Research
Future-Making in Power-to-X
Future making describes the “ways in which organizational actors produce and enact the yet-to-come” (Wenzel et al., 2025, p.2). Hereby, futures are socially constructed by the actors, and organization research needs to understand how these futures are produced to engage collective efforts (Hilbolling et al., 2022). Examining the development of the Power-to-X concept in the energy industry, we seek to identify the practices and ways are used by organizational actors in shaping futures. Power-to-X represents a set of newly developed technologies within the energy sector that can store renewable energy or convert it into hydrogen. Hydrogen can then be utilized for subsequent conversion to produce, for instance, green fuels or heating. The involved actors have identified a wide range of potential use cases for hydrogen, creating a high level of complexity regarding possible futures for the concept in both the organizations and society. Through in-depth interviews, future making workshops, and focus groups with organizational actors, we aim to understand how they engage in future making.
Strategic Integration of Large Language Model Technologies
Our research project investigates the strategic integration of large language models (LLMs) within organizational settings across Europe. This study aims to develop comprehensive case studies on how European companies incorporate LLM technologies into their business processes and organizational practices. By examining diverse approaches and methodologies, we seek to uncover the motivations behind adopting LLMs, the challenges faced during implementation, and the overall impact on organizational efficiency, innovation, and decision-making.
By capturing these experiences and reflections, our project aims to contribute to the evolving landscape of AI adoption in business, providing actionable insights and best practices for organizations looking to leverage LLM technologies. Ultimately, our goal is to enhance understanding of how LLMs can be effectively integrated to drive organizational growth and innovation across Europe.
Self-Strategizing
Strategy tools are traditionally designed for organizational decision-making, yet they increasingly appear in private life through the rise of business coaching and self-development practices. This project explores the phenomenon of self-strategizing—the use of strategy tools for personal life planning. We examine how individuals and coaches adapt business tools such as business model canvases, SWOT analysis, and design thinking to guide personal goals and navigate life decisions. Our research focuses on how these tools are transformed in practice: What elements are emphasized or downplayed? What benefits and challenges arise from using them outside their original context? Drawing on an analysis of coaching materials and practices, we explore the blurred boundaries between professional and personal domains and reflect on the broader implications of treating one’s life as a strategic project. The project contributes to understanding how management knowledge travels beyond the workplace and how individuals engage with structured self-reflection in an increasingly tool-driven culture.
Open Source Software Survivability
Open-source projects play a vital role in shaping digital infrastructures, yet many face challenges when it comes to long-term survivability. This research investigates how projects funded by the NGI Search program assess and manage their ability to endure beyond initial funding. Survivability refers to the capacity of a project to sustain operations, adapt to change, and remain valuable over time. Through interviews with project leads and contributors, we explore how open-source teams organize their work, generate value, and navigate funding strategies. We examine how they define key roles, engage users and communities, and respond to external actors and ecosystem dependencies. Special attention is paid to the alignment between open-source values and practical decisions around sustainability. By identifying common challenges and strategies, this project contributes to a better understanding of how open-source initiatives can build resilient structures and thrive in complex innovation environments.
Corporate-Startup Collaborations
Corporations need to innovate continuously to maintain a competitive edge, but many struggle with effective innovation management due to industry changes. To address this, they adopt open innovation, collaborating with startups to combine the startups' agility and innovation with their own established capabilities. They create structured programs to facilitate these collaborations, but these programs often fall short of expectations and are frequently revised or discontinued. This dissertation explores how knowledge exchange in these programs supports successful collaborations between corporations and startups.
Governance Mode for Corporate Venturing Activity
The aim of this thesis was the identification of factors and dimensions that influence the corporate decision about the governance mode for corporate venturing activities. Corporate venturing can be established through different governance modes like corporate venture capital, joint ventures, spin-offs, or corporate accelerators. The choice of the governance mode depicts a strategic decision that has consequences for the corporate organizational structure. With the help of a systematic literature review that focused on corporate venturing and its governance modes, influencing factors were identified and grouped into five impact dimensions: objectives, autonomy, operational linkages, strategic fit, and ambidexterity. The relevance of those impact dimensions was researched with the help of an exploratory research approach based on multiple case studies and semi-structured interviews. Through a qualitative content analysis, the impact dimension of strategic fit resulted as the most important one. In addition, the dimension of objectives, autonomy, and operational linkages received support from the interview partners.
Impact of Mobile Commerce
The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 revolutionized the mobile device market with its intuitive usability and extensive mobile internet capabilities, leading to a rapid growth in the market for internet-enabled, touchscreen phones. Today, around 11% of Germans own a smartphone, with 6% using mobile internet intensively and 9% purchasing physical products via their devices. This has significantly impacted mobile commerce, creating new distribution channels and affecting existing ones, such as traditional retail. This thesis aims to explore how mobile commerce influences the distribution structure of electronic commerce, examining theoretical foundations, comparing electronic and traditional commerce, and presenting potential development scenarios based on expert interviews.
Research Outputs
Journal Articles
Möllmann, J. (2022), "More than a handshake – knowledge transfer in structured corporate–startup collaboration programs", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 27 No. 10, pp. 2604-2624. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-03-2022-0222​
Pop, M. & Möllmann, J. (2025) Strategic Integration of Large Language Models: Challenges, Opportunities, and Organizational Impact [Symposium]. 85th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 25-29
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Möllmann, J. & Zaggl, M. (2024) Problem Formulation and Piloting Process in Startup Innovation Contest. 24th Annual Conference of the European Academy of Management, Bath, UK, 25-28 June
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Möllmann, J. & Zaggl, M. (2024) Iterative Problem Development Process in Startup Innovation Contests. 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Chicago, USA, August 9-13, https://doi.org/10.5465/AMPROC.2024.18810abstract
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Möllmann, J. & Smith, P. (2023) Structuring Knowledge Exchange Processes in Corporate-Startup Collaboration Programs. 39th European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Cagliari, Italy, July 6-8
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Möllmann, J. & Smith, P. (2023) A Penny for Your Thoughts - Knowledge Processes and Practices in Corporate-Startup Collaborations. 83rd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Boston, USA, August 4-8, https://doi.org/10.5465/AMPROC.2023.14718abstract​
Dissertation
Möllmann, J. (2024). Mind the Gap: Knowledge Exchange between Corporations and Startups in Structured Programs.
Book Chapter
Renzl, B., & Möllmann, J. (2025). Ambidexterity. In B. Grossmann-Hensel, P. Jarzabkowski, R. Kratochvil, D. Seidl, A. P. Spee, & R. Whittington (Eds.), Elgar Encyclopedia of Strategy as Practice Edward Elgar Publishing. [In Press]
Invited Talks
02/2024 ENI Research Seminar, Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Science, University of Stuttgart, "Knowledge in Structured Programs for Corporate Startup Collaborations", Stuttgart, Germany
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07/2023 IKON Seminar, Warwick Business School, Warwick University, "Structuring Knowledge Exchange Processes in Corporate-Startup Collaborations Programs", Coventry, UK
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07/2022 ENI Research Seminar, Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Science, University of Stuttgart, "Knowledge Transfer in Corporate-Startup-Collaborations", Online
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02/2022 The Kitchen Club, "A penny for your thoughts: How to transfer knowledge and its challenges", Aarhus, Denmark