Farewell interview with Simon Eichentopf
Simon Eichentopf had his last working day as a research assistant at the Chair of International Management at the end of March. His former colleague Constantin Scharf spoke to him about his time at IHI and his plans for the future.
CS: Dear Simon, how do you look back on your time at IHI?
SE: I started working at Prof Eckert's professorship at the beginning of 2018 and, looking back, I feel that my six years here were very instructive and personally valuable, albeit labour-intensive and research-intensive. I also (still) really like the city and the surrounding nature - the mountains, Lake Olbersdorf, Marienthal Monastery, etc. - and have become at home in Zittau.
CS: What was your day-to-day work at the professorship like?
SE: My tasks at the professorship were relatively wide-ranging - advising students, supervising theses, supporting teaching, writing applications for third-party funding, attending conferences, and so on. In the last two years, I naturally also focussed on advancing my dissertation. Thanks to my colourful range of tasks at the professorship, I was rarely bored during my work (laughs).
CS: What was the topic of your dissertation?
SE: In finding a topic for my dissertation, I was fortunately able to combine my personal research interest - Japan as a country market - quite well with Prof. Stefan Eckert's research profile - analysis of internationalisation processes. As part of my thesis, I conducted an empirical analysis of the entry strategies of German companies into the Japanese market.
CS: Where does your personal interest in Japan come from?
SE: My research interest in Japan began during my time as a student in Berlin. I attended language courses there and in my bachelor's thesis I carried out a comparative analysis of the public debt of Germany and Japan. After my studies, I completed a six-month internship at the German Embassy in Tokyo, which I found very fascinating.
CS: What has been your personal highlight at IHI Zittau in recent years?
SE: Our professorship takes part in the annual joint doctoral colloquium with the IM chairs from Kiel, Leipzig, Berlin and Stuttgart. The 2021 colloquium in Herrnhut, which we organised at the Komensky Conference Centre, was particularly successful and motivating, both in terms of the subject matter and the atmosphere. Another highlight in the IM annual programme was a visit to the EIBA conference (European International Business Academy). Last year we went to Lisbon and since we were able to take part in the conference as a complete team (Prof Eckert, Miriam Fink, Max Drake and Constantin Scharf) with lectures and presentations, I would also see this conference as proof of the good international scientific visibility of the chair. In addition, it is of course also great fun to exchange ideas with internationally renowned colleagues from the field of IM at such conferences.
CS: Do you already have concrete plans for your future career?
SE: In mid-April, I submitted the application to start the doctoral procedure at TU Dresden and I hope that my defence can be held in the summer months. I have not yet finalised my career prospects and am relatively flexible in terms of content and geographical focus. I still live in Zittau and am applying for various jobs from here. Although I am not ruling out a future in the academic field, I would prefer to work in practice. But you shouldn't rule anything out in advance, who knows what the future holds (grins).
CS: Do you already have plans for your next trip to Japan?
SE: Nothing is planned for the near future, but if the exchange rate (yen) stays as it is at the moment, I will visit Japan soon (grins). There is a pilgrimage route of 88 temples (Shikuko) in Japan that I am very interested in. It runs over 3300 kilometres and is roughly comparable to the European Way of St. James; I would like to tackle this hike.
CS: Dear Simon, thank you for your tireless commitment to the professorship and we wish you all the very best for your next career steps.
SE: Thank you very much - I will miss the family atmosphere at IHI and especially at Mr Eckert's professorship, and I already do. I wish my colleagues at IHI all the best for the future.