He graduated with highest distinction in psychology from the University of Osnabrueck, Germany and was the first psychologist to graduate from the House of Finance at the Goethe University Frankfurt, where he received his PhD in Information Systems with highest distinction. Afterwards, he worked as postdoctorate at the University of Mannheim, Germany, where he managed the research alliance "ForDigital" between the University of Mannheim and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) prior to joining Clemson.