Prof. Dr. Alexander Himme

Associate Professor of Management Accounting

Prof. Dr. Alexander Himme

Associate Professor of Management Accounting

Alexander Himme is Associate Professor of Management Accounting at Kühne Logistics University. He received his PhD in Management Accounting and Marketing at the University of Kiel (Germany). He holds a Diploma in Business Administration from the University of Kiel. Before joining Kühne Logistics University in 2015, he worked as an Assistant Professor at Vlerick Business School (Belgium) and as a Post-Doc at the Universities of Cologne and Passau (Germany). At the University of Cologne he received his cumulative habilitation. In addition, Alexander Himme spent one year as a Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).  

Himme's specialization is on the field of performance measurement, valuation of intangibles, marketing accounting, and cost management. His work is positioned at the accounting-marketing interface. In this context his research deals with the influence of intangibles on accounting metrics like the cost of capital. The aim of the research is to quantify the return of investments in intangible assets like brands, customer equity, or corporate reputation. For determining the return of investments in intangible assets his research also focuses on ways how to measure and to evaluate these assets. Determining the drivers of a successful cost management is another pillar of his research projects. His research has been published among others in Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Management Control, Journal of Business Economics, and Journal of Cost Management. He has also presented his work at major international conferences (e.g., Congress of the European Accounting Association, Marketing Science Conference, Marketing Strategy Meets Wall Street). His work was finalist for the Best Paper Award of the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB) in 2019 and received the Best  Paper Award of the EIASM Interdisciplinary Workshop on Intangibles & Intellectual Capital in 2018. He further won best teaching awards at KLU on several occasions.

Himme has taught at the Universities of Kiel, Passau, Cologne as well as at the Corvinus University in Budapest, Vlerick Business School in Ghent/Leuven/St. Petersburg, and the State University of Management in Moscow.  He has taught diverse financial, managerial, and marketing accounting classes in bachelor, master, and executive programs. Himme has visited several teaching seminars that deal with the case study method (e.g., case method teaching seminar by Harvard Business Publishing) and combines theory-based teaching with a passionate way of teaching case studies.

Up Close and Personal

"KLU is the right choice for me, because here I can do all the things I always wanted to do.”
– Prof. Dr. Alexander Himme

Selected Publications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.06.002 

Abstract: Firms usually undertake layoffs to improve financial performance. However, layoffs often have negative effects on various stakeholders, including consumers. In this paper, we examine the magnitude and duration of the potential negative effect of layoff announcements on brand strength. We also examine how a firm's communication accompanying a layoff can potentially counteract the observed negative effect of layoff announcements on brand strength. We compare how advertising communication intensity, social media communication (i.e., brand-initiated tweets), public relation (PR) communication, and communication of CSR initiatives moderate the main effect of layoff announcements on brand strength. Using an error correction model and drawing on 366 announcements of layoff events in Germany, this study identifies the magnitude and duration of the main effect. An examination of five years of weekly consumer brand perception data across multiple industries and domestic and foreign firms shows that advertising communication intensity and social media communication amplify the negative impact of layoff announcements on brand strength. Conversely, PR communication and communication of CSR initiatives help mitigate the negative effect. These findings provide guidance on the best way for firms to design firm communication in the context of layoff announcements.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwab046 

Abstract: In this study, we examine stock market reactions to corporate downsizing using a neo-institutional perspective. Over the course of the 1990s, a time period in which shareholder value orientation gained momentum, downsizing became an institutionalized management practice. We argue and propose that the growing legitimacy of this practice is displayed in investors’ reactions to downsizing announcements. Using a sample of 391 downsizing announcements of the S&P 100 firms for the period 1990–2006, we show that the announcement year has a positive (diminishing) effect on the abnormal stock market return and that prior downsizings in the focal firm’s institutional field have a positive linear impact on abnormal stock market return. In addition, we provide evidence that these relationships are positively moderated by proactive downsizing motives and firm size. Our results contribute to a deeper understanding of the performance effects of corporate downsizing and investors’ role in legitimizing this prevalent business practice.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.16.0250 

Abstract: The impact of market share on financial firm performance is one of the most widely studied relationships in marketing strategy research. However, since the meta-analysis by Szymanski, Bharadwaj, and Varadarajan (1993), substantial environmental (e.g., digitization) and methodological (e.g., accounting for endogeneity) developments have occurred. The current work presents an updated and extended meta-analysis based on all available 863 elasticities drawn from 89 studies and provides the following new empirical generalizations: (1) The average raw market share–financial performance elasticity is .132, which is substantially lower than the effectiveness of other intermediate marketing metrics. This result challenges a widely used strategy that solely focuses on increasing market share. (2) Elasticities differ significantly between contextual settings. For example, they are lower for business-to-business firms than for business-to-consumer firms, for service firms than for manufacturing firms, and for U.S. markets than for emerging and Western European markets. The authors also observe differences between countries with respect to a general time trend (e.g., lower elasticities in recent times for Western European markets) and recessionary periods (e.g., lower elasticities in the United States, higher elasticities in non-Western economies).

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.05.004 

Abstract: Marketing and finance executives follow different objectives and focus on different stakeholder groups. Marketers want to create sales impact. Finance executives are concerned about the financial health of the firm. As a result, both worlds tend to be rather disconnected in their daily business. We argue that this does not reflect the dynamics of the firm where important marketing and financial metrics in fact interact. As long as marketing and finance officers do not fully appreciate the interplay of their key metrics, their decisions are likely to be suboptimal. This article proposes a simultaneous equation model that reflects the interaction of marketing and finance-domain variables in the value creation process. We focus on brand-building activities and the attraction of capital as major tasks of marketing and finance officers. Our model shows how advertising and other investments increase customer-based brand equity (CBBE) that in turn impacts financial leverage and credit spread and ultimately elevates the level of financial resources. Based on a broad sample of 155 firms covering various B2C industries, we test for the empirical relevance of our model. We also assess the practical significance of our results by transforming them into elasticities. Our results suggest that marketing and finance executives need to consider the dynamic interaction of their decision and performance variables to fully evaluate the effects of their decisions on the firm's financial health.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2013.10.006 

Abstract: Recent marketing studies suggest that non-financial metrics, such as customer satisfaction and brand value, help explain the variation in the cost of equity and the cost of debt. These studies typically focus on only one non-financial metric and one component of capital cost. In this study, we broaden the understanding of the relevance of non-financial metrics to the cost of capital. We investigate the joint role of customer satisfaction, brand value, and corporate reputation for stock market beta and credit ratings, which reflect variation in equity and debt risk premiums across firms. In addition to the joint direct influence of these metrics on capital cost, we also study their interaction effects. We develop a conceptual model to explain the effects on capital costs and test the resulting hypotheses in a broad sample of 344 firms from diverse industries using data from the 1991–2006 period. Our results suggest that higher satisfaction ratings reduce both the cost of equity and cost of debt, whereas brand value and corporate reputation only show a negative direct association with the cost of debt. In addition, both measures moderate the effect of satisfaction on the cost of debt. Brand value attenuates the influence of satisfaction, whereas corporate reputation amplifies this effect.

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Academic CV

Management Accounting

What is the unit cost and the contribution margin of my product? How many services do I have to provide in order to break even? Shall I outsource this activity or shall I keep it inside my company? Which products shall I produce first given my limited resources? Managers typically ask these and similar very fundamental questions when making decisions. This lecture series provides the basic concepts and tools to answer these questions. Covering the fundamentals of management accounting this lecture series helps managers to make better and profound business decisions. Specifically, this lecture series explains what kind of revenue and cost information exists and how this information should be extracted and structured. The lecture series also demonstrates how managers can use cost and revenue information to better plan and control business decisions. Cost and revenue information is the language of business, and this lecture series enables business students to better speak, understand and finally use this language.

Introduction to Managerial Accounting (Module I)

Cost Categories (Module II)

Determining Unit Costs (Module III)

Job order costing (Module IV)

Process Costing (Module V)

Cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis (Module VI)

Special order pricing and production planning (Module VII)

Make or buy and product elimination decisions (Module VIII)

Academic Positions

since 2018 Associate Professor for Management Accounting at Kühne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany
2015-2018

Assistant Professor for Management Accounting at Kühne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany

2014-2015

Assistant Professor, Vlerick Business School, Belgium

2011-2014

Post-Doc ("Akademischer Rat"), University of Cologne (Chair for Marketing and Market Research, Professor Marc Fischer), Germany

2008-2011

Post-Doc ("Akademischer Rat"), University of Passau (Chair for Marketing and Services, Professor Marc Fischer), Germany

2003-2008

Research Assistant ("wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter"), Management Accounting, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (Chair for Management Accounting, Professor Birgit Friedl), Germany

2001-2003

Student Assistant, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (Chair for Econometrics, Professor Gerd Hansen), Germany

Education

2014

"Habilitation" at the Faculty of Management, Economics, and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne; Granting of the "Venia Legendi" for Business Administration; Title of the Habilitation: "Essays on the Management of Intangibles, Costs, and Innovation"

2012

Visiting Scholar at the Anderson School of Management, UCLA, California, (Invitation by Professor Dominique M. Hanssens)

2011

Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, California (Invitation by Professor Stefan J. Reichelstein)

2008

Ph.D., Marketing and Accounting („summa cum laude“); Title of Dissertation: “Critical Success Factors of Cost Management and Market Entry Decisions”; Advisers: Sönke Albers and Birgit Friedl; Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany

2001-2002

Academic year at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

1998-2003

Undergraduate and Graduate Studies in Business, Law, and Economics with Majors in Accounting, Management Accounting, and Econometrics at the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (Diploma in Business Administration), Germany

2023 - Nomination for Sheth Foundation / Journal of Marketing Award

Alexander Himme was nominated for the Sheth Foundation / Journal of Marketing Award. The annual Sheth Foundation / Journal of Marketing Award honors a Journal of Marketing article that has made long-term contributions to the field of marketing. An article is eligible for consideration to receive the award in the fifth year after its publication. The criteria for selection include the quality of the article's contribution to theory and practice, its originality, its technical competence (if relevant), and its impact on the field of marketing.

2023 - PhD Felix Anton Sklenarz (First Supervisor Prof. Dr. Alexander Himme): “Wissenschaftspreis des Markenverbandes und der G.E.M.“

Felix Anton Sklenarz, PhD, won the Science Prize of The German Brands Association and the Brand Research Association 2023 for his dissertation on “Dealing with Disruption: Analyzing the Role of Market Share and Financial Brand Value in Times of Change”, supervised by Prof. Dr. Alexander Himme.

2023 - Best Teaching Award at Kühne Logistics University

Alexander Himme received KLU’s Teaching Award for the second consecutive year.

2021 - Best Teaching Award at Kühne Logistics University

Alexander Himme received KLU’s Teaching Award for the second consecutive year.

2020 - Best Teaching Award at Kühne Logistics University

Alexander Himme received KLU’s Teaching Award. The Teaching Award is conferred once a year based on the students’ evaluations of their lectures and seminars.

2019 – Nomination for the Best Paper Award of the German Academic Association for Business Research (Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft (VHB))

Alexander Himme was nominated for the Best Paper Award of the German Academic Association for Business Research (together with Alexander Edeling) for their paper "When Does Market Share Matter? New Empirical Generalizations from a Meta-Analysis of the Market Share-Performance Relationship”. Every year, the German Academic Association for Business Research presents the Best Paper Award to an outstanding international publication.

2018 - Best Conference Paper Award of the 14th EIASM Interdisciplinary Workshop on “Intangibles & Intellectual Capital”

Alexander Himme received the Best Conference Paper Award at the 14th EIASM Interdisciplinary Workshop on Intangibles & Intellectual Capital (together with Marc Fischer) for "Almost Three Decades Of Brand Valuation – What Do We Learn From 43,000 Brand Values?", Munich: 20.-21. September 2018

2016/2018 - Best Teaching Award at Kühne Logistics University