Bio

I am an industrial engineer turned organizational scholar. I am fascinated by the notion of organizations as complex adaptive systems and by the power of computational approaches for understanding their dynamics. My research focuses on questions of organizational design, learning, and adaptation. It is mainly theoretical, but seeks to build bridges to various application domains such as corporate strategy or new product development. In particular, I address two broad questions:

1. How does organizational design affect a firm’s ability to deal with complex (interdependent) decision problems?
2. How does organizational design affect a firm’s ability to learn and adapt?

In addressing these questions, I work primarily with computational models, but have also engaged in in-depth field studies of individual firms as well as conceptual projects. Supported by a grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark (2017-2022), I am currently migrating several computational models of multi-actor organizations into web-based experimental platforms, using them to conduct laboratory and online experiments.

My research has been published in Administrative Science Quarterly, Advances in Strategic Management, Journal of Management, Organization Science, and the Strategic Management Journal, among others. I am co-editor of the Journal of Organization Design.

I received a PhD in Business Economics from LMU Munich, an MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, and an MS in Engineering Management from Portland State University. I am currently a Professor with special responsibilities at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), where I am a part of the Strategic Organization Design unit. Prior to joining the University of Southern Denmark, I was a visiting scholar at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and an Assistant Professor at LMU Munich.

Working papers: Klick here (SSRN)
Curriculum Vitae: CV (pdf)
Private website: https://oliverbaumann.github.io/

Education

Ph.D. in Business Economics, LMU Munich, 2004-2008
Master of Business Research, LMU Munich, 2005-2007
M.Sc. in Engineering Management, Portland State University, 2002-2003
M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering, University of Karlsruhe, 1999-2004

Full-time positions

Professor with special responsibilities, SDU, 2017-present
Associate Professor, SDU, 2011-2017
Assistant Professor, LMU Munich, 2008-2011
Research and Teaching Associate, LMU Munich, 2004-2008

Visiting positions

Max-Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, 2016 (April)
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2010 (fall)
EM Strasbourg Business School / Strasbourg University, 2009-2012
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2007 (spring)

Research areas

Organization design, organizing for innovation, organizational adaptation and learning, behavioral micro-foundations of strategy, computational modeling, experimental methods

Management experience

Research group leader, Strategic Organization Design Unit, SDU, 2018-2020
Vice research group leader, Strategic Organization Design Unit, SDU, 2015-2017
Member of the leadership team, Department of Marketing & Management, SDU, 2015-present
Budget coordinator, Institute for Information and Organization, LMU Munich, 2005-2010
HR coordinator, Institute for Information and Organization, LMU Munich, 2005-2008