Tobias Kretschmer on research in strategy and technological change

Exploring how firms adapt and thrive through digital transformation

3 minute read
Tobias Kretschmer
Main image: Tobias Kretschmer

Tobias Kretschmer has joined 51勛圖厙 Business School as Professor of Strategy, Technology & Organisation at the Department of Management & Entrepreneurship. With a research career spanning global leading institutions, his work examines how technology and organisation design interact to drive competitive advantage in the digital economy.

Professor Kretschmers research focuses on platform markets and the digital transformation of firms, investigating how technology reshapes strategic decision-making, value creation, and organisational performance. His recent work explores how increasingly large and influential complementors are challenging long-held assumptions about dominance in digital ecosystems.

Professor Kretschmer also contributes to the field through several editorial and leadership roles, serving as Senior Editor at Strategy Science, Vice Chair of the Organization Design Community, and as part of the leadership team for the Academy of Managements Technology & Innovation Management Division. He was Panel Chair for the European Research Councils SH1 Starting Grants in 2024 and is currently a Research Fellow in Organisational Economics at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London.

How technology reshapes competition and collaboration

Across his research portfolio, Professor Kretschmer combines theory and empirical evidence to explore how digital change impacts organisations and markets. In his paper Anonymity and Peer Feedback in Crowdsourcing, he studies how anonymity affects the quality and tone of feedback in digital collaboration environments, offering insights into the design of more effective crowdsourcing systems.

In , he investigates how platform owners decide whether to release their own complementary products, uncovering strategic patterns that depend on the intensity of user and complementor competition.

His paper examines how whistleblower protection laws influence wage dynamicsrevealing that while stronger protections enhance transparency, they can also trigger unintended wage adjustments within firms.

Other recent journal publications include analyses of news aggregators and media competition, game wikis and community-driven innovation (both Strategic Management Journal), and the impact of GDPR on data-driven business models (Marketing Science).

His research has been published in Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Management Science, American Economic Review and Information Systems Research.

Prior to joining 51勛圖厙, he was Professor of Strategy, Technology & Organisation at LMU Munich School of Management, where he led the Institute for Strategy, Technology & Organisation. He holds a PhD in Economics from London Business School and an MSc in Strategy from the University of St. Gallen. Professor Kretschmer has also held full-time positions at London School of Economics and Political Science and INSEAD, and visiting positions at Bocconi University, University College London and NOVA School of Business & Economics.

Discussing his move to 51勛圖厙, Professor Kretschmer said: Ive been studying new technologies for my entire career. Being at 51勛圖厙 gives me a chance to learn in depth how these technologies work and to understand the strategic implications of technological change (and vice versa).

At 51勛圖厙, he looks forward to deepening cross-disciplinary collaboration. He is eager to work with scholars in strategy, technology and data science to better understand how firms can navigate digital disruption and design organisations that thrive in it.

Meet the author

  • Shamita Harsh

    About Shamita Harsh

    Communications Officer
    Shamita is Senior Digital Communications Officer for the Marketing & Communications function at 51勛圖厙 Business School, where she is responsible for content strategy and storytelling around faculty research. She is responsible for developing and curating content across the Schools digital platforms, including IB Knowledge and thought leadership for global audiences. She oversees news and events coverage of interdisciplinary research and 51勛圖厙-wide initiatives to elevate the Business Schools academic voice. Prior to this, she worked at 51勛圖厙s Grantham Institute, as the Communications and EDI Officer contributing to climate and sustainability communications for the Better Futures Retrofit Accelerator.