Prof. Dr. Elke Schüßler

Elke Schüßler is Professor of Business Administration, in particular Entrepreneurship with a focus on organizational and social change at Leuphana University Lüneburg. 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 held a Junior Professorship of Organization Theory at Freie Universität Berlin, where she also completed her dissertation at the Pfadkolleg Research Center).

Professor Schüßler is interested in dynamics of institutional change and particularly studies macro-organizational contexts like organizational fields, industries, global supply chains or regional clusters that are crucial for shaping a sustainable economy. Her work pays particular attention to interaction spaces such as local experimental spaces, field-configuring events or online communities as well as to institutional and cultural entrepreneurs that create and use such settings to challenge established norms and shape new practices. She is also interested in various forms of academic activism and the contribution of management scholarship in a world increasingly disrupted by crises and environmental collapse.

With a background in Psychology (BSc, University of Sussex) and Industrial Relations (MSc, London School of Economics), she takes an interdisciplinary approach to her work and frequently collaborates with colleagues from other social sciences such as 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 Studies, Regional Studies or Socio-Economic Review.

Professor Schüßler 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).

Her service to the scientific community includes roles as Associate Editor at Business & Society, EGOS Executive Board Member, and Chair of the German Organization Scholars Association ("WK Org").