The Institute for Strategy, Technology and Organization focuses on the dynamic interplay between Strategic Management, Innovation, and Organization in the context of rapid technological progress.

We live in times of unprecedented dynamics and complexity: The competitive environment of firms in the 21st century is characterized by exponential growth and global dispersion of knowledge, increasingly demanding customers, new information and communication technologies, financial crises, technological convergence, rapid technological progress, and increasing demands of all stakeholders. Under such conditions firms need to (1) constantly renew themselves and to (2) develop new products and services on a continuous basis by leveraging internal and external sources of innovation in an intelligent way. This can only be accomplished once strategic management and organizational design are aligned with innovation and the development of new technologies. New technologies enable new organizational forms, make firm boundaries increasingly blurred and permeable, and therefore allow the development and implementation of completely new strategies and business models. For firms, these disruptive changes imply major challenges - and new opportunities.

In our research we develop management approaches that enable organizations to cope with the challenges induced by the competitive environment of the 21st century and that allow to leverage the emerging opportunities. The focus areas are Open Innovation and User Innovation. We apply an empirical research approach and collaborate in our research with leading researchers, universities, and companies. The objective of our research is to provide significant contributions to the scientific debate and to derive meaningful managerial implications.

In our teaching we provide state-of-the-art knowledge, skills, and competencies in the area of Strategy, Innovation and Organization. Also in this respect, we leverage our network to worldwide leading universities and companies. We integrate recent insights from our own research and the research of peers in our lectures and seminars leading to high degrees of timeliness and relevance. Our teaching is characterized by a high level of interaction and a problem-based teaching approach which is oriented on relevant issues in corporate practice.

The activities of our institute are oriented internationally. This becomes apparent for example through lectures and seminars held in English, collaborations with international researchers, as well as through prominent visibility of our research findings at international conferences and in leading international journals.