Sahaya Kulandaisamy, M.Sc.

Sahaya Jesintha Mary Kulandaisamy began her role as an industrial doctoral candidate at the University of Mannheim in January 2025, at the chair of SME Research and Entrepreneurship. She earned her bachelor's degree in Computer Science Engineering in India and her master's in Advanced Computer Science in the UK. 

From 2017 to 2024, as a research associate, she coordinated several interdisciplinary and international projects at the University of Passau, centred on digitalisation and entrepreneurship. Together with a team of interdisciplinary researchers, she fostered innovative digital start-up ideas by planning and structuring entrepreneurship programs, conducting hands-on workshops, and providing strategic consulting grounded in customer-centric approaches. She primarily supported over 70 start-up teams in developing early digital or physical prototypes of their business ideas using prototyping software and 3D printer. As a representative of the Digitalisation Hub, she organised several digitalisation events, collaborating with industry experts and fellow academics to support young entrepreneurs. 

Ms. Kulandaisamy also coordinated international projects such as the AI-Cup, which was a French-German start-up initiative aimed at fostering AI startups in Europe. 

Building on her strategic expertise in digital technology and the start-up landscape, her doctoral research aims to create a Horizontal Cooperation Ecosystem centered around a digital platform, particularly tailored for family businesses. Her research delves into the perspectives of family business CEOs regarding collaboration with competitors, investigating how AI can enhance this cooperation and how to establish a governance structure that promotes successful horizontal partnerships.