Matthias Dießl, President of the Bavarian Savings Banks Association, recently presented three young academics with the Bavarian Savings Banks' 2025 Science Award. The prize for the best bachelor's thesis went to Florian Schlagbauer. His thesis, ‘Strategic Adaptability of Established Banks – An Analysis Based on the Resource-Based View and Dynamic Capabilities,’ was written under the supervision of Prof. Sandra Hamella at the Faculty of Business and Management at OTH Regensburg.
The award recognises outstanding scientific work with particular relevance to the banking industry. Schlagbauer impressed the jury with his combination of a theoretically sound approach and strong practical relevance.
Award as confirmation and motivation
The award winner emphasises the importance of willingness to change, not only for banks: ‘This award is a significant achievement for me, which was only made possible by conscious changes in my professional career. It is therefore also true that change is an essential component of success. For me, the award is both confirmation and motivation to further deepen my knowledge of finance.’
The OTH Regensburg graduate is now planning to study for a master's degree in business administration with a focus on finance at the University of Regensburg. In the medium term, he sees his professional future in finance.
The Bavarian Savings Banks Science Award is under the patronage of Markus Blume, Bavarian Minister of State for Science and the Arts. He emphasises how important the proximity between research and application in everyday economic life is for the Free State: ‘The award-winning works prove that research is most valuable when it has an impact – in the economy, in society and, ideally, in people's everyday lives. The Bavarian Savings Banks Science Award highlights precisely this connection. My sincere congratulations go to the award winners, who today demonstrate how scientific progress shapes the future.’
The Bavarian Savings Banks Science Prize
Once again, all economics and related departments and institutes at Bavarian universities were invited to submit nominations. The search was on for outstanding scientific work related to the banking industry in the three categories ‘Best Bachelor's Thesis’ (Heinrich Schmidhuber Prize, €2,000), ‘Best Master's Thesis’ (Rudolf Stobäus Prize, €3,000) and ‘Best Dissertation’ (King Max I Prize, €5,000). Nominated theses could not be more than one year old. Criteria for the research award include the transfer of science to practice, the potential benefits for the banking industry and the innovative strength or novelty value of the theses. The best theses were selected by a jury consisting of members of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Bavarian Savings Banks Association.
The other 2025 award winners are Cristina Jakob (master's thesis, Technical University of Munich) and Dr Thomas Haas (best dissertation, University of Würzburg).
The full press release from the Bavarian Savings Banks Association can be found here
