Biographical Sketch

• 2021–current: Deputy director, WU Vienna, Research Institute for Urban Management and Governance

• 2021: Habilitation in business administration (Priv.Doz.), WU Vienna

• 2016–current: Senior scientist, WU Vienna, Research Institute for Urban Management and Governance

• 2013–2015: WU Vienna, Institute for Organization Studies

• 2010–2013: WU Vienna, Institute for Public Management

• 2010: Doctorate degree in social and economic sciences (Dr. rer.soc.oec.), WU Vienna

• Visiting professor at Mines Paris-PSL, research fellow at Zeppelin University; former visiting fellow at Stanford University and guest lecturer at Leibniz University Hanover

• Deputy chair of the Austrian Association of Organization and Management (ÖVO)

Research Interests

Stephan’s research focuses on issues of organizational governance, the emergence of organizational forms, and ethical aspects of organization and management. He studies the coordination of public sector entities, cross-sector collaboration, and the role of the common interest in private-sector corporate governance. Stephan’s research explores an array of topics and empirical settings such as the management of inter-organizational arrangements in the public sector, board composition and compensation, city resilience, collective decision-making in crises, the "twin transition" of digitalization and sustainability, the sharing economy, the purpose of corporations as well as gender diversity on boards. With an educational background in business administration and ethics, he seeks to combine a philosophical approach with a perspective on organization and management theory grounded in the social sciences.

In the Media

Stephan's recent media appearences include the following:

• Leixnering, Stephan, Doralt, Peter. 2023. Öffentliches Interesse zählt auch am Strompreismarkt. Gastkommentar, 29.10. Die Presse, 27–28.

Research and Publications

Recent scholarly publications include:

• Leixnering, Stephan, Doralt, Peter. 2024. Die Berücksichtigung des öffentlichen Interesses ist geboten, nicht verboten! Bemerkungen zu § 70 Abs 1 AktG aus Anlass der Energiepreiskrise. Der Gesellschafter: Zeitschrift für Gesellschafts- und Unternehmensrecht, 88–90.

• Meyer, Renate, Leixnering, Stephan, Kornberger, Martin, Jancsary, Denis, Höllerer, Markus. 2024. Ernst Cassirer and the symbolic foundation of institutions. Journal of Management Studies (online first).

• Muzio, Daniel, Dalpiaz, Elena, Jancsary, Dennis, Leixnering, Stephan, Höllerer, Markus, Phillips, Nelson, Kornberger, Martin, Meyer, Renate. 2024. Organizations, institutions, and symbols: Introduction to a Point-Counterpoint Conversation. Journal of Management Studies (online first).

• Leixnering, Stephan, Meyer, Renate, Kornberger. Martin. 2023. Krisenbewältigung durch Städte: Denkfiguren zur kollektiven Handlungsfähigkeit. Leviathan: Berliner Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft, 51 (Sonderband 41), 267–279.

• Ayrault, Johanna, Jancsary, Dennis, Leixnering, Stephan, Gehman Joel, Gray, Barbara, Linnenluecke, Martina, Meyer, Elisabeth, Pavez, Ignacio. 2023. The relational dimension of tackling grand challenges: Debating collaboration and cooperation. Academy of Management Proceedings (online).

• Leixnering, Stephan, Höllerer, Markus. 2022. “Remaining the same or becoming another?“ – Adaptive resilience versus transformative urban change. Urban Studies, 59 (6), 1300–1310.

• Meyer, Renate, Leixnering, Stephan, Veldman, Jeroen, eds. 2022. The Corporation: Rethinking the iconic form of business organization (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 78). Bingley: Emerald.

• Meyer, Renate, Leixnering, Stephan, Veldman, Jeroen. 2022. Rethinking the corporation: Introduction. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 78, 1–12.

• Leixnering, Stephan, Meyer, Renate, Doralt, Peter. 2022. The past as prologue: Purpose dynamics in the history of the Aktiengesellschaft. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 78, 97–120.

• Mensi-Klarbach, Heike, Leixnering, Stephan, Schiffinger, Michael. 2021. The carrot or the stick: Self-regulation for gender-diverse boards via codes of good governance. Journal of Business Ethics, 170 (3), 577–593. 

• Leixnering, Stephan, Meyer, Renate, Polzer, Tobias. 2021. Hybrid coordination of city organizations: The rule of people and culture in the shadow of structures. Urban Studies, 8 (14), 2933–2951.

• Kornberger, Martin, Leixnering, Stephan, Meyer, Renate. 2019. The logic of tact: How decisions happen in situations of crisis. Organization Studies. 40 (2), 239–266.

• Kornberger, Martin, Leixnering, Stephan, Meyer, Renate, Höllerer, Markus. 2018. Rethinking the sharing economy: The nature and organization of sharing in the 2015 refugee crisis. Academy of Management Discoveries, 4 (3), 314–335.

• Meyer, Renate, Höllerer, Markus, Leixnering, Stephan. 2018. A question of value(s): Political connectedness and executive compensation in public sector organizations. International Public Management Journal, 21 (3), 477–500.

Recent popular-science publications include:

• Leixnering, Stephan. 2021. Management in der Krise? Vom taktvollen Umgang mit Menschen. WAS, 114, 111–123.

• Leixnering, Stephan. 2020. Eigentum verpflichtet: Ist der plurale Corporate Purpose wirklich eine Selbstverständlichkeit? zfo – zeitschrift führung + organisation, 89 (4), 247–249. Wien: Linde International.

Recently published teaching material:

• Leixnering, Stephan, Meyer, Renate. 2023. Governance. In Mayrhofer, Wolfgang, Furtmüller, Gerhard, Kasper, Helmut, eds. Personalmanagement – Führung – Organisation (6th ed.).

• Soule, Sarah, Leixnering, Stephan, Höllerer, Markus, Sutherland, Margot. 2020. Erste Group: Transformation of a Banking House – Change, Leadership, Space. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Publishing Education.

A comprehensive list of research projects in which Stephan Leixnering is involved as well as a list of his publications can be found in the PURE documentation.

Editorial Activities

Stephan holds editorial positions in various journals:

• European Management Review (editor)

• Organization Studies (editorial board)

• WAS – Zeitschrift zum Vor-, Mit- und Nachdenken (editorial board)

• zfo – zeitschrift führung + organisation (editorial board)

Courses

Undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral courses at WU Vienna:

• Diplomand*innen-Seminar

• Gesellschaftlicher Kontext wirtschaftlichen Handelns – Zukunft des Wirtschaftens II: Dimensionen ‚guter‘ Corporate Governance

• Grundlagen wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens

• Kompetenzfeld: Organizational Governance und Corporate Communication

• Kompetenzfeld: Steuerung und Management von öffentlichen und Non-Profit-Organisationen

• Masterarbeit Coaching

• Masterarbeit Defensio

• Research Seminar: Organization Studies

• SBWL Ethics for Management, Organizations and Society III: Values and Organization

• SBWL Organisation II: Organisationsanalyse und -gestaltung

• SBWL Organisation III/V: Die “gute" Organisation

• SBWL Public und Nonprofit Management I: Public Governance: Konzepte und Theorien der Steuerung öffentlicher und Nonprofit Organisationen

• SBWL Public und Nonprofit Management II: Konzepte und Instrumente des Public und Nonprofit Management

• SBWL Public und Nonprofit Management IV: Projekt- und Methodenseminar

• SBWL Public und Nonprofit Management IV/V: Public Corporate Governance

• Standards wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens und Zitierens

• Thesis seminar: How to write a thesis

• Wahlfach Public Management: Public Management I – Public Corporate Governance

• Wahlfach: Public Management