Tanja Schomann, Dr

Tanja Schomann’s research interests are located at the intersection of organisation studies, sustainability, governance, and societal transformation. Her work focuses on how alternative ownership and governance structures can support companies in acting more long-term oriented, responsibly, and in alignment with the common good.

Research

She is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) in the research focus Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Society and works in the project The Future of Ownership: Steward Ownership and Its Consequences for Economic Performance as well as Ecological and Social Sustainability (ZUDE-SO).

Academic Career

Tanja Schomann studied International Business Studies at the European Business School and KEDGE Business School in Marseille, as well as Organizational and Social Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She subsequently completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Cambridge. In her dissertation, she examined trust and trust signals in the digital health sector, bringing together social-psychological perspectives with questions of digital innovation and organizational credibility.

Before joining HIIG, Tanja Schomann was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of St. Gallen, where she conducted research on steward ownership and alternative ownership models. She also has extensive international research and practice experience in the fields of social entrepreneurship, digital innovation, health, and sustainability, including projects with IBM Research Africa, eHealth Africa, and research contexts connected to UNICEF. She has taught at universities for several years, including at ESCP Business School and IU International University of Applied Sciences, with teaching areas including sustainability management, corporate governance, qualitative research methods, consumer psychology, and organizational psychology.