Tim Ockenga

Tim Alvaro Ockenga

In March 2025 Tim assumed the position of the Institute Coordinator. Installed as an overarching role at the institute level, he aligns and manages teaching and related institute-wide activities of the CIIS. The goal is to offer guidance to the team for an optimal output in the areas of teaching, partnering with industry, and external presentation of the institute.

Feel free to reach out to him with your ideas for innovation in teaching and related initiatives on the Institute level.

Tim Ockenga pursued both a bachelor's and a master's degree in Information Systems at the University of Cologne. Already during his bachelor's degree he discovered his interest in Information Systems research and started working as a student assistant at the Cologne Institute for Information Systems (CIIS). After completing his master's degree in 2021, he took a position as a research assistant and doctoral student/PhD student at CIIS.

Research

Tim's research focuses on the transformative impact of emerging technologies on economic systems and societal structures. He is particularly interested in how technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and especially Agentic AI, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, and digital assets reshape financial markets, drive decentralized economic models, and influence organizational practices and governance frameworks. His work aims to understand how these advancements can foster innovation, efficiency, and inclusivity while considering the ethical implications and value co-creation in decentralized systems.

Tim's main research project investigates the financing dynamics of the emerging Agent Economy, with a specific focus on ventures building Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AAI). His work highlights how the transition from deterministic software to autonomous agents challenges traditional mechanisms for reducing information asymmetry between entrepreneurs and investors. He aims to extend Signaling Theory in the context of Entrepreneurship Research (venture capital raising) to the domain of opaque and probabilistic technologies, arguing that the locus of effective signaling shifts from demonstrating functional technical capacity to demonstrating independent execution. Specifically, his research proposes the concept of Algorithmic Agency as critical signals of technological capability in environments characterized by opacity and behavioral unpredictability.

Moreover, Tim is also involved in a practice-oriented research project focused on developing Information Systems (IS) that support and automate processes producing artifacts—such as newspaper layouts—with aesthetics as a key target variable. This research explores how to embed aesthetic considerations into automated systems or more general how to embed a sense of aesthetics into computers/machines. This is in contrast to the traditional focus of Information Systems research on efficiency and effectiveness, which has been the subject of much debate in the field. By integrating the dimension of aesthetics into the output of automated processes, the project aims to innovate system design principles and contribute to creating IS solutions that deliver both functional performance and visually appealing results.

Furthermore, Tim has been actively involved in several research projects that explore the intersection of technology, user experience, and innovative system design (see list of publications below).