Stefan Wagner
Head of Research Unit Technology and Innovation Management, University of Vienna
Principal Investigator of SUSTECH (ERC Synergy funded)
I study how firms, scientists, and institutions create, protect, and commercialize new technologies.
I am a Chaired Professor at the University of Vienna. My work looks at how new technologies emerge, how firms and institutions shape their development, and how ideas move from science into markets.
Much of my work is situated at the intersection of strategy, innovation, industrial organization, and law. I am particularly interested in how institutions and organizational choices affect the direction of inventive activity, the diffusion of knowledge, and firms’ ability to capture value from technological change. My work is primarily empirical and uses econometric and increasingly AI-based methods.
I am also one of the principal investigators of SUSTECH , a project on accelerating sustainable technological trajectories. The project studies why hazardous chemicals often reach the market faster than safer alternatives, and how artificial intelligence, computational and chemistry can help identify and promote more sustainable technological alternatives. The project was awarded appr. 10 Mio EUR within an ERC Synergy grant and has the potential to make a great impact beyond academia.
Currently, I serve as an Associate Editor at Management Science and as a member of the editorial review boards of the Strategic Management Journal and Strategy Science. I previously served on the boards of the European Policy for Intellectual Property Association and the Doctoral Program of the Berlin School of Economics. I have taught countless classes on strategy and innovation on the with M.Sc., (E)MBA and executive education settings at top business schools.