Prof. Dr. Elke Schüßler

21335 Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1, 6.113a
Fon +49.4131.677-2131, elke.schuessler@leuphana.de
Professor*in, Professorship of Business Administration, in particular Entrepreneurship and Organization Studies
Assoziierte/r, Leuphana Center for Organization & Social Transformation

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Vita

Prof. Dr. Elke Schüßler is Professor of Business Administration, in particular Entrepreneurship and Organization Studies at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Since 2026 she also holds a Chair of Transformative Change at Johannes Kepler University, Linz. From 2016 to 2023 she was Professor of Business Administration and Head of the Institute of Organization Science at Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. Before that, she was Assistant Professor of Organization Theory at Freie Universität Berlin, where she also completed her dissertation at the Pfadkolleg Research Center.

Prof. Schüßler studies dynamics of organizational and institutional change with a focus on the development of sustainable forms of work and organizing and the role of creativity and entrepreneurship in these processes. With a background in Psychology (BSc, University of Sussex) and Industrial Relations (MSc, London School of Economics) she takes an interdisciplinary approach to her research and frequently collaborates with colleagues from other disciplines, e.g. in the context of the Global Garment Supply Chain Governance Project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, the DFG Research Unit Organized Creativity or the DFG Scientific Network Field Configuring Events.

Her research has been published in leading social science journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Perspectives, Creativity and Innovation Management, Development and Change, Human Relations, Industrial and Corporate Change, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Industry and Innovation, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Regional Studies or Socio-Economic Review. She has received several awards, including the Academy of Management Journal Best Reviewer Award (2023), the Labor and Employment Relations Association Best International/Comparative IR Paper Award (2021), the Ideas Worth Teaching Award (2020), the Academy of Management Journal Best Article Award (2015) or the VHB Best Paper Award (2014).

Prof. Schüßler serves the national and international scientific community in various ways. She serves on the editorial/review board of Organization Studies, Socio-Economic Review, the Weizenbaum Journal of Digital Society and the Academy of Management Journal. She is a member of the advisory board of the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin and the Momentum Institute in Vienna. Between 2022 and 2024 she chaired the Wissenschaftliche Kommission Organisation in the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB). From 2020 to 2026 she was a member of the Executive Board of the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS).

Projects

  1. Corporate Sustainability Communication in an Age of Polarization (CS-CAP): Why Firms Either Engage in Stakeholder Dialogue or Retract to Strategic Silence
    Hanna Pauline Börries (Project manager, academic) , Elke Schüßler (Partner) , Dennis Schöneborn (Partner)

    Project: Dissertation project

  2. Research Consortium ‘Sustainability governance of global value chains’
    Jens Newig (Project manager, academic) , (Project manager, academic) , Franca Bülow (Coordination) , Barbara Ehbauer (Project staff) , Jelto Makris (Project staff) , Jelena Bäumler (Project manager, academic) , Elke Schüßler (Project manager, academic) , Stefan Schaltegger (Project manager, academic) , Patrick Velte (Project manager, academic) , (Project manager, academic) , Alexander Schall (Project manager, academic) , (Project manager, academic) , (Project manager, academic) , (Project manager, academic) , (Project staff) , Kathleen Evers (Project staff) , Nora Große (Project staff) , Finn Jonas Bongert (Project staff) , (Project staff) , (Project staff) , (Project staff) , (Project staff) , (Project staff) , (Project staff) , Saumya Satishbhai Raval (Project staff)
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    Project: Research

  3. Entrainment: Temporal Structuring of Creative Projects
    Elke Schüßler (Project manager, academic) , (Project manager, academic) , (Project manager, academic) , Marie Hoop (Project staff)
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    Project: Research

  4. Digitalization and Work Organization. Narratives, Practices, and Design Implications
    Elke Schüßler (Project manager, academic)
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    Project: Research

  5. Appetite for Digitalization? Platform-based Business Models in the Restaurant and Food Services Industry
    Elke Schüßler (Project manager, academic)
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    Project: Practical Project

View all projects

Publications

Books and anthologies

  1. Organizing Creativity in the Innovation Journey
    Elke Schüßler (Editor) , Patrick S. Cohendet (Editor) , Silviya Svejenova (Editor) , 2021 , 296 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Special Journal issue › Research

  2. Managing Interorganizational Relations: Debates and Cases
    Elke Schüßler (Author) , Jörg Sydow (Author) , Gordon Müller-Seitz (Author) , 2015 , 368 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Monographs › Research

  3. Akustisches Kapital: Wertschöpfung in der Musikwirtschaft
    Elke Schüßler (Editor) , Bastian Lange (Editor) , Hans-Joachim Bürkner (Editor) , 2013 Bielefeld , 360 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Collected editions and anthologies › Research

  4. Strategische Prozesse und Persistenzen: Pfadabhängige Organisation und Wertschöpfung in der deutschen Bekleidungsindustrie
    Elke Schüßler (Author) , 2009 , 197 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Monographs › Research

View all publications

Journal contributions

  1. Digital platforms and democratic publics: How social media platforms selectively appropriate and strategically subvert institutional logics
    Elke Schüßler (Author) , Sara Maric (Author) , Leonhard Dobusch (Author) , 01.03.2026 , in: Information and Organization, 36, 1 , 15 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  2. The Mission (Im)possible of Climate Action through Quixotic Institutional Work
    Elke Schüßler (Author) , Giuseppe Delmestri (Author) , 01.12.2025 , in: Journal of Management Studies, 62, 8 , p. 3638-3658 , 21 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  3. The Past, Present and Future of the Corporate Actor: Ontological, Epistemological and Theoretical Considerations
    Elke Schüßler (Author) , Dennis Schöneborn (Author) , Michaela Haase (Author) , Ute Schmiel (Author) , Günther Ortmann (Author) , Andreas Suchanek (Author) , 01.12.2025 , in: Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, 77, 4 , p. 643-680 , 38 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  4. Digital Responsibility: Building Bridges between Organization Theory and Information Systems
    Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich (Author) , Markus Philipp Zimmer (Author) , Stefanie Habersang (Author) , Maren Gierlich-Joas (Author) , Leonhard Dobusch (Author) , Elke Schüßler (Author) , Benjamin Mueller (Author) , Christina Mihale-Wilson (Author) , Julia Zeller-Lanzl (Author) , Stephan Bohn (Author) , Marc-Fabian Körner (Author) , Georg von Richthofen (Author) , Ali Aslan Gümüsay (Author) , 01.12.2025 , in: Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research (SBuR), 77, 4 , p. 597-642 , 46 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  5. Neither Employment nor Self-Employment: Avenues Towards Functional Platform-Mediated Work Systems
    Elke Schüßler (Author) , Sara Maric (Author) , Laura Thäter (Author) , 01.06.2025 , in: British Journal of Industrial Relations, 63, 2 , p. 287-304 , 18 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

View all publications

Contributions to collected editions/anthologies

  1. (Gegen-)Bewegungen der Digitalisierung: Feldtheoretische Perspektiven auf Plattformen und Arbeit 4.0
    Elke Schüßler (Author) , Uli Meyer (Author) , Susanne Pernicka (Author) , 10.04.2024 1 ed. Weinheim , p. 248 - 260 , 13 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research

  2. Cloud-Arbeit in Österreich: Narrative, Praxis und Gestaltungsoptionen
    Elke Schüßler (Author) , Sara Maric (Author) , 01.01.2023 Wien , p. 37-40 , 4 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Article in conference proceedings › Research

  3. How do workers gain voice on digital work platforms? Hotspots and blind spots in research on platform worker voice
    Thomas Gegenhuber (Author) , Elke Schüßler (Author) , Laura Thäter (Author) , Markus Ellmer (Author) , 11.10.2022 Cheltenham , p. 71-107 , 36 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review

  4. Building collective institutional infrastructures for decent platform work: The development of a crowdwork agreement in Germany
    Thomas Gegenhuber (Author) , Elke Schüßler (Author) , Georg Reischauer (Author) , Laura Thäter (Author) , 29.03.2022 Bingley , p. 43-68 , 26 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review

  5. Managing Global Production Networks: Towards Social Responsibility via Inter-organizational Reliability?
    Elke Schüßler (Author) , Jörg Sydow (Author) , Markus Helfen (Author) , 03.02.2022 Cham , p. 133-158 , 26 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review

View all publications

Impact

Activities

  1. Keynote speaker at PDW on Desirable Futures
    Elke Schüßler (Keynote Speaker)
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    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

  2. I am behind the screen: Understanding the invisible work of content moderators on digital platforms
    Elke Schüßler (Speaker) , Sara Maric (Coauthor)
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    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

  3. What if Society Collapses? Re-envisioning Strategy and Organization Scholarship through Radical Hope
    Elke Schüßler (Speaker) , Stefanie Habersang (Coauthor) , Pilar Acosta (Coauthor) , Joel Bothello (Coauthor) , Giuseppe Delmestri (Coauthor) , Helen Etchanchu (Coauthor)
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    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

  4. Exploring Corporate Sustainability (CS) Communication in Polarized Contexts: A Qualitative Meta Synthesis
    Elke Schüßler (Speaker) , Hanna Pauline Börries (Coauthor)
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    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

  5. Towards more radical forms of collective action in global supply chain governance? Pragmatic cooperation for sustainability and human rights in times of regulatory backlash
    Elke Schüßler (Speaker) , Nora Große (Coauthor)
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    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

View all activities

Press / Media

  1. „Kafkaesk“ heute: KI ohne Aufsicht
    1 Media contribution

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  2. From entrepreneurs of chaos into the Leuphana Transformation Lab.
    1 Media contribution

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  3. Entrepreneurship in times of social crisis.
    1 Media contribution

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  4. Tut sich da noch was… bei den Arbeitsbedingungen in der Bekleidungsindustrie in Bangladesch?
    1 discussion

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  5. Entrepreneurs of chaos? From disruptive innovation to negentropic entrepreneurship.
    1 Media contribution

    Press/Media: Press/Media

View all press/media coverage

Prizes

  1. David Marsden Best Paper Prize 2024
    Elke Schüßler (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research

  2. Academy of Management Journal Best Reviewer Award
    Elke Schüßler (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research

  3. LERA 2021 James G. Scoville Best International/Comparative IR Paper Award
    Elke Schüßler (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research

  4. Aspen Award - Ideas Worth Teaching Award
    Elke Schüßler (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Education

  5. Academy of Management Perspectives Special Mention Award
    Elke Schüßler (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research

View all prizes

Courses