Doctoral Research Group Entrepreneurship, Management & Innovation

Our doctoral programme is designed for future researchers in entrepreneurship, management and innovation. Our goal is to train doctoral students for research positions at leading universities or advanced research careers in consulting, government, or industry. As a doctoral student, you receive training in state-of-the-art research and build a profound knowledge base in entrepreneurship, management, and innovation. Doctoral students learn to advance theory, develop scientifically sound research designs, and publish their research in international top-tier journals. This is the stepping stone for becoming an independent researcher and contributing to academic debates in the field.

The doctoral training involves four compulsory modules of the Leuphana doctoral study programme. These four modules are Philosophy of Science, Research Methods, Scientific Practice/Ethics, and ongoing Research Colloquia. Additionally, the training includes further development options to enhance the doctoral experience and provide a kick-start for the academic career, such as the doctoral summer school of the European University Network on Entrepreneurship (ESU) and the winter school of the Leuphana Conference on Entrepreneurship (LCE), research workshops with international guest researchers, doctoral conferences involving intensive writing workshops, a research stay at an international partner university, and a mentoring programme. Furthermore, doctoral candidates receive financial support by the Qualification Fund of Leuphana Graduate School for attending scholarly conferences, summer schools, short-term research visits, and workshops.

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Areas of Research

Our research projects aim at enhancing our theoretical understanding of entrepreneurship, management and innovation in order to support entrepreneurs and managers in their entrepreneurial and organizational undertakings. We conduct research projects from psychological, organizational, and strategic perspectives. We believe that only an integration of the different perspectives leads to a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena of entrepreneurship, management, and innovation. Our research projects cover various areas, such as corporate and professional entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship training, international business and HR management, negotiations in the context of entrepreneurship and management, the aging workforce and demographic change, knowledge management, occupational health psychology, strategy as process and practice, organizational paradoxes, power, creativity, time and temporality, space, new technologies, and organizational communication.

Doctoral Degrees

Depending on the subject and method of the dissertation, the respective faculty confers the following doctoral degrees:

  • Dr. phil.
  • Dr. rer. pol.

Spokesperson

  • Prof. Dr. Laura Venz

Doctoral Supervisors

  • Prof. Dr. Sigrid Bekmeier-Feuerhahn
  • Prof. Dr. Boukje Cnossen
  • Prof. Dr. Jürgen Deller
  • Prof. Dr. Steffen Farny
  • Prof. Dr. Michael Frese
  • Prof. Dr. Oliver Genschow
  • Prof. Dr. Michael Gielnik
  • Prof. Dr. Stefanie Habersang
  • Prof. Dr. David Loschelder
  • Prof. Dr. Markus Reihlen
  • Prof. Dr. Sabine Remdisch
  • Prof. Dr. Dennis Schöneborn
  • Prof. Dr. Elke Schüßler
  • Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schulte
  • Prof. Dr. Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich
  • Prof. Dr. Laura Venz
  • Prof. Dr. Ursula Weisenfeld
  • Prof. Dr. Matthias Wenzel

Associates

  • Prof. Dr. Marcus Pietsch

Activities

Recently Completed Dissertation Projects

  • Elena Eckert: Assessing Sustainability and Resilience in Tourism Destinations
  • Sebastian Johannes Norman Franzke: Kompetenzentwicklung in kleinen und mittleren Produktionsunternehmen - Forschungsgeleitete Entwicklung einer Vorgehensweise zur Erstellung eines strategischen Kompetenzmodells
  • Katrin Kizilkan: Understanding User Behavior and Communication Strategies for Successful Crowdfunding Campaigns - Insights from Platform Dynamics and Social Media Engagement
  • Arne Kuder: Offene Innovation in kleinen, familiengeführten Hotelunternehmen - Ein integratives Modell unter Berücksichtigung des Promotorenmodells, Dienstleistungsdominanter Logik, Unternehmerischer Orientierung und Organisatorischen Verhaltens
  • Verena Meyer: Critical Perspectives on Entrepreneurship - Challenging the Agent, the Discourse(s) and Dominant Assumptions
  • Hannes Marwin Petrowsky: First-Offer Effects in Negotiations-A Meta-Analytical Synthesis of Experimental Research & Investigation of 26 Million Real-World-Negotiations
  • Aileen Schlömer-Jarvis: Unused Potential? The Implementation (Gap) of Inclusion-Promoting Practices for People With Disabilities - An Empirical Analysis
  • Lennart Seitz: Social Actor or Technology? Experimental Studies on the Perception of Chatbots Versus Humans and Their Implications for Anthropomorphic Chatbot Design
  • Berenike Wiener: Nachhaltige Geldanlage in Stiftungen, Eine Mehrebenenbetrachtung von Faktoren der Veränderungsbereitschaft

Doctoral Courses

As a doctoral candidate at Leuphana, you not only write your dissertation, but also participate in the interdisciplinary doctoral courses to the extent of 30 credit points, which include (inter)disciplinary colloquia (Research Forum I and Research Forum II) and furthermore comprises four interdisciplinary modules on research ethics, research methods, scientific practice and current perspectives on science. Please find more information about Leuphana's doctoral courses here.

Doctoral Topics, Positions and Scholarships

The EMI group invites applications for PhD super­vision places in the areas of psychology or management and organization. The best applicants with out­standing qualifications will be offered a PhD scholar­ship, either in the area of management and organization or in psychology. The dead­line for applications is May 15, 2025.

Read more here: 

Here you will find current open positions in research and teaching at Leuphana.

Admission

If you wish to pursue your doctorate at Leuphana, you must be enrolled as doctoral student. Information about admission to the doctorate at Leuphana and the application procedure can be found here.

Leuphana Graduate School offers advice and coaching to academics in the qualification phase. The Graduate School's advisor will be happy to support you in questions of decision-making, challenges in the course of your doctorate, and career planning and development. You can find more information about the counselling and coaching services here.