Best Teaching Award 2023 goes to Stefan Rose and Sven Feurer

Prof. Dr Stefan Rose and Prof. Dr Sven Feurer, both lecturers at BFH’s Business School, have won the CS Award for Best Teaching 2023. They designed the study module “Entrepreneurial Marketing” for the bachelor’s degree programme in Business Administration.

Stefan Rose welcomes the jury’s choice: “The award motivates us to continue developing practice-oriented teaching methods and to prepare our students in the best possible way for the challenges of a dynamic and demanding business world.”

A central element of their didactic concept is the live case: students support a real local start-up and its specific marketing issues. Sven Feurer: “The module is very business-oriented. Our students immerse themselves in a start-up environment. They learn up close what it means for a newly founded company to win acceptance for their innovative ideas. They experience the challenges young entrepreneurs face and address them using scientific methods.” 

Local partnerships as theme sponsors for live cases

The Bernese start-up BeBop Robotics was a field partner for this year’s module. The company provides various services around the use of service robots. In the course of several field studies, students investigated the response to a service robot in a retirement home, the Seniorenzentrum Schüpfen. With the collected data, they were able to analyse the acceptance level on the part of management, employees, relatives and, last but not least, the residents. “Our students learn this way the type of contribution innovative technologies can make to improve the quality of life of older people, and what barriers need to be removed to achieve this,” stresses Sven Feurer.

TEIL, a Bernese start-up involved in one of the live cases, also benefited from the input of students of Bern University of Applied Sciences. In turn, the students got an insight into the challenging aspects of inspiring customers for the start-up’s sustainable fashion concept. TEIL’s business model is based on the idea of renting clothing by subscription, instead of buying them, as an alternative to the negative environmental impact perpetuated through the consumption of fast fashion. As part of the “Entrepreneurial Marketing” learning module, the students had to address the following questions: what are the relative advantages and disadvantages for users to switch to TEIL? And what type of implementation and pricing model do you need to ensure that the service is actually used?

Research-based learning

Apart from its practical implementation aspects, the module “Entrepreneurial Marketing” also promotes research-based learning. Students apply learned research methods already in the course of their bachelor studies, gaining initial experience in interdisciplinary research. For example, the live case with BeBop Robotics resulted in a scientific research paper, with the participating students as co-authors. The paper was presented at the annual conference of the European Marketing Academy EMAC 2023.“This speaks for the high quality of the work produced by our students during the module. It also shows that we are successfully linking science and practice,” emphasises Stefan Rose.

This high quality and the practical aspects of the module were also decisive in awarding the prize to the two BFH professors, Stefan Rose and Sven Feurer. The CS Award for Best Teaching recognises BFH lecturers who demonstrate a creative and innovative commitment to teaching excellence. In its statement, the jury praised the impact-oriented action learning approach pursued in the “Entrepreneurial Marketing” study module. The module has a strong practical orientation and a solid scientific foundation. In addition, it promotes entrepreneurial mindset and action on the part of the students.

Award for Best Teaching

The CS Award for Best Teaching recognizes BFH university lecturers who are committed to outstanding teaching in a creative and innovative way. The jury consists of members, lecturers and students of BFH.