Her research focuses on social challenges that include climate change, decent work or digitalization. She specifically examines how different forms of organizing can drive or hinder creativity, innovation and change. Her theoretical focus is on new institutional theory and on process and practice theories of organization. Her research is marked by frequent cooperation with related disciplines such as economic geography, economic history, sociology, political science or development studies. From 2016-2019, she has lead the international „Garment Supply Chain Governance Project“. She has also founded the Scientific Network „Field-Configuring Events“, funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG). Currently she is Principal Investigator in the Research Unit „Organized Creativity“ funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG) and a member in the DFG-funded Scientific Network „Grand Challenges & New Forms of Organizing“.

Her work has been published in leading international journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Perspectives, Creativity and Innovation Management, Environment and Planning A, Human Relations, Industrial and Corporate Change, Industry & Innovation, Industrial and Labor Relations Review or Technological Forecasting and Social Change. She has coauthored a textbook on „Managing Interorganizational Relations“ and has edited several Special Issues in leading international journals. She is Department/Associate Editor for Business & Society and Business Research and a member of the Editorial Board of Organization Studies. She has been elected as Vice Chair of the Executive Board of the European Group of Organization Studiesfor the 2020-24 period. She is the recipient of the Aspen Institute "Ideas Worth Teaching Award", the Academy of Management Journal Best Paper Award, the Best Paper Award of the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB) and the Thesis Award of the Business History Society.

Matthias previously worked as a professor for International Small Business Management and Innovation at Leuphana Univerity Lüneburg Germany and was a researcher at the Institute for Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship as well as head of the Research Institute for Liberal Professions at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria. Matthias holds a Ph.D. and a post-doctoral qualification (Habilitation) from WU Vienna University of Economics and Business and was a visiting professor at several universities, including Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, and University of Twente, in the Netherlands. Matthias’ research focuses on the role of innovation in new venture creation and small business management. His current interests include entrepreneurship as a driver of innovation and change in regional contexts, entrepreneurial finance and ethical issues in business research. In his research designs, Matthias combines quantitative and qualitative methods. His research has been published in journals that include Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, British Journal of Management, Journal of Banking and Finance, Technological Forecasting and Social Change as well as Regional Studies. In addition, he has published three monographs, two edited volumes, and has guest edited several special issues to international journals.

Previously, Robert was an Associate Professor at the Department of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. Robert holds a Ph.D in Mathematics with focus on applied statistics and a post-doctoral qualifications (Habilitation) in the field of business administration from Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt.

Robert’s research interests include Entrepreneurship and Innovation as well as multivariate and spatial statistical methods. His research has been published in journals such as Organizational Research Methods, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Management Decision, Creativity and Innovation Management, Review of Managerial Science as well as Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft.

She is the recipient of the Hertha Firnberg Postdoc Fellowship (funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)) at the University of Vienna, and was a visiting professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien). She has been involved in several applied and fundamental research projects in OR in health care, field staff routing and scheduling, and multi-objective combinatorial optimization (both as project leader and project collaborator). In March 2017, she was appointed full professor at the Johannes Kepler University Linz.

1998-1999 and 2004-2006 he was visiting professor at the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto. His research areas are innovation (creative processes, operational innovation management, design thinking, regional innovation ecosystems) and digital platforms and crowds (digital platforms as a new organizational form, platform-based, digital crowds, management of digital transformations).

His research results are presented at leading international conferences and are published in renowned journals in German-speaking and North American countries. He is a keynote speaker and advises top management in Europe, North America and China.

She received her master (2004) and doctoral degree (2008) of Business Administration from the WU Vienna (Austria) where she was on faculty at the Institute of Change Management and Management Development from 2004-2010. Her dissertation on knowledge management from the perspective of social systems theory was published by Gabler research series (2009) and has been awarded amongst others with the Stephan-Koren Award (WU Vienna, 2009) and the Award of Excellence (BMWF, 2009).

As a research fellow, Barbara spent research stays at Suffolk University, Boston, MA (2009); Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA (2012) and the University of Bath, UK (2014).

Since 2010 she has been working as post-doc researcher and assistant professor at the JKU where she received the venia docendi by completing her habilitation in 2016. Since then she is teaching and researching as an associate professor in the fields of leadership, organizational learning and change management.

By using qualitative research methods Barbara’s research focuses on studying organizational complexity, identity, and paradoxical phenomena, their influence on organizational development and change processes and the role of leadership in this regard. Her research aims at drawing practical implications on the development of organizations as well as of leaders and their identities.

Results of her work have appeared in various academic journals such as the Journal of Management Inquiry, International Business Review, Schmalenbach Business Review, Review of Managerial Science or The International Journal of Human Resource Management. She is an editorial board member of the “Austrian Management Review”, a yearly-published book series to support theory-practice transfer and strengthen academic-practitioner relationships for which she has served as editor-in-chief for seven years from its launch in 2010.

As part of his doctoral studies, funded by grants from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, he visited the University Alberta, FU Berlin and the University of Edinburgh. Under the umbrella of digital transformation, Thomas researches novel forms of organizing, crowdsourcing, various types of openness (open strategy, open innovation, and open government) and (cultural) entrepreneurship in a digital economy. Thomas’ work appears in international journals such as Long Range Planning, Business & Society, Government Information Quarterly and Information & Organization. Furthermore, he is a frequent speaker at academic as well as practitioner-oriented conferences
You can find out more about Thomas on his personal homepage.

He received his PhD in Economic Geography from the University of Turku in Finland, and his MA and BA in Sociology from the University of Graz in Austria. He has held research and teaching positions in Finland, Austria and the UK.

Ewald’s entrepreneurship research is pronouncedly multi-disciplinary, applying theories from psychology, sociology and geography. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, his main research interests are: Social Legitimation of New Ventures and Venture Failure; Entrepreneurship Culture and Regional Development; Place Attachment in Sustainable Entrepreneurship; Venture Imagination and Everyday Enterprising in Adverse Contexts; Shared Emotions and Local Institutional Change; Wellbeing and Later Career Entrepreneurship.

He is an Editorial Review Board Member of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and the International Small Business Journal. Ewald also act as peer-reviewer for academic outlets such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Small Business Economics, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development and Regional Studies (overview of review contributions). In 2017, he has been selected as an Outstanding Reviewer for Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Further, Ewald is on the Advisory Board of the Amway Global Entrepreneurship Report and he is acting as Reviewer of Social Entrepreneurship Teaching Cases for Oikos International.

Ewald’s research has been published in outlets such as the Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Economic Geography, Small Business Economics, Journal of Business Research, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Economic Psychology, Journal of Business Venturing Insights, and Regional Studies. His work has also been featured at the Best Papers proceedings of the Academy of Management Conference, ISBE Conference and the Frontiers for Entrepreneurship at the Babson Conference for Entrepreneurship.

Richard is also Senior Research Fellow in the School of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham, UK, where he earlier held a Marie Curie Fellowship at the Housing and Communities Research Group and was a William Plowden Fellow within the Third Sector Research Centre. Previously, Richard was Senior Researcher at the Research Institute for Co-operation and Co-operatives and Assistant Professor at the Institute for Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. He conducted his PhD studies at WU Vienna and KU Leuven in Belgium.

Richard’s research interests include social innovation and social enterprises, social capital and networks,  collaborative and cooperative housing, civil society governance, as well as urban and regional development. Richard has carried out and coordinated several research and knowledge transfer projects in these fields. His research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, such as European Planning Studies, International Small Business Journal, Journal of Rural Studies, Technological Forecasting and Social Change and Voluntas. Furthermore, Richard has published monographs, in edited volumes and he has guest edited special issues to international journals. Within the European Network for Housing Research, he is currently a coordinator of the working group on Collaborative Housing.