Hamdy Abdelaty is a Research Associate (Postdoc) at Freie Universität Berlin, and Project Manager of the MEIS-SME project. Hamdy joined FU Berlin in April 2016 as a PhD student / DAAD scholarship holder. He received his Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Business Administration from Cairo University in Egypt. In 2020, Hamdy was granted a doctoral degree in Business & Economics from Freie Universität Berlin with a very good grade. Hamdy's research has been published at many international innovation conferences and Journals such as R&D Management, World Open Innovation Conference (WOIC), Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Meeting, Druid, and the British Academy of Management (BAM) conference and journal of Innovation: Organization & Management and Journal of Innovation & Knowledge.

Hamdy speaks: Arabic, English, and German

Hamdy teaches Bachelor and Master students’ classes on Open innovation, Innovation management, Appropriation, Innovation Ecosystem, Innovation Economics and Policies.

Selected topics in Microeconomics: Innovation Economics course, Master-level, School of Business and Economics, Freie Universität Berlin, Winter Semester 2022/2023.

Selected Topics in Innovation Management: Open Innovation and Leading the Recovery Seminar, Master of Management & Marketing, School of Business and economics, Freie Universität Berlin, Summer Semester 2021.

Hamdy's research aims to understand why innovation policy in emerging markets is not achieving the desired sustainable transformation. In this regard, Hamdy investigates SMEs' innovation patterns in emerging economies from the resource-based view and revolutionary economic perspectives to figure out what kind of innovation policy instruments are needed to boost SME innovation capabilities. His current projects apply a mixed-method approach using large-scale secondary SMEs data and primary data collected from SMEs and policymakers in Egypt and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Recently, Hamdy started to link neo-mission-oriented innovation policy literature to the climate governance challenges, analyzing countries' National Determined Contributions for climate mitigation and adaptation actions, focusing on developing countries' context.

Hamdy seeks to study novel questions, use novel research methodologies to advance the academic literature, and help policymakers rethink their business and make better decisions.

Research Interests

Open Innovation and Networking
National, Technological, and Sectoral Innovation Systems
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
R&D and Intellectual Property Management
Innovation Policy and Catching-Up
Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Policies
Emerging Markets

Research Projects

MISBIH: "Mobilizing Innovation System in BiH for SME Innovation Capabilities, Subproject: Policy Analysis and Trainings", two year project funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research: Oct 2021 - Oct 2023.

MEIS-SME: “Mobilizing Egyptian Innovation System for SME Innovation Capabilities”, four year project funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research: Sep 2018 - August 2019 and from Sep 2020 until August 2023.

PhD Project: “Open Innovation Strategy: Innovation Outcomes and Managerial Determinants”. Funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD): April 2016 - August 2020.

Work in Progress

• Research and Innovation Policy in Emerging Economies: Rationales and Instruments of International Actors' Support, submitted to EUSPRI conference, Brighton 2023.
• Organizational Changes for Copying with Open Innovation: Perspectives of R&D Specialists in a Leading Chinese Lithium Batteries Equipment Company, submitted to Academy of Management AOM, Boston 2023.
• Climate Policy Analysis: The Case of Egypt after hosting COP27, working paper.

Publications and conference contributions

Abdelaty, Hamdy. 2022. “Egypt's Nationally Determined Contributions: What Are We Missing Out?” At Alternative Policy Solutions, Cairo, Egypt 2022. https://aps.aucegypt.edu/en/articles/932/egypts-nationally-determined-contributions-what-are-we-missing-out.

Zhang, Hailun and Abdelaty, Hamdy. 2022. "SME Innovation Patterns Identified from Innovation Process Perspective: Linking Openness to Innovation and SME performance." At World Open Innovation Conference, Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Zhang, Hailun and Abdelaty, Hamdy. 2022. "Does combining innovation types always improve SME performance? An analysis of innovation complementarity." At Druid Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Abdelaty, Hamdy. 2021. “The Direction and Form of Openness Strategy: Homogeneity of Openness Strategies and Innovation Novelties.” In Brining Managegers Back in Management. Virtual: Academy of Management Annual Meeting.

Abdelaty, Hamdy, and Weiss, Daniel. 2021. "R&D capacity and the innovation collaboration paradox: the moderating role of the appropriation strategy. In Innovation: Organisation & Management, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14479338.2021.1971992.

Abdelaty, Hamdy. 2020. “Open Innovation Strategy: Innovation Outcomes and Managerial Determinants." Berlin: Mensch und Buch Verlage. https://www.amazon.de/Four-Quantitative-Essays-Innovation-Strategy/dp/3967290719.

Abdelaty, Hamdy, and Weiss, Daniel. 2020. “The Paradox of R&D Capacity and Openness: The Moderating Role of Appropriation Strategy.” In Leading the Recovery: Turning Threats into Opportunities with Open Innovation. Virtual: World Open Innovation Conference (WOIC).

Abdelaty, Hamdy. 2019. “Persistence of Open Innovation: An Organizational Learning Approach.” In Building and Sustaining High-Performance Organisations in Uncertain Times: Challenges and Opportunities. Aston University, Birmingham, UK: British Academy of Management BAM Conference Proceedings.

Abdelaty, Hamdy, and Scheel, Andreas. 2019. “The Downfall of User-Centred Innovation? Evidence for a Shift in Perception of External Sources of Innovation.” At the 17th Open and User Innovation Conference, Utrecht University, Netherlands.

Abdelaty, Hamdy, and Dreher, Carsten. 2018. “Openness of Innovation in SMEs in Emerging Markets : Scope of Adoption and Determinants of Innovation Performance.” In R&Designing Innovation: Transformational Challenges for Organizations and Society, 1–12. Milan, Italy: R&D Management Conference.

Abdelaty, Hamdy, Ramadan, Rezk, Sakr, Mahmoud M., and Dreher, Carsten. 2017. “Toward an Explanation for Open Innovation Process.” In Managing Innovation in Emerging Markets. Berlin: Technical University Berlin.