Dr. Regine Komoss

AI Agents are coming to work

AI agents are increasingly able to plan tasks, prepare decisions and take over entire work processes on their own. This opens up new opportunities for businesses – but also raises new questions.

How do entrepreneurs decide whether and how to use AI agents?

I am exploring this question in a qualitative research study at Hochschule Bremen. I am looking for entrepreneurs from small enterprises (fewer than 50 employees) who are willing to share their perspectives in a personal interview. No prior knowledge of or experience with AI agents is required. A detailed description of the research can be found below.

Contact: Regine.Komoss@hs-bremen.de

CV

Fields of Research and Teaching

• Agentic AI and organisational transformation in small and medium-sized enterprises: How businesses introduce AI agents and how this changes tasks, roles, workflows and decisions. The focus is on the organisation: which conditions help human–AI collaboration strengthen people and keep control with humans?
• Strategic management: Strategic foresight, decision-making under uncertainty, innovation and organisational resilience – increasingly supported by AI-based methods.
• Qualitative and mixed-methods research on SMEs: Combining a perspective on entrepreneurial ecosystems with the analysis of entrepreneurial action at the micro level.
• Challenge-based learning: Teaching based on real challenges faced by businesses and organisations, with added value for the partners – for example through interdisciplinary projects in which computer science and Global Management students develop future-ready AI-based solutions for businesses, or through students designing a workshop on organisational resilience. My research and teaching are closely interlinked: current research findings enrich my courses and enable students to engage with real entrepreneurial challenges.
• Global perspective: International cooperation, especially with partners in Namibia and South Africa, on SME development, entrepreneurship, context-sensitive innovation and the responsible use of AI.

Ongoing Research and Cooperation Projects

Erasmus+ KA171: Innovative and Resilient Entrepreneurship and Challenge-Based Learning for Sustainable Futures

How do students learn to think entrepreneurially, act innovatively and deal with uncertainty?

This question lies at the heart of the German–Namibian cooperation between Hochschule Bremen and the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Windhoek. Through international collaboration and challenge-based learning, the project aims to develop entrepreneurial competencies that enable students to recognise opportunities, design innovative solutions and remain capable of acting even under uncertain conditions.

International teaching and challenge-based learning

Students from NUST spend a semester in Bremen that combines a company internship with courses in the Global Management degree programme. The focus is on challenge-based learning: students work on real challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises, combine academic analysis with entrepreneurial thinking and develop practical solutions. Through peer teaching, lecturers from both universities jointly develop challenge-based learning modules and also pilot hybrid teaching formats that connect students in Bremen and Windhoek.

Research-based development of teaching

What competencies characterise innovative and resilient entrepreneurs – and how do they develop? These questions are at the centre of my research on entrepreneurial development processes in Germany and Namibia. In my qualitative study Beyond Barriers and in two German–Namibian research projects funded by ASA/Engagement Global, we examined how entrepreneurs overcome challenges, recognise opportunities and develop their entrepreneurial capabilities. These findings provide an academic foundation for designing and developing the teaching formats in the Erasmus+ project.

I designed the project and lead it together with colleagues at NUST – from steering the cooperation and planning the mobilities to the research-based development of teaching.

Completed Research and Cooperation Projects

Beyond Barriers – Learning from the Periphery in the Entrepreneurial Journeys of Namibian Micro and Small Enterprises

How do entrepreneurs manage not only to survive under difficult economic conditions but to develop their businesses further?

While research on entrepreneurship in African countries often focuses on structural deficits and institutional obstacles, Beyond Barriers turns its attention to the entrepreneurs themselves: How do they develop solutions, mobilise resources, recognise opportunities and learn from their experiences?

The qualitative study is based on 18 narrative interviews with owners of micro and small enterprises in Windhoek and in central and northern Namibia. The research questions were discussed with Namibian business support organisations, and initial findings were reflected on in a joint validation workshop with entrepreneurs, researchers and practitioners.

Key findings

The findings show that entrepreneurial development is not a linear process. Businesses emerge and grow through the creative use of available resources, continuous learning, relationship-building and adaptation to changing conditions. Initiative, self-efficacy, perseverance and the ability to learn from setbacks play a central role. The common distinction between necessity-driven and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship proves to be of little use: what matters is how entrepreneurs proceed, not why they started their business.

At the same time, the study shows the limits of individual agency: to grow further, businesses often need resources and institutional support that they cannot access on their own.

Contribution to research and practice

Beyond Barriers contributes to entrepreneurship research by making the experience and knowledge of Namibian entrepreneurs the starting point for academic insight. The findings open up new perspectives on entrepreneurial learning and on the design of effective support and education programmes.

The findings also feed into my research on innovative and resilient entrepreneurship and into the development of practice-oriented teaching formats within the German–Namibian university cooperation.

Promoting Entrepreneurship – Micro-Enterprises in Namibia's Informal Economy

How do micro-entrepreneurs in Namibia's informal economy overcome obstacles, seize opportunities and navigate their environment?

Micro-enterprises secure the livelihoods of many people in Namibia, yet often fall short of their potential. This German–Namibian research project was initiated by me in cooperation with Dr. Hylton Villet, Director of the Harold Pupkewitz Graduate School of Business at NUST. It examined how entrepreneurial action develops in the informal sector, combining two perspectives: at the individual level, how business models, personal values and mental models shape entrepreneurial decisions; at the systemic level, how the surrounding network of actors, institutions and relationships fosters or hinders growth.

The aim was to make obstacles and leverage points for change visible and to derive recommendations for effective support tailored to the Namibian context.

The project was designed as an equal partnership. Early-career researchers from Namibia and Germany worked together in one team and were involved in all phases of the research process. The experience gained in both project years laid the foundation for the Beyond Barriers study and the Erasmus+ cooperation between Hochschule Bremen and NUST.

Cooperative Teaching Projects

Shaping the Future – When Business meets Computer Science

In this module, 48 business and computer science students worked in seven mixed teams to develop AI-based solutions for the future of real organisations – from companies to a day-care centre and units of the university. Each project started with a strategic foresight analysis: which process will no longer be viable in a plausible future scenario? The teams analysed this process, used design thinking to design an AI-supported alternative and built it as a working prototype. Two of the solutions used AI agents.

The module showed that introducing AI is not only about technology – it changes organisations.

Organizational Resilience – Students Design a Workshop for Entrepreneurs

How do businesses remain capable of acting in disruptive and volatile times? In the Strategic Management module, ISGM students developed strategies for organisational resilience. In cooperation with the Foreign Business Club, they designed and ran a workshop for entrepreneurs in which they put their strategies up for discussion.

The format connected teaching and practice: the students took on the role of facilitators and providers of ideas, while the entrepreneurs gained new ideas for dealing with uncertainty.

Teaching

• Strategic Management (engl,)
• Project Study (engl.)

Memberships and Functions

• Member of the Programme Advisory Committee for the Review of the Bachelor of Business Management and Bachelor of Business Management Honours Programmes at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (2025 – 2029). 
• Agreement of Cooperation with the Namibia Investment and Finance Academy (NIFA) to establish cooperation between NIFA and the University of Applied Sciences Bremen in the field of research on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Namibia.

Publications

Talks 2026

• 26 March 2026 · Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), Windhoek
  Beyond Barriers – Entrepreneurial Journeys in Namibia. Presentation and discussion of the findings of the Beyond Barriers study.
• 13 May 2026 · Haus der Wissenschaft, Bremen
  Namibia Today – Pride, Perspectives and the Question of Mutually Beneficial Partnership between Namibia and Germany. Joint talk and discussion with the Namibian visiting researchers Jazz Abrahams and Casper Bowora in the dialogue series "Brüche – Brücken – Bündnisse" (Ruptures – Bridges – Alliances) of Afrika Netzwerk Bremen e.V.
• 20 May 2026 · 10th NKL Conference, University West, Trollhättan (Sweden)
  Beyond Barriers – Learning from the Periphery: Innovation, Resilience, and Knowledge Co-Creation with MSMEs in Namibia. Presentation in the session "Learning & Co-Creation".

Publications

• Komoss, Regine; Sørensen, Nina (2019): Wandel durch Lehrerkooperation? – Welchen Beitrag leisten Lehrerkooperationen für die Schul- und Unterrichtsentwicklung? In: Unterrichtsentwicklung macht Schule, pp. 45–63. Link
• Doff, Sabine; Komoss, Regine (eds.) (2017): Making Change Happen. Wandel im Fachunterricht analysieren und gestalten. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. SpringerLink
• Komoss, Regine; Sørensen, Nina (2017): Die Perspektiven verbinden – Handlungskoordination zwischen Lehrerprofessionalisierung, Schulentwicklung und Unterrichtsgestaltung. In: Doff, Sabine; Komoss, Regine (eds.): Making Change Happen, pp. 157–166. Link
• Komoss, Regine; Peters, Maria (2016): Das Praxissemester an der Universität Bremen. In: Schüssler, Renate et al. (eds.): Im Praxissemester forschend lernen – Umsetzung in Schule, Universität und Studienseminar. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt.
• Komoss, Regine (2007): Frauenstudiengänge zwischen Vorteil und Vorurteil [Women's degree programmes – between advantage and prejudice]. Doctoral thesis. Link
• Komoss, Regine; Viereck, Axel (eds.) (2002): Brauchen Frauen eine andere Mathematik? Dokumentation des Symposiums am 18./19. Oktober 2002 in Bremen. Frankfurt am Main, New York: Peter Lang.

Office Hours

Please contact me by E-Mail to arrange a meeting.