Professor Christopher Lettl is Director of the Institute for Strategy, Technology and Organization at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. He is also Director of the Research Program on Business Model Innovation at the Department of Strategic Management and Innovation and Academic Director of the International Summer University Russia in Vienna.
His research takes point of departure in two paradigm-shifting phenomena: (1) the shift from closed and producer-centered towards open and user-centered innovation processes, and (2) the shift from vertical integration towards complex business ecosystems. In his research, he analyzes how organizations may best manage the opportunities and threats induced by these phenomena with a specific focus on implications for strategy and organization design. Beyond this and more generally, he is interested in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation management, strategic management, and organization theory. He has been cooperating in his research with scholars from renowned international institutions such as for example Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Berkeley University of California, Bocconi University, Copenhagen Business School, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. He received extensive research funding from various funding organizations (e.g., the Danish Strategic Research Council). The results of his research have been presented on international conferences and published in leading academic journals like Journal of Consumer Research, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Research Policy, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. His research has been featured in leading business media, including the New York Times and Handelsblatt. He received numerous research and teaching awards.
He serves the scientific community in numerous functions as Co-Editor and Referee for international journals, conferences, search committees, and funding organizations. For example, he has been a Referee for leading academic journals including Management Science and Strategic Management Journal, and is on the Editorial Board of IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and the Journal of Organization Design. He served as Key Note Speaker at distinguished policy events such as the EU Presidency Event in Helsinki and the Czech Innovation Day in Prague. He has been serving as Academic Advisor for the G8-G5 Heiligendamm Process on Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights, for the UK Minister of Science and Innovation, and for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Resort: Invest in Denmark). He consulted numerous companies including for example IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Siemens, Lego, or Bang & Olufsen in their entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives.
He has founded and established several educational programs in entrepreneurship and innovation (e.g. master program at the University of Aarhus, Denmark) and teaches in the EDEN doctoral program of the European Institute of Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM). Beyond leading the Institute and contributing to the development of the Department, he serves WU in numerous other positions such as for example as Advisor and Jury Member of the WU Alumni Entrepreneur Award, Scientific Advisor for the Global Organizational Learning Network (GOLDEN), or as Co-Organizer of the WU Competence Day on Business Model Innovation.