Successful dissertation defense by Eva Maria Zahn

Kassel - On December 8, 2025, Eva Maria Zahn successfully defended her dissertation entitled "Structuring the Unstructured. Designing AI-Based and Interactive Environments for Negotiation Training" at the University of Kassel.

In her work, Zahn investigates how negotiation skills can be systematically supported and trained. As negotiations are becoming increasingly important due to global cooperation and flatter organizational structures, the systematic development of corresponding skills is coming into focus. The dissertation views negotiation as a complex soft skill that combines metacognitive decision-making and socio-emotional skills. Particular emphasis is placed on the integrative approach, which is aimed at long-term relationships, cooperation and mutual benefit - and thus takes a perspective beyond the classic winner-loser thinking.

The work provides several key implications for research and practice. It structures soft skills as a field of research, develops a theoretically sound framework for training negotiation skills and shows how preparation for negotiations can be digitally supported as a structured task. In addition, the dissertation provides design knowledge for AI-supported preparation systems and demonstrates their application in challenging negotiation contexts, for example in entrepreneurial situations such as the negotiation of venture capital term sheets.

Special thanks go to the examination committee for their time, in-depth questions and valuable feedback: Edona Elshan, Christoph Seckler, Jens Klusmeyer and Prof. Dr. Gerrit Hornung, LL.M.

After the successful defense, Eva Maria Zahn received the traditional doctoral hat, designed by colleagues from the Department of Information Systems and Systems Engineering (WISE) and presented by her first supervisor Prof. Dr. Matthias Söllner. The hat is based on formative experiences and special moments from her doctoral studies.

The WISE team would like to congratulate Eva Maria Zahn on her outstanding achievement. As the first doctoral graduate in the field, her doctorate marks an important milestone. We look forward to following her further career path.

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