The research discloses one connection: the seal tested in the experiment was the “Top Arbeitgeber” seal of the Deutsches Institut für Qualitätsstandards und -prüfung (DIQP), and Oliver Scharfenberg acts as scientific advisor to the DIQP. We state this openly, as he does in his books.

To make the results verifiable, the method, sample sizes and results are published on ResearchGate. The central finding, that seals work when they are based on transparent criteria and real employee surveys, is consistent with the wider research literature on quality signals, which the study reviews.