Short Profile

Lothar Müller-Hagedorn studied economics in Saarbrücken and Würzburg. Having successfully graduated from the Universität des Saarlandes in Saarbrücken with a diploma in teaching of commercial studies in 1965, he became first became research assistant under Prof. Dr. Stützel and later under Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Rudolf Gümbel.

At the TU Berlin, Müller-Hagedorn received his doctor’s degree for his work on the fundamentals of human resource planning in companies in 1965 and 5 years later published his research in “Beiträge zur betriebswirtschaftlichen Forschung”, Bd. 36, published by Prof. Dr. E. Gutenberg, Prof. Dr. W. Hasenack, Prof. Dr. K. Hax, Prof. Dr. E. Schäfer. In 1974 Müller-Hagedorn received his “venia legendi” – the license to lecture at Universities – in business economics from the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University in Frankfurt. In the same year he was appointed a member of the founding committee of the Open University Hagen and one year later received full professorship at the University of Trier and inherited the department for business economics, sales, market, and consumption.

In 1976 the Centre Universitaire de Luxembourg appointed him to a professorship that he held until 1991 when he was offered a professorship at the University of Cologne. Here, he directed the department for retailing and distribution and together with Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Köhler, Prof. Dr. Gedenk, and Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Delfmann the institute for trade fair management and distribution until his retirement in 2007. Since then, Müller-Hagedorn works as a privat scholar and consultant. Over the years Müller-Hagedorn was offered several chairs at universities such as Konstanz, Bayreuth, Vienna, and Göttingen.

Müller-Hagedorn’s academic interest is rooted in management issues faced by retail companies, especially marketing-related issues. He aims at combining behavioral science and decision theory in order to provide managerially relevant implications and recommendations. On top of that, Müller-Hagedorn also tackles questions with a theoretical focus for example regarding the determinants of retailers’ gross margin. His publication portfolio comprises research on numerous aspects of retailing such as concerning its location, price policy, development of distribution systems, and store layout. He published monographs such as "Handelsmarketing" [“retail marketing”] and "Der Handel" [“retail”]. On top of that, Müller-Hagedorn has researched and published in the field of trade fair management.