Leonie Anika Eising-Mertsch, M.Sc.
Associated member, Leuphana Center for Organization & Social Transformation
Vita
Leonie Eising is a PhD researcher at the Chair of Business Administration, in particular Innovation Management.
After her dual studies in Business Administration and her master's degree in Management & Business Development at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Leonie Eising worked from June 2018 as a Science Manager and in Quality Management in the Dean's office of the Faculty of Business and Economics. She joined the Institute of Management & Organization (IMO) in November 2019.
Leonie conducts research at the intersection of organization & management, entrepreneurship and sustainability transitions. Her current work focuses on how to navigate change towards more sustainability. Using qualitative and conceptual research methods, she explores organizing and citizen-driven, sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship that contribute to systems change.
Publications
Journal contributions
- Designing Understanding: Sustainability Entrepreneurs Connect with Adopters
Leonie Eising (Author) , Ursula Weisenfeld (Author) , Maike Buhr (Author) , 17.06.2025 , in: Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2025, 1 , 6 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Conference article in journal › Research › peer-review
- Frames of systems change in sustainability transformations: Lessons from sociotechnical systems and circular economy case studies
Leonie Eising (Author) , Paulo Savaget (Author) , Thayla Zomer (Author) , Aoife Brophy (Author) , 10.11.2024 , in: Journal of Cleaner Production, 479 , 13 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Activities
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Multilevel Resilience in the Face of Creeping Crises
Laura Fey (Coauthor) , Anna Stöber (Speaker) , Leonie Eising (Speaker)
Activity: Conference Presentations › Research
Prizes
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Best Paper Award 2024
(Recipient) ,Prize: Leuphana internal Prize, Scholaships, distinctions, appointments › Research
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Teaching Award of School of Management and Technology 2024
(Recipient) (Recipient) ,Prize: Leuphana internal Prize, Scholaships, distinctions, appointments › Education
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Teaching Award
(Recipient) ,Prize: Leuphana internal Prize, Scholaships, distinctions, appointments › Education
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Nomination Best Paper Award in honour of Alistair Anderson
(Recipient) ,Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research
Courses
Managing organizations in today’s competitive and societal environment is complex and challenging. Think about the newspaper industry, which is undergoing one of its most fundamental changes triggered by the rise of digital technology. Firms are seeking salvation in a declining industry by creating new business models and defensive cost cutting strategies. The key issue we address in this course is how managers orchestrate the interplay between strategy, organization, and innovation for navigating their organizations through complex economic, cultural, political, and ecological demands. This course is built upon the premise that students of management should learn to combine state of the art scientific knowledge with practical applications and reflections. Instead of regarding the student as a passive memorizer of predefined knowledge, participants will reflect upon theories and become active inquirers themselves.
COURSE STRUCTURE
We will use a flexible teaching style mixing lectures, case discussions, and multimedia presentations whenever appropriate. It is imperative for you as a student to have read the required book chapters, articles, and cases before coming to class. Class discussion will be used to explore theoretical as well as practical business implications from an interdisciplinary perspective.
A primary goal of this tutorial is advancing students' research projects, which will make up 70% of the final grade. The research projects are group-based projects of about three students. The students will conduct their qualitative study and present interim results within this tutorial (30% of final grade). While the students themselves will develop their individual research questions, the broader focus of this seminar will be on 'Entrepreneurial Ecosystems'. Students are asked to interview people for their research projects and maybe even collect further qualitative data, if applicable. The online lecture will be used to discuss current challenges, and the students will apply the lecture's theoretical constructs in practice.
Next to psychological and social factors that shape entrepreneurship, the environment, specifically the ‘ecosystem,’ is vital for the process and outcome of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial ecosystems consist of interacting actors and factors relevant to entrepreneurship in a specific territory. Stam and Van de Ven (2021) propose an entrepreneurial ecosystem model of institutions and resources with ten mutually interdependent and measurable elements: formal institutions, culture, networks, physical infrastructure, demand, intermediaries, talent, knowledge, leadership, and finance. Exploring entrepreneurial ecosystems is essential to identify ecosystems' strengths and weaknesses and consider mechanisms to further desirable developments. Ideally, the output of the ecosystem is some value creation or ‘productive entrepreneurship’ (Audretsch et al. 2021; Stam and Van de Ven 2021). Thus, scholars have investigated entrepreneurial ecosystems in regions or cities emphasizing stimulating high growth (Audretsch et al. 2021; Stam and Van de Ven 2021). However, sustainable entrepreneurship solves societal and environmental problems (Schaltegger and Wagner 2011) and needs different institutions and relations (Volkmann et al. 2021) than entrepreneurship aiming at profit maximization and growth. What kind of entrepreneurial ecosystem is conducive to entrepreneurship for sustainable development? What dynamics unfold in entrepreneurial ecosystems? What are the drivers and barriers to impact creation in the entrepreneurial ecosystem? All these and many more are questions we can explore using qualitative methods.