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!

1. Corruption in the Public Sector (CorPuS)
2. Public Service Motivation in University Students
3. Risk in Public Private Partnerships (RiPPP)

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

• Click here for research objectives and more information: CorPuS

• Related publications:

  1. Weißmüller, K.S., van Witteloostuijn, A., De Waele, L., Ritz, A., Christensen, R.K., Gong, T., Hilgers, D., Homberg, F., Hung, M., Kim, S., Kolltveit, K., Kuo, M., Ma, L., Monteduro, F., Ripoll, G., Schmidthuber, L., Shim, D.C., Su, T., Walker, R., Xiao, H., Yang, S.L. (2020). ‘MICRO-LEVEL FOUNDATIONS OF CORRUPTION: THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD OF PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION. Findings from a Multi-country Multi-lab Research Project’ Under review.

Public Service Motivation in University Students

A multi-wave study on the role of PSM as a success factor in higher education (Jul. 2018 – Jan. 2021)

• Principal researcher & project managers: Kristina S. Weißmüller, & Claudia Fantapie Altobelli
• Other collaborators: Nadja Breckau, Poorya Khazaeinejad, Nicole Lewin, Carmen Otto
• Research project funded by the Chair of Marketing at Helmut-Schmidt-Universität, Hamburg, and the German Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg).

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.

• Related publications:
  1. Weißmüller, K.S. & Vogel, R. (2020). Sector-specific associations, trust, and survival of PPPs: A behavioral experiment based on the centipede game. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muaa050.
  2. Weißmüller, K.S., De Waele, L., & van Witteloostuijn, A. (2020). Public Service Motivation and Prosocial Rule-Breaking – An international vignettes study in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Review of Public Personnel Administration, https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X20973441.
  3. Weißmüller, K.S., Bouwman, R., & Vogel, R. (2020). Negotiation in Public-Private Partnerships - A laboratory experiment on context, domain, and PSM. Under review.
  4. Weißmüller, K.S. (accepted). Publicness and Micro-Level Risk Behaviour: Experimental Evidence on Stereotypical Discounting Behaviour. Public Management Review, https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2020.1862287.
  5. Weißmüller, K.S. (2020). ‘Risk In Public Private Partnerships: Behavioral Experiments on Risk Preference, Risk Perception, and Risk Participation.’ Doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Business, Economics, and Social Sciences, University of Hamburg, 1st advisor: Prof Dr. Rick Vogel, 2nd advisor: Prof. Dr. Andreas Lange.