Ali Aslan Gümüsay, Prof. Dr.
Ali Aslan Gümüsay is the head of the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Society research focus. He is also a professor of Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Sustainability at LMU Munich.
Before, he was a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg, DAAD Prime Fellow at WU Vienna and Lecturer at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. He received his DPhil from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Prior to this, he worked as a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group.
At the HIIG, Ali Gümüsay coordinates our projects related to business, digitalization and society. This includes projects on AI & work, digital organizing & openness, platforms & ecosystems, and digital entrepreneurship & sustainability. His own research consists of four streams: (1) values, meaning and hybridity in entrepreneurship; (2) grand challenges, sustainability and new forms of organizing; (3) digitalisation, management and innovation as well as (4) impact, scholarship and futures.
Entrepreneurship & innovationTask Force: Digital Organizing
The task force Digital Organizing is a group of researchers who study the implications of digital practices for the processes of organizing.
Entrepreneurship & innovationDigital Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship
In the “Digital Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship" research project, we investigate entrepreneurial organisations that primarily focus on society – often called social enterprises.
Journal articles and conference proceedings (33)
Stroehle, J., Gümüşay, A. A., Edinger-Schons, L. M., Vogel, A., Ebrahim, A., Rasche, A., King, A., Pucker, K., Barker, R., Reinecke, J., Michelon, G., Cooper, S., Etzion, D., Harji, K., Besharov, M., Mayer, C., Hsieh, N., & van den Terrell, E. (2025). A critical examination of corporate environmental and social impact measurement and valuation. Journal of Management Inquiry, 3-18. Publication details
Jahajeeah, J. A., Gümüşay, A. A., Salvi, E., von Richthofen, G., & Kekana, L. (2025). Grand Challenges, Decoloniality and Management Scholarship. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 93, 85-102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20250000093006 Publication details
Edinger-Schons, L.M., Stroehle, J., Gümüsay, A. A. et al. (2025). Monetary impact valuation for sustainable business. Nature Sustainability, 1102–1104. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01630-9 Publication details
Vogel, A., Nadegger, M., Wolf, B., Gümüşay, A. A., & Vilchez, P. et al. (2025). Impact entrepreneurship: Reimagining entrepreneurial Purpose and research for driving societal impact. Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41471-025-00221-w Publication details
Zeller-Lanzl, J., Bohn, S., von Richthofen, G., Körner, M.-F., & Gümüşay, A. A. (2025). Essay 3: Fostering Interdisciplinary Impact Around the Potentialities of (Ir)Responsibility In and Through Digitalization. Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, 28-45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41471-025-00234-5 Publication details
Gümüşay, A. A., & Reinecke, J. (2024). Imagining Desirable Futures: A call for prospective theorizing with speculative rigour. Organization Theory, 5(1). DOI: 10.1177/26317877241235939 Publication details
Theissen, M. H., Theissen, H. H., & Gümüsay, A. A. (2024). Self-transcendent leadership: A meta-perspective. European Management Review. DOI: 10.1111/emre.12640 Publication details
Gümüşay, A.A., Meyer, R.E., & Höllerer, M. A. (2024). Committed Actors, Institutional Complexity, and Pathways to Compromise: The Emergence of Islamic Banking in Germany. Journal of Management Studies. DOI: 10.1111/joms.13061 Publication details
Gullmark, P., Høyvarde Clausen, T., Gümüşay, A.A., & Alsos, G., A. (2024). Public entrepreneurial opportunities: How institutional logics shape public servants’ opportunity evaluation. Public Administration Review.. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13920 Publication details
Gümüsay, A. A., Bohné, T. & Davenport, T. (2023). AI and the Future of Management Decision-Making. Management and Business Review, 1-16. Publication details
Gümüşay, A. A. (2023). Management Scholars of the World, Unite! Organization Studies, 44(8), 1377-1380. Publication details
Bohn, S., & Gümüşay, A. A. (2023). Growing Institutional Complexity and Field Transition: Towards Constellation Complexity in the German Energy Field. Journal of Management Studies. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.13004 Publication details
Bohn, S., Gümüşay, A. A., von Richthofen, G., & Reischauer, G. (2023). Digital organising. Internet Policy Review – Concepts of the digital society, 12(4), 1-15. Publication details
Smith, B., Gümüşay, A. A., & Townsend D. M. (2023). Bridging worlds: The intersection of religion and entrepreneurship as meaningful heterodoxy. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 20(1), 1-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2023.e00406. Publication details
von Richthofen, G., & Gümüşay, A. A. (2023). Impact Without Imposition: What Role for Northern Academics in the Global South? Stanford Social Innovation Review. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48558/B761-2W21 Publication details
Köhne, S., Ulich, A., & Gümüşay, A. (2022). Digitale Weiterbildung in KMU: Ein Dreiphasenmodell zur Implementierung einer bedarfsgerechten Strategie. Zeitschrift Führung + Organisation, 1(91), 35-41. Publication details
Adler, P. S., Adly, A., Armanios, D. E., Battilana, J., Bodrožić, Z., […], Gümüşay, A. A., et al. (2022). Authoritarianism, Populism, and the Global Retreat of Democracy: A Curated Discussion. Journal of Management Inquiry, 32(1), 3–20. Publication details
Gümüşay, A. A., Raynard, M., Etter, M., Albu, O. & Roulet, T. (2022). Digital Technology and Voice: How Platforms Shape Institutional Processes Through Visibilization. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 83, 57-85. Publication details
Scheidgen, K., Gümüşay, A.A., Günzel-Jensen, F., Krlev, G., & Wolf, M. (2021). Crises and entrepreneurial opportunities: digital social innovation in response to physical distancing. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 15. Publication details
Gümüşay, A.A. (2021). Crossing boundaries: connecting religion and paradox for leadership and organisation research. Interdisciplinary Dialogues on Organizational Paradox: Learning from Belief and Science, 73a, 95-112. DOI: 10.1108/S0733-558X2021000073a007 Publication details
Gümüşay, A.A., & Reinecke, J. (2021). Researching (for) desirable futures: How can we theorize what does not exist? Journal of Management Studies. Publication details
Gümüşay, A. A. (2021). Unity in diversity: Leadership, Organization & Conflict Management. Konfliktdynamik, 10(4), 290–294. Publication details
Gümüsay, A. A., & Reinecke, J. (2021). Researching for Desirable Futures: From Real Utopias to Imagining Alternatives. Journal of Management Studies, 59(1), 236-242. Publication details
Gümüşay, A.A., Smets, M., & Morris, T. (2020). ‘God at Work’: Engaging Central and Incompatible Institutional Logics through Elastic Hybridity. Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 63(1), 124 - 154. DOI: 10.5465/amj.2016.0481 Publication details
Gümüşay, A.A. (2020). The Plurality and Prevalence of the Religious Institutional Logic. Business & Society, 59:5, 855-880. DOI: 10.1177/0007650317745634 Publication details
Gümüşay, A. A., & Dobusch, L. (2020). This Is Not (Digital) Business as Usual – The universality of having to operate with limited in-person experiences is reducing the stigma often associated with online interactions. MIT Sloan Management Review. Publication details
Bohn, S., Friederici, N., & Gümüşay, A. A. (2020). Too big to fail us? Platforms as systemically relevant. Internet Policy Review. Publication details
Friederici, N., Meier, P., & Gümüşay, A. A. (2020). An opportunity for inclusion? Digital platform innovation in times of crisis. Pioneers Post. Publication details
Gümüşay, Ali Aslan (2019). Embracing religions in moral theories of leadership. Academy of Management Journal, 33(3), 292 - 306. DOI: 10.5465/amp.2017.0130 Publication details
Gümüşay, Ali Aslan; Bohné, Thomas (2018). Individual and organizational inhibitors to the development of entrepreneurial competencies in universities. Research Policy, 47(2), 363 - 378. DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2017.11.008 Publication details
Gümüşay, Ali Aslan (2018). Commentary: Sharing is caring: From material to socio-material sharing. Academy of Management Discoveries, 4(3), 376 - 377. DOI: 10.5465/amd.2018.0083 Publication details
Gümüşay, Ali Aslan (2017). Unpacking entrepreneurial opportunities – an institutional logics perspective. Innovation: Organization & Management, 20(3), 209 - 222. DOI: 10.1080/14479338.2017.1404430 Publication details
Gümüşay, Ali Aslan (2015). Entrepreneurship from an Islamic Perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 130(1), 199 - 208. DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2223-7 Publication details
Edited works (1)
Gümüşay, A.A., Marti, E., Trittin-Ulbrich, H., Wickert, C. (2022). Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges. In A.A. Gümüşay, E. Marti., H. Trittin-Ulbrich, & C. Wickert, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 79. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited. DOI: 10.1108/S0733-558X20220000079002 Publication details
Book contributions and chapters (5)
Ohliger, U., Winter, J., von Richthofen, G., Gümüşay, A. A., & Hünsche, M. (2025). Menschengerechte Arbeitswelt und ressourceneffizientes Wirtschaftswachstum durch KI – Potenziale für den nachhaltigen Technologieeinsatz. In N. Fabisch, R. Schmidpeter, G. Schuster, & A. Sihn-Weber (Eds.), Menschenwürdige Arbeit und Wirtschaftswachstum. Globale Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung. (pp. 1-13). Berlin / Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Gabler. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-68327-9_1-1 Publication details
Gümüşay, A., Marti, E., Trittin-Ulbrich, H., & Wickert, C. (2022). How Organizing matters for Societal Grand Challenges. In A.A. Gümüsay, E. Marti, H. Trittin-Ulbrich & C. Wickert, Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges, Research in the Sociology of Organizations (79) (pp. 1-14). Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited. DOI: 10.1108/S0733-558X20220000079002 Publication details
Gümüşay, A. A. (2022). Sustainable business, grand challenges & diverse forms of organizing. In S. Neckel, P. Degens & S. Lenz, Kapitalismus und Nachhaltigkeit, Zukünfte der Nachhaltigkeit (pp. 273–284). Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag. Publication details
Gümüşay, A.A., & Smets, M. (2021). New hybrid forms and their liability of novelty. In M. L. Besharov, & B. C. Mitzinneck (Eds.), Organizational Hybridity: Perspectives, Processes, Promises, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 69 (pp. 167-187). Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing Limited. DOI: 10.1108/S0733-558X20200000069008 Publication details
von Richthofen, G., Gümüsay, A. A., & Send, H. (2021). Künstliche Intelligenz und die Zukunft von Arbeit. In R. Altenburger & R. Schmidpeter (Eds.), CSR und Künstliche Intelligenz (pp. 353-366). Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Gabler. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-63223-9_19 Publication details
Other publications (12)
Fecher, B., Gümüsay, A. A., Bohn, S. & A. Jobin (2023). Resilience without accountability holds back transformative change. LSE Impact Blog. Publication details
Fecher, B., Gümüşay, A. A., Bohn, S., & Jobin, A. (2023). Resilience without accountability holds back transformative change. LSE Impact Blog. Publication details
Siebold, N., Gümüşay, A., & von Richthofen, G. (2022). Der Einsatz von KI zum Wohl der Gesellschaft: Versprechen & Gefahren für Start-ups. Digital Society Blog. Publication details
Siebold, N., Gümüşay, A. A. , & v. Richthofen, G. (2022). The promises and perils of applying AI for social good in entrepreneurship. LSE Business Review. Publication details
Gümüşay, A. (2022). Eine andere Form der Geldwäsche. Andere Zeiten. Publication details
Krlev, G., Scheidgen, K., Günzel-Jensen, F., Wolf, M., & Gümüşay, A.A (2022). Did COVID lockdowns harm entrepreneurship? Not exactly. LSE Business Review. Publication details
Siebold, N., Gümüşay, A., & von Richthofen, G. (2022). Der Einsatz von KI zum Wohl der Gesellschaft: Versprechen & Gefahren für Start-ups. Digital society blog. Publication details
Gümüsay, A., Köhne, S., Schildhauer, T., Krzywdzinski, M., & Send, H. (2022). Why Big Brother should not be watching you at work. I by IMD. Publication details
Siebold, N., Gümüşay, A. A. , & v. Richthofen, G. (2022). The promises and perils of applying AI for social good in entrepreneurship. HIIG Impact Publication Series. Publication details
Spanuth, A., & Gümüşay, A.A. (2021). Three ways social entrepreneurs work in conflict regions. Pioneers Post. Publication details
Interview with Ali Aslan Gümüşay (2021). Open Science can lead to “Feed Forward” mechanisms in research. The ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics. Publication details
Interview mit Ali Alsan Gümüşay (2021). „Eigene Werte nicht verstecken“. profil. Publication details
Lectures and presentations (32)
Entrepreneurship futures: A short talk about (almost) everything
Shaping Organizational Futures: How Workers Respond to Artificial Intelligence
Desirable futures and prospective theorising
The Responsible Business Salon #2: ‘Future Imaginaries’
Desirable Futures and Prospective Theorizing
Neue Ansätze in der Social Entrepreneurship Lehre für den Umgang mit Komplexität
Shaping sustainable futures: An impact entrepreneurship perspective
How can academics from the Global North have an impact without imposing their idea(l)s on people in the Global South?
Engaged scholarship: Academics that care enough to take a stance
Einführen in Vielfalt: Organisationen richtig führen
Islam and Entrepreneurship
Researching Religion and Business
Artificial Intelligence and Work Representation
Munich Postdoc Day 2023. Insights into Leadership
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Seminar: A Research Potpourri – Innovative Templates, Circular Forms of Organizing, and Futures
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Seminar: A Research Potpourri – Innovative Templates, Circular Forms of Organizing, and Futures
Growing Institutional Complexity – Field Transitioning Processes Towards Constellation Complexity.
Digitale Zukünfte
38th EGOS Colloquium: Digital organizing in open-source IoT companies. The mutual relationship between datafication and connectification.
Vom digitalen Wandel zur digitalen Wende
Class XIV: Organizations, Institutions and War
Engaging Grand Challenges through a Transformative Institutional Logics Perspective
Enlightening the Future: The Challenge for Organizations
EGOS Colloquium
EGOS Colloquium
Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
Organizations and the Examined Life: Reason, Reflexivity and Responsibility
Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
Bridging Continents, Cultures and Worldviews
The Informal Economy
Panels (13)
Real utopias for organizational governance
Impact and entrepreneurship: Collaborative pathways for better futures
Organisation und Demokratie. Wissenschaft, Politik und Praxis im Austausch
Impact Scholars, Unite! Building Bridges Across Communities Interested in Creating Impact
What could possibly go wrong? Inputs and discussion about impact, unforeseen consequences and error culture with a focus on design for sustainability and social impact.
#D21TALK – Resilienz im digitalen Wandel
Theorizing Desirable Futures
Digital organizing & strategizing in open-source IoT companies. The mutual relationship between datafication and connectification.
ZVEI Panel “Quo vadis Künstliche Intelligenz?
Panel: Theory Elaboration on Religion in Entrepreneurship Research
Mehr KI als Verstand – Technik im Dienste des Menschen?
Entrepreneurship and faith: a diversity of religious perpectives
Gronen 2020 – All Systems go?! Sustainability in the Digital Age
Moderation of workshops and panels (6)
From values to value? The complexities and potentials of impact valuation
Prospective, Prescriptive, and Pragmatist Theorizing and Methodology
Creating Desirable Futures: Challenges and Prospects for Organizational Scholars
Themenraum: Wissenschaft
Organizing for Emerging Digital Technologies: Taking Stock and Moving On
The Future of Organisation and Management Theory
Organisation of events (13)
41st EGOS Colloquium: Creativity that goes a long way. European Group of Organizational Studies. From 03.07.2025 to 05.07.2025. The American College of Greece, Athens, Greece. Co-Organised by: European Group of Organizational Studies. (International) Further information
Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Digitaler Salon: Update Unbekannt?26.02.2025. Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany (National) Further information
Lara Kauter, Daniel Pothmann, Nele Buß, Sarah Spitz, Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Organizing for Emerging Digital Technologies: Taking Stock and Moving On84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2024). From 09.08.2024 to 13.08.2024. AOM, Chicago, USA (International) Further information
Ali Aslan Gümüsay
From Metrics to Meaning: Navigating the Depths of Impact Assessment84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2024). From 09.08.2024 to 13.08.2024. AOM, Chicago, USA (International) Further information
Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Impact Entrepreneurship: Bridging Environmental, Social, and Responsible Entrepreneurship84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2024)e. From 09.08.2024 to 11.08.2024. AOM, Chicago, USA (International) Further information
Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Impact Measurement and Valuation LabFrom 06.03.2024 to 08.03.2024. Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany (National) Further information
Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Lunch Talk Series I Grand Challenges, Digitalisation & Sustainability22.06.2022. Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany (International) Further information
Sarah Spitz, Ali Aslan Gümüsay
The societal relevance of management & impactful research (The societal relevance of management & impactful research)VHB Conference Symposium & Workshop 2022. From 08.03.2022 to 11.03.2022. Online, Düsseldorf, Germany (National) Further information
Ali Aslan Gümüsay
“Commitment versus Compliance: Prioritizing, Compromizing, and the Development of Templates in Situations of Institutional Complexity”MAN 910 – Area Management Seminar. 17.03.2021. University of Mannheim Business School, Mannheim, Germany (International) Further information
Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Doktorand*innen-Kolloquium IEG16.07.2020. Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany (National)
Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Grand Challenges and New Forms of Organizing36th EGOS Colloquium - Organising for a Sustainable Future: Responsibility, Renewal & Resistance. From 02.07.2020 to 03.07.2020. EGOS, Online, Germany (International) Further information
Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Entrepreneurship and Innovation for the Common GoodCollaborative Open Course for Master Programs in Business Administration, Management and Organisation Studies. 16.04.2020. Organising in Times of Crisis, Online, Austria (International) Further information
Ali Aslan Gümüsay
‘God at Work’: Engaging Central and Incompatible Institutional Logics through Elastic Hybridity07.01.2020. Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany (National) Further information
Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Nominations (13)
Ali Aslan Gümüşay
Ideenlauf Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung.Ali Aslan Gümüsay
ONE-SIM Outreach Award.Ali Aslan Gümüsay
IGP Jury des BMWi.Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Innovation Programme for Business Models and Pioneer Solutions (IGP).Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Innovation Programme for Business Models and Pioneer Solutions, IGP, BMWi 2021.Ali Aslan Gümüşay
Member: DFG Scientific Network "Strategizing in a Digital Economy".Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Member of DFG Network Digital Strategizing.Ali Aslan Gümüşay
Board Member: Exhibition at Altonaer Museum.Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Principal Investigator: DFG Network “Grand Challenges & New Forms of Organizing”.Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Member of the scientific organizing committee: European Group for Organizational Studies, University Hamburg.Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Board member: AIWG, University of Frankfurt.Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Board member: The Concordia Forum.Ali Aslan Gümüsay
Participation as expert (2)
Genoaward: Zukunft verwirklichen. Internationals Jahr der Genossenschaften
Between Benin & Berlin: Research & Impact at the Intersection of Sustainability & Digitalization.
- 13.04. FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
Regulieren mit Gestaltungskraft
- 26.02. FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
Ein teilweiser Rückzug ist keine Lösung: Warum die Wissenschaft sich nicht distanzieren soll
- 07.05.25 DIE ZEIT
Wissenschaftler, mischt euch endlich ein!
- 17.02.25 FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE
Wirtschaftsweise brauchen mehr BWL
- 15.11.24 CAPITAL
Das sind Deutschlands Top 40 unter 40
- 19.12.23 VON ZEBRAS UND ZUKUNFT: ORGANISATIONEN ERFORSCHEN
Von Zebras und Zukunft: Organisationen erforschen
- 01.12.23 LMU MUNICH SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT MAGAZIN INSIGHTS
Herzlich willkommen, Professor Ali Aslan Gümüsay
- 18.08.23 ZEIT CAMPUS
Interview: I’m a knowledge broker
- 18.08.23 ZEIT CAMPUS
I’m a knowledge broker
- 14.08.22 QAMAR MAGAZIN
Ali Aslan Gümüşay: „Hier wird gekocht, und gegessen wird im Himmel“
- 14.08.22 QAMAR MAGAZIN
Interview: Qamar-Magazin
- 07.06.22 THE SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PODCAST
Podcastfolge: How can we create large scale change?
- 07.06.22 THE SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PODCAST
How can we create large scale change?
- 23.02.22 TAGESSPIEGEL BACKGROUND
Expert:innen untersuchen soziales Unternehmertum im Bereich KI
- 01.08.21 LEIBNIZ INFORMATION CENTER FOR ECONOMICS
Open Science can lead to “Feed Forward” mechanisms in research
- 17.07.21 PROFIL
„Eigene Werte nicht verstecken“

Position
Head of Research: Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Society
Topics: Digital Transformation, Digitalisation & Economy, Sustainable Entrepreneurship
