Platform Strategy - Innovative Business Models, Artificial intelligence, Collaboration & Digital Management

This topic area addresses digital platforms as a new and innovative business form that has significant economic and societal implications. Questions concerning platform strategy, business models, platform work, power imbalances, and platform governance are central, both from internal and entrepreneurial platform perspectives as well as from a broader economic perspective. An important aspect is the identification of sustainable and alternative models for platform start-ups. Furthermore, we empirically and conceptually investigate the consequences of platformization for digital management, leadership, and digital organizing. 

Key publications 

• Holzmann, P., Gregori, P., Bohn, S., Reischauer, G., Friederici, N., Lehdonvirta, V. (2025). Institutional logics and business models of digital niche marketplaces. In: Information and Organization, 35(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2025.100575

• Habersang, S., Zimmer, M. … Bohn, S. … (2025). Digital Responsibility: Building Bridges between Organization Theory and Information Systems. Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41471-025-00234-5

• Bohn, S., Gümüsay, A., von Richthofen, G., Reischauer, G. (2023). Digital Organising. In: IPR - Concepts of the digital society. http://doi.org/10.14763/2023.4.1726

• Rashid, L., Möckel, C., Bohn, S. (2024). The Blessing and Curse of “No Strings Attached”: An Automated Literature Analysis of Psychological Health and Non-Attachmental Work in the Digitalization Era. In: PLoS ONE 19(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298040

• Bohn, S., Friederici, N., Gümüşay, A.A. (2020). Too Big to Fail us? Platforms as Systemically Relevant. In: Internet Policy Review. https://policyreview.info/articles/news/too-big-fail-us-platforms-systemically-relevant/1489

Change – Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Society, Digital & Sustainable Transformation

Transformation has become the leitmotif of our society, especially with regard to sustainability, AI and digitalization. The aim of this topic area is to explore how established industries manage transformation processes and deal with lock-ins, path dependence, and institutional complexity during wide-ranging technological and institutional change processes. We furthermore investigate how different forms of entrepreneurship and innovation can address systemic societal challenges such as climate change, future of work and AI, and demographic shifts. 

Key publications 

• Bohn, S., Lohmeyer, N., Jha, H. K., Reinecke, J. (2026). Hostile Frame Takeover: Co-opting the Security Frame in the Nuclear Energy Dispute. Academy of Management Journal, (online first). https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amj.2024.0656

• Bohn, S., Gümüşay, A. (2024). Growing Institutional Complexity and Field Transition: Towards Constellation Complexity in the German Energy Field. In: Journal of Management Studies, 61(7):3184-3225.  http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.13004

• Sminia, H., Bohn, S. Sydow, J. (2024). Path Release among Practices in the Process of Path Constitution. How the MP3-Path Appeared in the Field of Recorded Music. In: Research Policy, 53(8). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2024.105073

• Fecher, B., Gümüşay, A. A., Bohn, S., Jobin, A. (2023). Resilience without Accountability holds back Transformative Change. In: LSE Impact Blog. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2023/03/28/resilience-without-accountability-holds-back-transformative-change/

• Bohn, S., Rogge, C. (2022). The Framing of Green Innovations—A Comparative Topic Modeling Study on the Public Frames of the Electric Vehicle in Germany and UK. In: Journal of Cleaner Production, 364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132499

Sustainability - Organisation & Sustainable Management Implementation

The research area of organization and sustainable management examines the strategies of companies and start-ups in implementing sustainability, CSR, transparency, and ESG principles in their day-to-day business activities. The focus is on questions related to novel practices for fostering more sustainable management, as well as on how companies navigate potential conflicts and trade-offs. This research area also encompasses questions concerning open-source innovation processes, open innovation, and business ethics, and examines the influence of normative values on corporate behavior and decision-making. 

Key Publications

• Bohn, S., Gogineni, S. Estorff, C. (2024). Tools and Methods for Managing Collaboration. In: Open-Source Hardware Development. A handbook of methods, tools and guidance for companies. Berlin: Berlin Universities Publishing. https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-16548

• Risi, D., Vigneau, L., Bohn, S., Wickert, C. (2023). Institutional Theory-based Research on Corporate Social Responsibility: Bringing Values Back in. In: International Journal of Management Reviews, 25, 3-23. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.1229

• Bihr, P., Bohn, S., & Send, H. (2021). Free Technologies for the Whole World to Use – Why Open-Source Hardware is in the Public Interest. Digital Society Blog, 18.01.2021. https://www.hiig.de/en/free-technologies-for-the-whole-world-to-use-why-open-source-hardware-is-in-the-public-interest/

• Bohn, S., Galander, A., Walgenbach, P. (2015): The Creativity of Organizations in the Taking of Management Panaceas – On the Implementation of CSR in German High-Tech Firms. In: Ortenblad, Anders (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Management Ideas and Panaceas: Adaptation and Context. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. 259-284. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781783475605.00030

• Bohn, S. (2014): Die Implementierung von CSR in High-Tech Unternehmen. Zum organisationalen Umgang mit divergierenden institutionalisierten Erwartungen. Wiesbaden: Springer-Gabler. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-06776-2