Sina Hardaker is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Economic Geography at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg. After studying in Germany and the UK and working as a regional sales manager in the retail industry, she completed her doctorate on the internationalization of Chinese food retail. Her current research examines the spatial implications of the platform economy, particularly in the context of cross-border e-commerce, digital trade centers, global production networks, and the Digital Silk Road. Since 2025, she has led the DFG project presented here, which examines the implications of digital platforms for brick-and-mortar retail in Germany.

Paula Engel graduated from the Goetheschule Wetzlar in 2022 and, after a stay abroad, began her studies in Geography with a minor in Political and Social Studies at the University of Würzburg. There she gained her first practical experience in knowledge management as a student assistant at the student representation and then worked as a tutor in the lecture “Cartography and Geoinformation”. She is currently involved in research work as part of the DFG project presented here.

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Julian Bock is 22 years old and was born in the Lake Constance region. He is currently in his 6th semester of a Bachelor's degree in economics at the University of Würzburg and is working on this DFG project together with Dr. Sina Hardaker and Paula Engel in order to get to know practical and research-oriented issues alongside his studies.