initiative) - but also in terms of validation of the framework and dissemination of results.

• Click here for more information: https://snis.ch/projects/deliberative-quality-in-trade-related-international-organizations/

2. Corruption in the Public Sector (CorPuS)

A multi-country experimental study researching corruption in the public sector worldwide (Jan. 2018 – Dec. 2022)

• Principal researchers & project managers: Kristina S. Weißmüller, Lode De Waele & Arjen van Witteloostuijn.
• Other collaborators: Catherine Althaus, Robert K. Christensen, Ting GONG, Dennis Hilgers, Fabian Homberg, Mei-Jen HUNG, Sang-Mook KIM , Kristoffer Kolltveit, Ming-Feng KUO, Jenny Lewis, Fabio Monteduro, Janine O’Flynn, Guillem Ripoll Pascual, Adrian Ritz, Lisa Schmidthuber, Dong Chul SHIM , Tsai-tsu SU, Jeannette Taylor, Richard Walker, Hanyu XIAO, & Sunny Litianqing YANG
• Research objectives: Public sector corruption is a critical yet severely understudied phenomenon worldwide. The CorPuS project is a non-commercial, non-commissioned pro-bono scientific research project driven by an international network of academic researchers who are passionate about understanding public sector corruption and about finding effective solutions for practice. The CorPuS project was initiated by Kristina S. Weißmüller, Lode De Waele, and Arjen van Witteloostuijn who also coordinate the project as principle investigators. Collectively, the CorPuS research consortium consists of 21 researchers based in 20 universities and academic research institutes in 15 countries worldwide in the first wave of the project. In 2020, we started raising data in five additional countries (second wave).
• Click here for more information: www.corpus-project.org

1. Risk in Public Private Partnerships (RiPPP)

Behavioral experiments on Risk Preference, Risk Perception, and Risk Participation (May 2015 – June 2018)

• Principal researchers & project managers: Kristina S. Weißmüller & Rick Vogel
• Other collaborators: Robin Bouwman
• PhD-Project at the Chair of Public Management funded by University of Hamburg
• Research objectives: PPPs are extremely powerful organizational arrangements that allow the sharing of risk and benefits of large scale projects in a synergetic manner. However, many PPPs fail because partners find it hard to maintain efficient long-term relationships across sectoral boundaries. In this project, we explore behavioral biases in decision-making within the context of public-private partnerships. We introduce novel psychological and behavioral research methods such as z-Tree experiments and game theoretical approaches into PA and PM research to investigate the role of ‘publicness’, ‘otherness’, PSM, and (anti-)public sector attitudes on strategic choice in PPPs with a special focus on risk behavior, the emergence and erosion of trust, collaboration efficiency, and institutional rule compliance.