Prof. Dr. Stefanie Habersang
Associated member, Leuphana Center for Organization & Social Transformation
Vita
Stefanie Habersang is an Assistant Professor of Digital Transformation at the Institute for Management and Organization. She studied Business & Economics at Ruhr University Bochum and Business Administration at the University of Cologne and the University of Sydney. She earned her PhD at Leuphana University Lüneburg, where she was awarded the Leuphana Dissertation Award in 2021. In 2022, Dr. Habersang was an externally funded postdoctoral researcher at Copenhagen Business School.
Her research interests lie at the intersection of digital organizational transformation and sustainability. She focuses on various types of organizations, including large diversified firms and start-ups, employing primarily qualitative research methods. A particular focus of her work is the methodological advancement of qualitative meta-studies in the field of management and organization studies.
Her work has been recognized with several awards, including the Academy of Management Best Student Paper Award 2018 (Research Methods Division), the ABCD Reviewing Award (AOM), and the Leuphana Dissertation Award. In addition, her research was nominated for the EGOS Best Student Paper Award 2019 (Top 3), the Arnon Reichers Best Student Paper Award 2022 (Top 3, AOM Careers Division), the SMS PhD Paper Prize 2020, and the AOM SAP Best Paper Award 2025 (Top 3). Her work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Management Studies, Organizational Research Methods, Organization Studies, the Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, and the Handbook of Philosophy of Management. From 2022 to 2024, she was supported by the Add-On Fellowship of the Joachim Herz Foundation.
Together with Carsten Wille, Stefanie Habersang co-directs the Female Entrepreneurship Program "ScaleF" at Leuphana University. Each year, this program provides ten female founders with intensive training, coaching, and financial support to facilitate their successful entry into self-employment. More information for interested founders is available here.
Dr. Habersang is also a founding member of the initiative Organization Scientists 4 Future (OS4Future) and serves as Data & Analytics Officer of the SAP Interest Group within the Academy of Management.
She regularly teaches the modules "The Future of Work" and "Digital Transformation" (summer semester), as well as "Digital-Sustainable Business Model Innovation" and "Empirical Research Project" (winter semester). She has also taught in the master's course "Business Innovation" at the University of St. Gallen.
Projects
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EXIST Women ScaleF 26
Stefanie Habersang (Project manager, academic) , Carsten Wille (Coordination)
→Project: Research
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Exist Women - ScaleF Female Entrepreneurship Program
Stefanie Habersang (Project manager, academic) , Carsten Wille (Project manager, academic)
→Project: Transfer (professional training)
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EXIST Women - ScaleF
Stefanie Habersang (Project manager, academic) , Franziska Pohlmann (Partner) , Anja Thiem (Partner) , Carsten Wille (Coordination) , Beate Friedrich (Partner)
→Project: Transfer (professional training)
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A Temporal Perspective on Disruptive Innovation Processes: A new Agenda for Research and Practice
Stefanie Habersang (Project manager, academic) , Sarah Stanske (Project manager, academic)
→Project: Research
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The impacts of bottom-up vs. top-down interventions in fostering female entrepreneurship in Mozambique
Mona Mensmann (Project manager, academic) , Francisco Campos (Partner) , Frederica Ricaldi (Partner) , Stefanie Habersang (Partner) , Gareth Roberts (Partner)
Project: Research
Publications
Books and anthologies
- Special Issue: What do social and environmental responsibilities mean in the ‘Global South’? Towards pluriversal perspectives in management studies
Pilar Acosta (Editor) , Booby Banerjee (Editor) , Joel Bothello (Editor) , Stefanie Habersang (Editor) , Stella Nkomo (Editor) , Kristina Potočnik (Editor) , 2025Research output: Books and anthologies › Special Journal issue › Research
Journal contributions
- Toward a Relational Perspective on Hybrid Entrepreneurship: Institutional Complexity and the Co-Construction of Liminal Space in Hybrid Female Entrepreneurship
Mulu Hundera (Author) , Mona Mensmann (Author) , Stefanie Habersang (Author) , 18.06.2026 , in: Entrepreneurship Theory and PracticeResearch output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research
- Digital Responsibility: Building Bridges between Organization Theory and Information Systems
Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich (Author) , Markus Philipp Zimmer (Author) , Stefanie Habersang (Author) , Leonhard Dobusch (Author) , Maren Gierlich-Joas (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
- Navigating (In)Visibility: Exploring Political Dynamics in Future-Making
Stefanie Habersang (Author) , Markus Reihlen (Author) , Johanne Düsterbeck (Author) , 01.07.2025 , in: Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2025, 1 , 6 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Conference article in journal › Research › peer-review
- Navigating the Family Support Paradox in Female Entrepreneurship – A Developing Country Perspective
Mulu Hundera (Author) , Mona Mensmann (Author) , Stefanie Habersang (Author) , 01.07.2025 , in: Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2025, 1Research output: Journal contributions › Conference article in journal › Research › peer-review
- Advancing Qualitative Meta-Studies (QMS): Current Practices and Reflective Guidelines for Synthesizing Qualitative Research
Stefanie Habersang (Author) , Markus Reihlen (Author) , 01.04.2025 , in: Organizational Research Methods, 28, 2 , p. 210-244 , 35 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Contributions to collected editions/anthologies
- Realist Inquiry
Markus Reihlen (Author) , Stefanie Habersang (Author) , Natalia Nikolova (Author) , 23.07.2022 Schweiz , p. 1-23 , 23 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review
- OS4Future: An academic advocacy movement for our future
Giuseppe Delmestri (Author) , Helen Etchanchu (Author) , Joel Bothello (Author) , Stefanie Habersang (Author) , Gabriela Gutierrez-Huerter O (Author) , Elke Schüßler (Author) , 30.09.2021 Cheltenham , p. 218-229 , 12 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review
- Advancing Qualitative Meta-Analyses: A Realist and a Constructivist Approach
Stefanie Habersang (Author) , Markus Reihlen (Author) , 02.07.2018 Chicagpo , 6 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Published abstract in conference proceedings › Research › peer-review
Impact
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Leuphana ScaleF programme catalyzes start ups for women
Stefanie Habersang
Impact: Economic Impact, Social Impact, Technological Impact
Activities
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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)
→Activity: Conference Presentations › Research
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Acknowledging the Pluriverse in Social and Environmental Responsibilities
Pilar Acosta (Panel participant) , Stefanie Habersang (Panel participant) , Bobby Banerjee (Panel participant) , Joel Bothello (Panel participant) , Frederike Döbbe (Panel participant) , Kristina Potocnik (Panel participant)
Activity: Conference Presentations › Research
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Innovating amid poly- and permacrisis: The role of time in organizing for disruptive innovation
Stefanie Habersang (Coauthor) , Eva-Maria Spreitzer (Coauthor) , Raghu Garud (Coauthor) , Tor Hernes (Coauthor) , Oliver Ibert (Coauthor) , Patricia Klarner (Coauthor) , Gargi Sharma (Coauthor) , Matthias Wenzel (Keynote Speaker) , Sarah Stanske (Panel participant)
→Activity: Conference Presentations › Research
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Qualitative Knowledge Synthesis in Management Research: Approaches, Opportunities & Expert Insights
Stefanie Habersang (Speaker) , Miriam Feuls (Panel participant) , Rikke Albertson (Panel participant) , Nick Berente (Panel participant) , Hans Behrends (Panel participant) , Christina Hoon (Panel participant) , Markus Reihlen (Panel participant) , Maria Rumyantseva (Panel participant)
Activity: Conference Presentations › Research
Prizes
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Nominierung CURIA Award - Kategorie: "Karriere gestalten"
(Recipient) ,Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Transfer
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OMT Above and Beyond the Call of Duty (ABCD) Reviewing Award, Academy of Management 2025
(Recipient) ,Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research
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SAP Best Paper Award Finalist, Academy of Management 2025
(Recipient) (Recipient) ,Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointments › Research
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Best Paper Award 2024
(Recipient) ,Prize: Leuphana internal Prize, Scholaships, distinctions, appointments › Research
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Impact Prize 2024
(Recipient) ,Prize: Leuphana internal Prize, Scholaships, distinctions, appointments › Transfer
Courses
In this group research project, you will design and carry out your own inductive empirical study in the field of digital transformation. You will start from a phenomenon that puzzles you, gather qualitative data, and develop conceptual insights from that material. The course treats research as a craft that is learned by doing. You will move through the full research process, from identifying a relevant question to presenting findings that speak to both scholarly debates and managerial practice.
As future managers, you will need to make decisions about technologies whose effects are uncertain and often contested. The course aims to help you develop an informed and critical understanding of these developments. A central question throughout is how digital technologies can be used to build businesses that are economically viable while also taking their social and ecological responsibilities seriously. We will approach this question with an awareness that technological change is not neutral. Each new technology redistributes tasks, competences, visibility and power, and it creates opportunities for some actors while generating risks or burdens for others.
Each group will develop its own research question. A good question addresses a phenomenon that is empirically accessible within the time frame of the course and open enough to allow surprises. It should also relate to a meaningful debate in management and organization studies. Questions typically begin with “how” or “why” and focus on practices, experiences, meanings or processes rather than on measuring effects. The following examples illustrate possible directions (but you are fully free to choose your own question):
• How do managers use AI in their daily work, and how does this change the way they understand their own role and expertise?
• How do employees adapt their tasks and work routines when generative AI tools are introduced, and where do they draw boundaries around what they are willing to delegate?
• How do organizations make sense of data-driven decision making when algorithmic outputs conflict with experience-based judgement?
• How do start-ups and established firms frame the social and ecological responsibilities of their digital business models, and how are these claims enacted in practice?
• How do remote and hybrid teams build trust and coordinate work when interaction is mediated by digital platforms?
• How do frontline workers experience algorithmic management in logistics, retail or platform work
• How do organizations develop images of a digital future, and how do these visions shape present investment and strategy?
Course:
This course consists of the following 10 parts: (1) discussing relevant theories in the field of organization theory and digital transformation, (2) identifying a gap or puzzle and formulating a research question, (3) understanding different qualitative research designs, (5) designing a qualitative study (data access and data collection), (6) analyzing and interpreting qualitative data using a grounded-theory approach (7) coding qualitative data with MaxQDA, (8) presenting and writing-up qualitative findings, (9) building theory from qualitative findings (10) ethics in qualitative research.
(1) Application and selection
The selection procedure is inseparably connected with the formal procedure for coordinating supervision places at the School of Management & Technology. The application deadline is communicated by the Study Dean’s Office, and selection decisions are communicated in keeping with the regulations by the Study Dean’s Office.
For an application to be complete, please upload an up-to-date performance record in the folder “applications” on myStudy and short description of your field of interest (e.g. by filling out the Kick-Off Page, see here: https://www.leuphana.de/en/institutes/imo/digital-transformation/final-theses.html)
If the number of applications exceeds available supervision capacities (3 supervisions per semester), decisions on acceptance/rejection are made based on your performance in courses and seminars of the Professorship for Digital Transformation.
(2) Topic Development
You can either develop a topic on your own or you look at the materials folder as I have 1-2 topics as a suggestion uploaded.
(3) Registration process
If we can find a common area for supervision and you are selected, the process will be as follows:
- Initial meeting based on your application.
- Preparation of an exposé within one month; another meeting will be held to support this process.
- Feedback on your exposé and resubmission after 14 days.
- Registration of the thesis. Please note: the latest date for registering your thesis in the summer term is the following date: Master thesis: April, 30 // Bachelor thesis: May, 30. The lastest date for registering your thesis in the winter term is the following date: Master thesis: Oct, 30 // BAchelorthesis: Nov, 30). In case the deadline is not met, I cannot supervise your thesis anymore!!!
- Completion of the thesis within the current semester. After registering your thesis, up to two more meetings for further coordination can be scheduled.
All the steps mentioned above must be completed on time to ensure your thesis is finished within the current semester!
(4) Proposal details
You have to compose a proposal (max. six pages) for your final thesis. This proposal should explicate the following aspects:
-Cover sheet including the title of your thesis and research question (also: name, matriculation number, etc)
-Relevance: Why is it interesting to address this research question or topic?
-Positioning: In which stream of literature is the topic embedded? What do we know? What do we not know or what is the problematic assumption that you would like to challenge? What is the research question that emerges out of your problematization/gap-spotting in the literature?
-Methodological approach: If your intend to conduct an empirical study, please specify your research design and your aspired data collection procedures. Please note that conceptual theses are eligible as well. If so, elaborations on methodical procedures are not required.
-Abstract description of expected findings: When developing your ideas, you might already have ideas about the direction that your analysis might take.
-References
In this class, students will also actively engage with AI models such as ChatGPT to support the ideation and creativity process in building a platform business model. Together, we will critically assess and discuss the use of AI for building a sustainable platform business model.
In line with our engagement in the PRME initative, this course draws on the I5 Playbook (https://www.i5playbook.org). Business leaders are undeniably one of the most important agents to create sustainable positive development for the world. In the wake of a global pandemic, rising inequalities and environmental disasters, it has become increasingly clear that leaders with a holistic skillset are in scarce supply. These humanitarian catastrophes have surfaced ‘wicked problems’ where no predefined methods exist to solve these transnational challenges and where the call for novel innovative solutions, and ‘minds-on/hands-on’ multi-disciplinary approaches are critically in demand. Today, there is an urgent need for world leaders who can leverage interconnected, dynamic and holistic skills to tackle the global challenges society faces. Therefore, this course implements the I5 principles:
1. Make learning Meaningful
2. Facilitate Active Engagement
3. Design for Iteration
4. Develop supportive Social Interaction
5. Foster Joy and Well-being