Prof. Dr. Matthias Wenzel
Werdegang
Matthias Wenzel ist Professor für Organisation an der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg und Gastprofessor an der Universidad EAFIT in Medellín (Kolumbien). Vor seinem Wechsel zur Leuphana im September 2019 absolvierte er Studium (Bachelor: 2008; Master: 2011), Promotion (2015) und die sich daran anschließende PostDoc-Zeit an der Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder).
Prof. Wenzel befasst sich mit dem Zusammenspiel von Organisation und Strategie aus einer praxistheoretischen Perspektive sowie den gesellschaftlichen Implikationen dieses Zusammenspiels. Seine Forschung beruht i.d.R. auf qualitativen Studien mit verschiedenen analytischen Ansätzen, z.B. critical discourse analysis und video analysis. Seine Arbeiten wurden in Zeitschriften wie z.B. dem Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Perspectives, Business & Society, Business Ethics Quarterly, Human Relations, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Management Inquiry, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Long Range Planning, Organization Studies, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Strategic Management Journal und Strategic Organization veröffentlicht. Zudem ist er Senior Editor für Organization Studies, Mitglied des Herausgeberbeirats der zfo - Zeitschrift Führung+Organisation sowie Mitglied des Editoral Boards des Academy of Management Journal und Strategic Organization.
ABSCHLUSSARBEITEN
Hinweise zu Abschlussarbeiten finden Studierende auf myStudy.
Projekte
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Förderung wiss. Nachwuchs Managerial Accounting
Matthias Wenzel (Wissenschaftliche Projektleiter*in) , (Projektmitarbeiter*in) , (Wissenschaftliche Projektleiter*in)
→Projekt: Forschung
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Future matters: Wie organisationale Pfadabhängigkeit durch "future-making" beeinflusst wird
Matthias Wenzel (Wissenschaftliche Projektleiter*in)
→Projekt: Forschung
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LeuFIT
Matthias Wenzel (Wissenschaftliche Projektleiter*in)
→Projekt: Wissenschaftliche Veranstaltung
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VHB-Tagung 2024
Matthias Wenzel (Wissenschaftliche Projektleiter*in)
→Projekt: Wissenschaftliche Veranstaltung
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TrICo Teilprojekt: Community Social Innovation und Entrepreneurship
Robert Hoyer (Projektmitarbeiter*in) , Matthias Wenzel (Wissenschaftliche Projektleiter*in) , Markus Reihlen (Wissenschaftliche Projektleiter*in) , Steffen Farny (Wissenschaftliche Projektleiter*in) , Boukje Cnossen (Wissenschaftliche Projektleiter*in) , Jacob Hörisch (Wissenschaftliche Projektleiter*in) , Ursula Weisenfeld (Wissenschaftliche Projektleiter*in) , Frederic Penz (Projektmitarbeiter*in) , Lillan Lommel (Projektmitarbeiter*in) , Charlotte Wulffen (Projektmitarbeiter*in)
→Projekt: Transfer (Wissenschaftliche Dienstleistung)
Publikationen
Bücher und Anthologien
- Imagination and Organization Studies: Insights and Reflections
Matthias Wenzel (Herausgeber*in) , 2023 Lüneburg , 46 S.Publikation: Bücher und Anthologien › Sammelwerke und Anthologien › Forschung
- Foundations of Management & Entrepreneurship: Courses and Cases
Matthias Wenzel (Herausgeber*in) , 2023 Lüneburg , 435 S.Publikation: Bücher und Anthologien › Sammelwerke und Anthologien › Forschung
- Foundations of Management & Entrepreneurship: Courses and Cases
Matthias Wenzel (Herausgeber*in) , 2023 2. Aufl. Lüneburg , 455 S.Publikation: Bücher und Anthologien › Sammelwerke und Anthologien › Forschung
- Organizing for Innovation: The Case of Accelerators
Matthias Wenzel (Herausgeber*in) , 2022 Lüneburg , 126 S.Publikation: Bücher und Anthologien › Sammelwerke und Anthologien › Forschung
- Foundations of Management & Entrepreneurship: Concepts and Cases
Matthias Wenzel (Herausgeber*in) , 2022 2. Aufl. Lüneburg , 333 S.Publikation: Bücher und Anthologien › Sammelwerke und Anthologien › Forschung
Beiträge in Zeitschriften
- Reviewing is caring! Revaluing a critical, but invisibilized, underappreciated, and exploited academic practice
Matthias Wenzel (Autor*in) , Leonhard Dobusch (Autor*in) , Mie Plotnikof (Autor*in) , 01.04.2026 , in: Organization, 33, 3 , S. 458-474 , 17 S.Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
- Futures Imagined: Navigating Sustainability, Digitalization, and Entrepreneurship in Business and Management Research
Markus Reihlen (Autor*in) , Matthias Wenzel (Autor*in) , Thomas Gehrig (Autor*in) , Monika Imschloss (Autor*in) , 01.12.2025 , in: Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, 77, 4 , S. 585-596 , 12 S.Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Andere (Vorworte. Editoral u.ä.) › Forschung
- Projectification without projects? Theorizing temporal structures of agile-based organizing
Joana Geraldi (Autor*in) , Iben Stjerne (Autor*in) , Matthias Wenzel (Autor*in) , 01.11.2025 , in: International Journal of Project Management, 43, 8 , 13 S.Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
- Organized Carelessness: De-ethicizing the Organization of Death
Matthias Wenzel (Autor*in) , 01.10.2025 , in: Business Ethics Quarterly, 35, 4 , S. 675-705 , 31 S.Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
- Future Making: Towards a Practice Perspective
Matthias Wenzel (Autor*in) , Laure Cabantous (Autor*in) , Jochen Koch (Autor*in) , 01.09.2025 , in: Journal of Management Studies, 62, 6 , S. 2426-2451 , 26 S.Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
Beiträge in Sammelwerken
- Vertrauen in Organisationen
Matthias Wenzel (Autor*in) , Markus Reihlen (Autor*in) , 12.08.2025 , S. 39-50 , 12 S.Publikation: Beiträge in Sammelwerken › Kapitel › Forschung
- Multimodality in Strategy-as-Practice Research
Matthias Wenzel (Autor*in) , Eric Knight (Autor*in) , 11.03.2025 3. Aufl. Cambridge , S. 729-739 , 11 S.Publikation: Beiträge in Sammelwerken › Kapitel › Forschung › begutachtet
- Agile: Mehr als nur eine Methode?: Implikationen der Einführung von Agile für die Strategieentwicklung
Matthias Wenzel (Autor*in) , Iben Sandal Stjerne (Autor*in) , Joana Geraldi (Autor*in) , 29.11.2023 , S. 29-37 , 9 S.Publikation: Beiträge in Sammelwerken › Aufsätze in Sammelwerken › Forschung › begutachtet
- Imaginary practices as the nexus between continuity and disruptive change
Matthias Wenzel (Autor*in) , Iben Sandal Stjerne (Autor*in) , Anders Buch (Autor*in) , 03.10.2023 Cheltenham , S. 127-145 , 19 S.Publikation: Beiträge in Sammelwerken › Kapitel › Forschung › begutachtet
- Why study International Business Administration and Entrepreneurship?
Matthias Wenzel (Autor*in) , 01.01.2023 1. Aufl. Lüneburg , S. 1-6 , 6 S.Publikation: Beiträge in Sammelwerken › Andere (Vor- und Nachworte ...) › Forschung
Aktivitäten
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Responses to entrepreneurial identity tensions: A self-theory approach
Matthias Wenzel (Sprecher*in) , Ronit Yitshaki (Sprecher*in)
Aktivität: Konferenzvorträge › Forschung
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Innovating amid poly- and permacrisis: The role of time in organizing for disruptive innovation
Stefanie Habersang (Ko-Autor*in) , Eva-Maria Spreitzer (Ko-Autor*in) , Raghu Garud (Ko-Autor*in) , Tor Hernes (Ko-Autor*in) , Oliver Ibert (Ko-Autor*in) , Patricia Klarner (Ko-Autor*in) , Gargi Sharma (Ko-Autor*in) , Sarah Stanske (Panel-Teilnehmer*in) , Matthias Wenzel (Keynote Sprecher*in)
→Aktivität: Konferenzvorträge › Forschung
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Future-making at a crossroads
Matthias Wenzel (Sprecher*in) , Laure Cabantous (Sprecher*in) , April L. Wright (Sprecher*in) , Antonio Comi (Sprecher*in) , Lorenzo Mosca (Sprecher*in) , Eva-Maria Spreitzer (Sprecher*in) , Johanne Düsterbeck (Sprecher*in)
→Aktivität: Konferenzvorträge › Forschung
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Strategizing for tomorrow's wars today: A process perspective on future-making in the military context
Lorenzo Skade (Sprecher*in) , Sarah Stanske (Sprecher*in) , Matthias Wenzel (Sprecher*in) , Jochen Koch (Sprecher*in)
→Aktivität: Konferenzvorträge › Forschung
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Sociotechnical imaginaries: How Sheila Jasanoff’s approach to futures illuminates future-making
Matthias Wenzel (Sprecher*in)
→Aktivität: Konferenzvorträge › Forschung
Presse / Medien
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Reading the Room to Influence Decisions and Strategies
1 Mal zitiertPresse/Medien: Presse / Medien
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From entrepreneurs of chaos into the Leuphana Transformation Lab.
1 eigener MedienbeitragPresse/Medien: Presse / Medien
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Entrepreneurship in times of social crisis.
1 eigener MedienbeitragPresse/Medien: Presse / Medien
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Entrepreneurs of chaos? From disruptive innovation to negentropic entrepreneurship.
1 eigener MedienbeitragPresse/Medien: Presse / Medien
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IBAE: Der Studiengang zum Entrepreneur in Lüneburg
2 eigene MedienbeiträgePresse/Medien: Presse / Medien
Auszeichnungen
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Honorary Visiting Professor
Matthias Wenzel (Empfänger/-in) ,Auszeichnung: Externe Preise, Stipendien, Auszeichnungen, Ernennungen › Forschung
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Transfer- und Impact Award der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
Lillan Lommel (Empfänger/-in) Frederic Penz (Empfänger/-in) Robert Hoyer (Empfänger/-in) Charlotte Wulffen (Empfänger/-in) Matthias Wenzel (Empfänger/-in) Boukje Cnossen (Empfänger/-in) Steffen Farny (Empfänger/-in) Markus Reihlen (Empfänger/-in) Ursula Weisenfeld (Empfänger/-in) ,Auszeichnung: Leuphana interne Preise, Stipendien, Auszeichnungen, Ernennungen › Transfer
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Transferpreis
Matthias Wenzel (Empfänger/-in) ,Auszeichnung: Leuphana interne Preise, Stipendien, Auszeichnungen, Ernennungen › Transfer
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Most Engaging Session Award for “Video Methods in Organizational Studies”
Matthias Wenzel (Empfänger/-in) ,Auszeichnung: Externe Preise, Stipendien, Auszeichnungen, Ernennungen › Forschung
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Top Cited Article 2021/22
Matthias Wenzel (Empfänger/-in) ,Auszeichnung: Externe Preise, Stipendien, Auszeichnungen, Ernennungen › Forschung
Lehrveranstaltungen
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The Professorship for Organization Studies supervises Bachelor and Master theses in the areas of organization, strategy, and entrepreneurship that are designed as conceptual papers, qualitative studies, or literature reviews. Conceptual papers build on existing theoretical concepts, models, frameworks, and perspectives to theorize novel relationships between concepts. Qualitative studies rely on the collection and analysis of qualitative data. Literature reviews provide a systematic overview of prior literature to integrate fragmented streams of literature (integrative literature review) or surface problematic assumptions of a stream of literature (problematizing literature review).
The approach of the Professorship for Organization Studies is to help students find and specify their topic in areas of organization, strategy, and entrepreneurship. Therefore, students do not apply for a supervision place with a fixed topic, nor are potential topics prediscussed in one-on-one meetings before the provision of supervision places.
1. APPLICATION AND SELECTION
The selection procedure at the Professorship for Organization Studies 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, it is indispensable to upload an up-to-date performance record from QIS/myCampus/the Leuphana app. Please use the folder “applications” on myStudy to do so.
If the number of applications exceeds available supervision capacities, decisions on acceptance/rejection are made based on your performance in courses and seminars of the Professorship for Organization Studies. For this purpose, we convert the grades achieved in these courses and seminars into points and rank received applications from the highest to lowest total number of points achieved; in case of point parity, the lot decides. For this, we use the following scheme:
-1.0: 10 points
-1.3: 8 points
-1.7: 6 points
-2.0: 5 points
-2.3: 4 points
-2.7: 3 points
-3.0: 2.5 points
-3.3: 2 points
-3.7: 1.5 points
-4.0: 1 point
-5.0: 0 points
For courses and seminars with (at least partial) written performance records, we concede the double amount of points. Students who submit an application after rejection in previous semesters receive five extra points.
Please note that an acceptance notification is conditional upon meeting the deadlines specified below.
2. TOPIC DEVELOPMENT
Once you receive an acceptance notification, your main task is to develop a topic for your final thesis.
A final thesis is a piece of scientific work. As such, your final thesis is expected to extend theory debates—in our case, in organization, entrepreneurship, or strategy. Therefore, your next step is to read, read, read, … so as to embed your thesis in a stream of research that you would like to extend. This does not mean that you are not allowed to be interested in a certain organizational, strategic, or entrepreneurial phenomenon that is relevant for practitioners, quite the contrary. After all, a key question that we will ask you is in which ways your analysis of that phenomenon extends our understanding of extant debates in organization, strategy, or entrepreneurship research.
The key currency in management and entrepreneurship are journal articles. Therefore, we recommend focusing your reading on journal articles. These lists provide you with an overview of journals in our field: https://www.vhbonline.org/en/services/vhb-rating-2024/rating-structure (the journals listed in the sections "Organization" and "Strategic Management", and "Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship" tend to be particularly relevant). In the Forum (more on this below), we will discuss some merits and pitfalls of such rankings. However, as a rule of thumb, when searching for and specifying topics, you can typically ignore articles published in journals with a rating of C or lower; or you should be even more reflective about the use of articles published in lower-than-B journals.
To provide you with more specificity: What we ask you to do is to identify a stream of literature that faces a certain gap/challenge that you would like to address with your final thesis. Among others, streams of literature could be:
-Utopias and dystopias, real utopias
-Future-making
-Organizational identity
-Strategy as practice
-Open strategy: Participation, transparency, and inclusion in the strategy process
-Care in and of organizations
-Meaningful work
-Discourse/narratives in strategy-making
-Temporality
-Path dependence
-Strategic persistence
-Tensions, dilemmas, dualities, dialectics, and paradoxes
-Rigor/relevance, or the academic-practitioner gap
-Boredom in organizations
-Creative construction
-Entrepreneurial/innovation ecosystems
This is not a definite list. Zillions of other options are feasible as well. Your task is to position your final thesis in a stream of literature that you find interesting, and that deserves to be extended.
3. TOPIC SPECIFICATION
Furthermore, we ask you to specify your topic while reading. Importantly, this work should lead you to a clearly articulated research question. Good research questions typically begin with “how” or “why”. Furthermore, when specifying your topic, please remember that the university system is dedicated to truth-seeking, not consulting (but of course, your can write a section on practical implications later on). Therefore, we are interested in understanding and explaining how things *are*, not in prescribing how things *can* or *should* be. As a stylistic example, a good research question is: How does the mobilization of utopias shape an organization's identity? In turn, a bad example is: How can actors mobilize utopias to shape an organization's identity?
4. PROPOSAL
Based on these specifications, we ask you to compose a proposal (max. two pages) for your final thesis. This proposal should explicate the following aspects:
1. The working title
2. Research question: (as explained in the previous paragraph)
3. Relevance: Why is it interesting to address this research question? By relevance, we mean “theoretical relevance”: Why is it important to address the theoretical problem at hand?
4. 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?
5. Methodological approach: If your intend to conduct an empirical study, please specify your research design and your aspired data collection procedures. A literature review necessitates an overview of finding, filtering, and clustering prior literature as well. Given that conceptual theses do not build on data in the form of empirical data or prior literature, elaborations on methodical procedures are not required in this case.
6. Abstract description of expected findings: When developing your ideas, you might already have ideas about the direction that your analysis might take. If so, please sketch this direction here.
Please use the respective upload folder on myStudy to hand in our proposal.
5. FEEDBACK MEETINGS AND REGISTRATION OF FINAL THESES
In order to provide you with feedback and enable mutual learning, the minimum requirement for a supervision of your final-thesis project is to participate in two meetings in which we will discuss your proposal.
The first meeting is meant to be a status report. We will use this meeting to discuss your initial ideas based on your proposals as well as a brief two-min pitch of your idea (no slides required). Neither your proposal nor your ideas have to be perfect at this stage. The key aim of this meeting is to provide you with constructive feedback. However, if we conclude after the first meeting that your topic is well-elaborated, and if you would like to immediately start working on your final thesis, we will register your final thesis immediately after the meeting. The working time specified in your study regulations will start at this day. If we conclude after the first meeting that the concept of your final thesis requires substantial revisions, we allow you to revise your proposal until the second meeting.
The second meeting, then, serves as a further feedback platform for open questions, potential adjustments, and specifications. Your final thesis will be registered immediately after this meeting.
6. PROCEDURES AND DEADLINES
-April 8, 2026: Proposal submission (upload to respective folder on myStudy)
-April 8, 2026: Upload of your final-thesis registration form (only with your personal details, topic to be filled out after the meeting(s)); obtained from the Studierendenservice; upload to respective folder on myStudy, please rename the file by reference to your last name)
-April 9, 2026, 4.15 pm: 1st feedback session and potential registration of your final thesis
-April 23, 2026, 4.15 pm: 2nd feedback session and definite registration of your final thesis
The two feedback sessions are part of the Bachelor Forum that Matthias Wenzel will offer in the Summer Term 2026. You find information on times and rooms here: https://mystudy.leuphana.de/veranstaltungInformation/show?veranstaltung_id=1149106
7. FORUM
Based on current study regulations, Bachelor students are required to take a Bachelor Forum (also called "Colloquium"), and Master students a Master Forum. You may select any of the ones on offer. Yet, bear in mind that two feedback sessions highlighted above are part of the Bachelor Forum that Matthias Wenzel will offer in the Summer Term 2026, and that - in addition to the other dates and deadlines that are to be kept - the provision of supervision places is conditional upon candidates' participation in these two meetings.
8. SUPERVISION AND ASSESSMENT
At the Professorship for Organization Studies, we offer to assess your final thesis internally; i.e., Matthias Wenzel serves as first examiner and another team member of the professorship serves as second examiner. Of course, you are free to look out for another second examiner.
Upon registration, we will determine your primary point of contact for questions and feedback. Please note that we do not provide pre-corrections. Instead, we are happy to respond to your questions and provide help with fork-in-the-road decisions.
9. THE FINAL THESIS: STRUCTURE, FORMAL REQUIREMENTS, AND AI USE
Final theses composed at the Professorship for Organization Studies adhere to the style guide of the Institute of Management & Organization. You find the style guide under “Material”. The submission format is set by the current study regulations.
In addition to a "declaration of authorship" (https://www.leuphana.de/en/institutions/writing-center/resources/declaration-of-authorship.html), all final theses are to end with a statement on the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Under "Material", you find a document that specifies how to include this statement.
There are legitimate uses of AI. For example, these include improvements of one’s spelling and grammar. Yet, AI does not replace one’s own reflections and analysis. In addition to “hallucinations” (the output of well-sounding but untrue statements), this technology reproduces biases of all sorts, including gender biases and political distortions. Hence, in scientific pieces of work such as final theses that are supposed to produce "claims to truth" in the form of understandings and explanations, the unreflected use of AI will lead to inferior outcomes.
The general rule of AI use is that a final thesis stands on the author's own ideas and insights, rather than those generated by others (i.e., other people or technologies). You find more on the fair use of AI and its declaration in the related document on myStudy (the declaration table can be adjusted to one’s own use).
All forms of academic misbehavior—whether plagiarism or prohibited uses of AI—will be diligently prosecuted.
10. DEFENSE (only for Bachelor Theses)
Upon submission, we will begin to assess your final thesis. Once this is complete, we will set up a ZOOM meeting in which you will get to defend your final thesis. This meeting typically takes about 30 min. For this meeting, we ask you to prepare a 5-min summary of the key arguments of your final thesis (slides are optional). This summary will serve as a springboard the subsequent discussion.
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Students will actively engage with Future Skills by creating a podcast. Working in small editorial teams, students will examine cutting-edge concepts, conduct interviews with thought leaders and practitioners, and craft audio narratives that aim at translating complex ideas into accessible insights.
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(1) What is an "appropriate" research question?
(2) What is "appropriate" literature, and where do I find it?
(3) What is an "appropriate" research design?
(4) How to "appropriately" generate and report research outcomes?
The concept of the Colloquium is "inverted". That is, rather than lecturing, the Colloquium centers on students' thesis projects as well as the questions and concerns that arise in and through them. These questions and concerns are elicited through short, max. 3-min thesis "pitches" (without slides) and jointly discussed. This enables collective learning that directly relates to students' thesis projects on the one side, and raises important issues that students might have thought about regarding their own project on the other.