Professor Christoph Hienerth

Professor Christoph Hienerth was appointed to the Chair of Entrepreneurship and Creativity at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in June 2012. He holds a doctoral degree (equivalent to a PhD) from WU Vienna, where he also completed his post-doctoral degree (Habilitation) as an assistant professor at the Department for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. From 2006 to 2012 he held a tenured position as Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Department for Innovation and Organizational Economics. Professor Hienerth had various research visits and fellowships at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard Business School (HBS), McGill University, and George Washington University.

His research has been published in leading international and national refereed journals such as Research Policy, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Long Range Planning, Journal of Organizational Design, Family Business Review, Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft (ZfB). His work, both in research as well as in teaching has won several awards. Professor Hienerth has gained expertise in corporate entrepreneurship through several industry projects with international companies such as Schindler, Deutsche Telekom, Palfinger, Bayer, MAN, LEGO, Fujitsu, Siemens VDO, SAS, Grundfos and Coloplast. He has given keynotes and was scientific advisor for governmental institutions in several countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Finland, UK, Czech Republic.

Research Focus

• Identification and development of opportunities
• Entrepreneurship in open and user innovation settings
• Entrepreneurial risk and uncertainty
• Corporate Entrepreneurship
• Business ecosystems and new business models
• Social Entrepreneurship