SNSF projects
SNF Research Project: Strategic Ownership
This research project seeks to develop a strategic perspective on firm ownership, an approach to the firm that today represents largely uncharted waters in strategic management research. Progressive ownership concentration and the emerging role of owners as strategists poses a problem to researchers, policy makers and regulators alike, whose core working assumptions are still heavily dominated by agency theory and the assumption of ownership dispersion. The strategic ownership perspective holds the promise to develop new theory and measurements that take a more owner-centred view and assign a direct role to owners in shaping the firm’s strategic decisions and ultimately value creation. This three-year research project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and will run through until summer 2024. Participating researchers are Thomas Zellweger, Christine Scheef, Marie Klein and Sebastian Sigg.
Further contact: Christine Scheef
SNF Research Project on New Venture Boards
The research team of Prof. Wincent, Grichnik, Hess and Malmström has been granted a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) funded research project on “Overcoming Gender Stereotypes in New Venture Board Networks”. The project will develop an understanding on director selection mechanisms at board formation, the role of networks, barriers toward women, and the effects of gender diversity on performance in technology startups.
Further contact: Manuel Hess
SNF Research Project: Tracking and Managing Economic and Social Impact of COVID-19
The research team, led by Prof. Dr. Charlotta Sirén, is undertaking a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) funded research project on Tracking and Managing Economic and Social Impact of COVID-19 through Collective Emotions, Media Traces, and Satellite-Based Remote Sensing Data. The team is using satellite remote sensing data and media trace data to develop an online global early warning system for policy makers and other related stakeholders. The project, which is funded by the SNSF Special Call on Coronaviruses will run through the summer of 2022. Collaborative partners in the project are Dietmar Grichnik and Joakim Wincent from HSG and Gerry George from Singapore Management University.
Further contact: Charlotta Sirén and Michael Hudecheck
Large research projects
Entrepreneurial well-being and stress coping
This research project of Prof. Vangelis Souitaris and Ass.-Prof. Josh Wei-Jun Hsueh is funded by HSG GFF and looks at how entrepreneurs cope with their stress and improve their performance. The research team has relied on secondary dataset, field experiments, and interview data with Swiss and German entrepreneurs to uncover entrepreneurs’ strategy in managing stress and well-being in the entrepreneurial process. The project is in close collaboration with Startup@HSG, START Global, Prof. Miriam Bird of Technical University of Munich, and Ass.-Prof. Sebastian Kernbach from HSG.
Further contact: Josh Hsueh
Global Family Business Index
First time online: The world's 500 largest family businesses.
The Center for Family Business, together with EY's Global Family Business Center of Excellence, publishes the "Global Family Business Index". It shows the world's 500 largest family businesses. Together they employ 21 million people, almost as many as live in Australia.
Further contact: Josh Hsueh
Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS)
The international research project GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey) investigates students' career choice intentions on a global level. The main research focus are career choice intentions of students in general, and their entrepreneurial intentions in particular. Several influencing factors are investigated, such as university context, family context, motives, and attitudes. Moreover, we are especially interested in students with family business background, who have the opportunity to take over their parents' business. In total, 50 countries were involved in GUESSS 2016, which lead to a dataset with the responses of more than 122'000 students from more than 1000 universities. EY is supporting GUESSS on an international level, and nationally we are supported by «venturelab» and «venturekick».
Further contact: Heiko Bergmann and Philipp Sieger
Knowledge Empowered Entrepreneurship Network (KEEN)
The Knowledge Empowered Entrepreneurship Network (KEEN) is a European Commission Horizon 2020 project intended to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems in Lithuania. The Chair of Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Gallen, together with the University of Wuppertal and Cranfield University, is supporting the Kaunas University of Technology in Kaunas, Lithuania by disseminating research best practices, facilitating ongoing entrepreneurial initiatives, and assisting with the implementation of measures which focus on entrepreneurial knowledge and skill development. The KEEN project began in September 2018 and will run through August 2021.
Further contact: Barbara Schmidt
Research on Business Model Innovation and Ecosystems
A core group of the Chair for Innovation Management continues with research projects in the area of patterns of business model innovation with special emphasis on platforms and ecosystems. Our spin-off is updating practical insights on www.bmilab.com and www.businessmodelnavigator.com.
Further contact: Oliver Gassmann
Labs
Decision Making Research Lab
We investigate learning processes and decision-making that leads entrepreneurs to act on opportunities. In our research, we heavily rely on state-of-the-art methods, such as experiments and meta-analyses. Our currently largest project is an SNF-funded research project in collaboration with ETH Zurich. It investigates new venture team learning and leadership emergence. In addition to our research activities, we collaborate with a large number of internationally leading universities. The team consists of Dietmar Grichnik, Robert Schreiber and Barbara Schmidt.
Further contact: Robert Schreiber
Emerging Technologies Lab
We examine and assess the management implications of emerging technologies. These include in particular artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) such as Blockchain. Our research projects seek to understand the impact of emerging technologies on firms’ innovation processes as well as appropriability and governance issues associated with these technologies.
Further contact: Naomi Haefner
Energy Innovation Lab
The Energy Innovation Lab aims at academically examining the energy sector and related industries. In light of the energy transition, we consider issues concerning stakeholder management, the effects of organizational structures, and the role of business model innovation. For work on the latter topic, we are collaborating closely with our department’s Competence Center for Business Model Innovation and the institute’s spin-off, BMI-Lab. We are actively approaching various energy sector players, completing projects with industry partners, and publishing in top-tier international academic journals.
Further contact: Maximilian Palmié
Startup@HSG Lab
Startup@HSG is the first point of contact for startups and entrepreneurship at the University of St.Gallen. Our Startup-Lab supports students and all other HSG-members on their entrepreneurial path, independently of which level they reached so far (idea, prototype, or ready for market). We offer an incubation program, startup-coaching, startup offices, startup events, a MakerSpace, and much more. HSG-Startups that are already successful can apply for our HSG-Spin-Off-Label and join the network of amazing HSG-Entrepreneurs. On top, we annually award an outstanding entrepreneur of the HSG with the prize “HSG Founder of The Year”. The team of this Lab consists of Dietmar Grichnik, Diego Probst, Sarah Maria Nordt, and Michael Greger.
Further contact: Diego Probst
St.Galler Startup NavigatorTM Lab
The St.Galler Startup NavigatorTM teaches you how to systematically create your business. It is a practical guide, which builds on cutting-edge entrepreneurship research and best practices of some of the most successful entrepreneurs in Europe. Learn how to apply the Startup Cockpit with more than 66 tools and methods to make sure that your business decisions are based on facts instead of believes. The team consists of Dietmar Grichnik, Manuel Hess, Diego Probst, and Janine Crivelli.
Further contact: Manuel Hess