Prof. Dr. Daniel Ehls

+49 661 9640-252
daniel.ehls(at)w.hs-fulda.de

General business administration, in particular corporate management and entrepreneurship

Fulda University of Applied Sciences
Building 23, Room 102
Leipziger Straße 123
36037 Fulda

Tasks

  • Speaker Fulda Centre for Business Management and Entrepreneurship (FU³)
  • Head of the study programme “International Business & Management“ (B.Sc.)
  • Member of Departmental Council, Department of Business
  • Member of the University’s Research Commission
  • Representative for Founding of the Faculty of Business at the University’s Entrepreneurship Board
  • Jury member of the Fulda University of Applied Sciences ideas competition
  • Advisory Board Member Open-EYEt3 - ERASMUS for Young Entrepreneurs

CV

Professional Career

Since September 2021

  • Full Professor of General Business Administration, in particular Corporate Management and Entrepreneurship, University of Applied Sciences Fulda, Fulda, Germany
  • Declined appointments from state and private universities in Berlin and Hamburg, among others

Since 2019

  • Visiting Scholar and lecturer at Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany
  • At the Institute for Technology and Innovation [Link]with the Master Level Course: Innovation Debates [Link]

Since 2015

  • Affiliated Researcher, Harvard University, Harvard Business School (Cambridge, MA, USA), Laboratory for Innovation Science (zuvor Fellow am Crowd Innovation and NASA Tournament Lab) [Link].

2019 – 2021

  • Research Associate, Chair of Technology and Innovation Management, Helmut Schmidt University - University of the Federal Armed Forces, Hamburg, Germany

2014 – 2021

  • Lecturer at the Hamburg University of Technology, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, HAW Hamburg, FOM Hamburg, Maastricht University (Netherlands), among others

2012 – 2021

  • Advisory board and founding coach for various start-ups

2017 – 2018

  • Full Professor in Entrepreneurship & Innovation, GISMA Business School, Hannover (W2 equivalent), Hannover, Germany

2011 – 2018

  • Research Associate, Institute for Technology and Innovation Management, Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany

2011

  • Coach for the reintegration of long-term unemployed people with disabilities, inab mbH des Berufsfortbildungswerkes, Hamburg, Germany

2007 – 2010

  • Management consultant in the field of innovation and product development, Accenture GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

 

Education

2011 – 2013

  • PhD student, Hamburg University of Technology, Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.

    • Doctorate in Economics and Social Sciences (Dr. rer. pol.) 2013 with the dissertation: "Joining Decisions in Open Collaborative Innovation Communities" (Published by Springer under ISBN 978-3-658-04064-2).

2006 – 2007

  • Study ‘Manufacturing Engineering and Management’, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England

2002 – 2008

  • Study ‘Technology Management’ at the University of Stuttgart (Degree: Diplom Ingenieur, equals M.Sc. in Engeneering)

Teaching Areas

  • Corporate Management
  • Entrepreneurship and Business Development
  • Business Models
  • Technology and Innovation Management
  • Case Studies

Areas of Research

  • Corporate management and business models with distributed users and user entrepreneurship
  • Innovation management and problem-solving strategies in the digital economy, including artificial intelligence (AI)
  • Open innovation, crowdsourcing, open source, communities, external knowledge search, co-working, idea management
  • Quantitative and qualitative empiricism (preferably experiments)
  • Interdisciplinary collaboration with scientific and practical added value

Research Projects

External funding, scholarships and awards (selection)

  • Partner in the joint EU project LEAPXR - Linking Education and Applied Practice for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in XR, funding volume 1.3 million euros from the European Union, duration 2025-2027
  • Founding member E³UDRES² Research Centre of Excellence (CoE) for 'Business Modeling for Managing Sustainability in a Circular and Climate Neutral Economy: Creating opportunities for Smart and Sustainable Regions'. Duration 2024-2028. The only funded CoE anchored at the HS Fulda in the E³UDRES² network
  • Initiator and coordinator Academy of Management Symposium 'Problem Formulation: Identification of the 'Right' Problem for Improved Innovative Performance' [Link]
  • Initiator and leader of the research project “Open Foresight”, joint research project Hamburg University of Technology, Helmut Schmidt University - University of the Federal Armed Forces, University of Hamburg (funding volume €921,802), Hamburg state research funding program to achieve scientific excellence, duration 2015-2017. Only project funded in the in the economic and social science sector
  • Best Paper Nomination of the Academy of Management in the Technology and Innovation Management Division for the paper “Experimental Evidence on Adoption Bias and Legitimacy Strategies for Pure User Innovations” [Link]
  • Winner of the Teaching Innovation Award of the Hamburg University of Technology, 2016 and 2018 (2x three months employee funding)
  • Participant Academy of Management 'Junior Faculty Consortium' (TIM Division, 2014, OMT Division, 2016)
  • DAAD postdoctoral scholarships for a research stay abroad, at Harvard Business School 2015 - 2016

 

Ad-hoc reviewer for leading international journals (selection)

  • Journal of Product Innovation Management (VHB Rating: A, Technology and Innovation Management Division),
  • Journal of Business Venturing (VHB Rating A, Division Strategic Management),
  • Information Systems Journal (VHB Rating: A, Information Systems Division),
  • Strategic Organization (VHB Rating B, Strategic Management Division),
  • Internet Research (VHB Rating: B, Information Systems Division),
  • Journal of Cleaner Production (VHB Rating B, various divisions),
  • Technological Forecasting and Social Change (VHB Rating B, various divisions)

Publications

Scientific publications (selection)

See also Google Scholar  [Link]

Ehls, D., Polier, S., Herstatt, C. (2020): Reviewing the field of external knowledge search for innovation: theoretical underpinnings and future (re-)search directions. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 37(5), P. 405-430. (VHB Rating A)

Peer-reviewed preliminary versions and presentations: 

  • Innovation and Product Development Management Conference (IPDMC) Proceedings 2018, Porto, Portugal.
  • Academy of Management Conference Proceedings 2017, Atlanta, USA.
  • VHB TIE Conference 2017, Koblenz.

 

Ehls, D., Lane, J., Lakhani, K. (2021): The Role of Constraints in Creative Problem-Solving: Field Experimental Evidence from a Community Crowdsourcing Program in a Consumer Electronics Company. Harvard Business School Working Paper No. 21-068

Peer-reviewed preliminary versions and presentations: 

  • Innovation and Product Development Management Conference (IPDMC) Proceedings 2021, Milan, Italy.
  • European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium Proceedings 2021, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Academy of Management Conference Proceedings 2021 (A Virtual Experience).
  • 41st Annual Conference Strategic Management Society (Virtual Toronto) Proceedings

Also listed on SSRN, being in the top 10 list of all recently published management research papers, as well as in several top 3 download lists: 

  • Sources of Innovation eJournal [1st place]
  • IRPN: Open Collaborative Innovation (Topic) [1st place]
  • Social Entrepreneurship eJournal [1st place]
  • ERPN: Social Enterprise (Topic) [1st place]
  • MRN Production & Operations Management Network
  • Randomized Social Experiments eJournal
  • Cognitive Psychology eJournal
  • PsychRN: Thinking, Reasoning & Decision Making (Topic)

 

Ehls, D., Gordon, A., Rohrbeck, R., Herstatt, C. (2022): Foresight in Strategy and Innovation Management. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management ( Volume: 69, Issue: 2, April 2022. (VHB Rating B)

 

Ehls, D. (2018): Open Source Project Collapse – Sources and Patterns of Failure. Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) 2017, Waikoloa Village, Hawaii, USA. (VHB Rating B)

Peer-reviewed preliminary versions and presentations:

  • VHB TIE Conference 2018, Hamburg.

 

Ehls, D., Schorn, A., Herstatt, C. (2020): Experimental evidence on adoption bias and legitimacy strategies for pure user innovations. Academy of Management Best Paper Conference Proceedings 2020, Vancouver, CA. BEST PAPER NOMINIERUNG

Peer-reviewed preliminary versions and presentations:

  • European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium Proceedings 2020, Hamburg.
  • VHB TIE Conference 2019, Darmstadt.
  • International Open and User Innovation Conference 2019, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

 

Ehls, D., Stahlberg, N., Podleschny, N. (2021): Diskutieren, Reflektieren, Schreiben Studie zum Einsatz informeller Reflexionstexte in der Lehrveranstaltung Innovation Debates. In: Fallstudien und Reflexionen zum fachspezifischen Schreibenlehren und –lernen (Hg. Lahm, S., Meyhöfer, F., Neumann, F.). Reihe: TeachingXchange, Band-Nr.4, S.149-163

Peer-reviewed preliminary versions and presentations:

  • Schreiblehrkonzepte an Hochschulen. LitKom 2020, Universität Bielefeld.

    Translated: Discussing, reflecting, writing Study on the use of informal reflection texts in the Innovation Debates course. In: Case studies and reflections on subject-specific writing teaching and learning

 

Eppinger, E., Ehls, D. (2020): A framework for analyzing technology ecosystems – adopting insight from biology. Managing Innovation in a Global and Digital World. Springer.

Peer-reviewed preliminary versions and presentations:

  • VHB Sustainability Management (NAMA) Conference 2017, Cologne.

 

Ehls, D., Korreck, S., Jahn, R., Zeng, M., Heuschneider, S., Herstatt, C., Koller, H., Spaeth, S. (2016) Open Foresight: Exploiting Information from External Sources. SSRN Paper ID 2764208

Peer-reviewed preliminary versions and presentations:

  • Innovation and Product Development Management Conference (IPDMC) Proceedings 2016, Glasgow, UK.

 

Herstatt, C., Ehls, D. (Editors): Open Source Innovation - The Phenomenon, Participant's Behavior, Business Implication. Routeledge, 2015, 318 Pages.

 

Ehls, D. (2013): Joining Decisions in Open Collaborative Innovation Communities: A Discrete Choice Study.Springer Gabler. (Dissertation)

 

Further publications and media contributions

  • Ehls, D.: Innovation Forum Didactic Concept Development WIP 32 - "Reflective Debates" - Fulda University of Applied Sciences 12 June 2025 [Link]
  • Ehls, D.: Active reflection - even in times of AI. Digital coffee round HessenHub - Network digital university teaching Hessen 11 June 2024  [Link]
  • Ehls, D. (2020): INNOVATION DEBATES AND ONE-MINUTE PAPER: REFLEXION². GOOD PRACTICE blog post, Centre for Learning and Teaching, TUHH. [Link]
  • Ehls, D., Herstatt, C. (2019): Synergien folgen nicht automatisch. Review: Technologie- und Innovationsmanagement in Wissenschaftsmanagement 1/2019
  • Lehnen, J., Ehls, D., Herstatt, C. (2015): Customer-oriented product development - Benefiting from the qualified user knowledge of lead users. Idea and Innovation Management 41 (4), 138-141
  • Ehls, D. (2015): How does openness transform our workplace and even our life? Animiertes Video verfügbar unter: [Link]

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