Stephan Bohn, Dr.

Stephan is a senior researcher and a project leader in the Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Society group. He is responsible for projects about digital organizing, sustainability, open source and platforms.

Stephan has a PhD in organization studies from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, where he studied the implementation of sustainability and management concepts in tech companies from an institutional perspective. He was a fellow of the Transatlantic Doctoral Academy on Corporate Responsibility, a quest researcher at the WZB Berlin and WU Vienna and realized and participated in several DFG projects (The institutional complexity of the energiewende, Free University of Berlin & Scientific Network “Temporary Organizing”).

Besides his focus on organizational change, his papers and projects are about institutional change, framing and (disruptive) technologies in different areas, especially digitalization and open-source, digital music market and platforms, and green innovations such as renewables, and electric mobility. In doing so, he likes to combine qualitative methods and machine learning approaches such as topic modeling.

He is also a lecturer at the FU Berlin and the University of Salzburg in the fields of management & organization, business, and digitalization.

Current projects

Completed projects

Publications

Activities

Media

Current projects

Entrepreneurship & innovation
Task 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 & innovation · Politics & law
Increase corporate political responsibility and accountability of digital platforms
This project examines the growing corporate power of platform capitalism and its hegemony on several spheres of European society.

Completed projects

Entrepreneurship & innovation · Science engagement
Digitalisation and Climate
The project Digitalisation and Climate examines the economic, ecological & social dimensions of a sustainable digital economy.
Entrepreneurship & innovation · Media & data
Platform Alternatives
The project team will derive Corporate Governance Principles for digital platforms that seek to distribute collectively created value more fairly. The project is implemented...

Publications

Books

Scheuermann, B., & Bohn, S. (Eds.) (2021). encore. The annual Magazine on Internet and Society Research, 2020/2021. Berlin: Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. Publication details

Bohn, S. (2014). Die Implementierung von CSR in High-Tech Unternehmen. Zum organisationalen Umgang mit divergierenden institutionalisierten Erwartungen. Wiesbaden, Hessen: Springer-Gabler. Publication details

Journal articles and conference proceedings

Rashid, L., Möckel, C., & Bohn, S. (2024). The blessing and curse of “no strings attached”: An automated literature analysis of psychological health and non-attachmental work in the digitalization era. Plos one, 19(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298040 Publication details

Sminia, H., Bohn, S., & Sydow, J. (2024). Path release among practices in the process of path constitution: How the MP3-path appeared in the field of recorded music. Research Policy, 53(8). DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2024.105073 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

Risi, D., Vigneau, L., & Bohn, S., & Wickert, C. W. (2022). Institutional theory-based research on Corporate Social Responsibility: Bringing values back in. International Journal of Management Reviews(00), 1-21. DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12299 Publication details

Bohn, S., & Rogge, JC. (2022). The framing of green innovations—a comparative topic modeling study on the public frames of the electric vehicle in Germany and UK. Journal of Cleaner Production, 364, 1-11. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132499 Publication details

Bohn, S., & Braun, T. (2021). Field-configuring projects: how projects shape the public reflection of electric mobility in Germany. International Journal of Project Management. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2021.04.006 Publication details

Bohn, S., Lohmeyer, N., Kumar, H. Jha and Reinecke, J. (2021). Hostile frame takeover: Co-opting the security frame in the German nuclear energy debate. Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, 2021(1), 6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2021.198 Publication details

Bohn, S., Friederici, N., & Gümüşay, A. A. (2020). Too big to fail us? Platforms as systemically relevant. Internet Policy Review. Publication details

Bohn, S., & Braun, T. (2019). Field-configuring projects? A machine learning approach about how projects shape the meaning of electronic mobility in Germany. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2019(1). Publication details

Risi, D., Vigneau, L., & Bohn, S. (2019). How Values Promote Actions in Institutions: A Systematic Review of New Institutionalist Research on Corporate Social Responsibility. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2019(1). Publication details

Bohn, S. (2018). Komplexität, Heterogenität und big data – (oder) Wie Machine Learning Algorithmen die explorative Analyse institutioneller Vielfalt erlauben. Nano-Paper. Publication details

Bohn, S., Perendija, A., & Jha, H. K. (2018). Topic Modeling and Management Research. Mapping Fields with Big Data. Academy of Management Global Proceedings. Publication details

Bohn, S., Kunze, M., & Günther, M. (2018). Stressed and shattered: A topic modeling study about field-level change and consequences of high degree complexity in the German energy market. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018(1). Publication details

Bohn, S., Galander, A., & Walgenbach, P. (2015). The creativity of organizations in the taking of management panaceas – On the implementation of CSR in German high-tech firms. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2015(1). Publication details

Beyer, S., Bohn, S., Grünheid, T., Händschke, S., Kerekes, R., Müller, J., & Walgenbach, P. (2014). Wofür übernehmen Unternehmungen Verantwortung? Und wie kommunizieren sie ihre Verantwortungsübernahme? – Eine explorative Studie. Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik, 15(1), 57-80. Publication details

Book contributions and chapters

Bihr, P., Bohn, S., & Send, H. (2021). Freie Technologien für die Gesellschaft. In M. Gibson-Kunze, C. Golbeck, A. Halfmann, & T. J. Smith, Die Große Transformation in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 36. Berlin: UVG-Verlag. Publication details

Bohn, S., & Walgenbach, P. (2019). Is CSR Crowding Out Charity? A case Study of CSR Implementation in a German Company. In A. Sales (Eds.), Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Change. Ethical Economy (Studies in Economic Ethics and Philosophy), vol. 57 (pp. 259-270). Cham, Bavaria: Springer. Publication details

Bohn, S. (2018). Neoinstitutionalismus und Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung. In H. Backhaus-Maul, M. Kunze, S. Nährlich (Eds.), Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung von Unternehmen in Deutschland (pp. 257-269). Wiesbaden, Hessen: Springer VS. Publication details

Bohn, S. & Walgenbach, P. (2018). Refusing, connecting and playing off conflicting institutional demands. A longitudinal study on the organizational handling of the end of nuclear power, climate protection, and the energy turnaround in Germany. In G. Krücken, C. Mazza, R.E. Meyer & P. Walgenbach (Eds.), New Themes in Institutional Analysis: Topics and Issues from European Research (pp. 162-193). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Publication details

Bohn, S., Galander, A. & Walgenbach, P. (2015). The creativity of organizations in the taking of management panaceas – On the implementation of CSR in German high-tech firms. In Anders Örtenblad, Handbook of Research on Management Ideas and Panaceas: Adaptation and Context. (pp. 259-284). Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg: Edward Elgar. Publication details

Beyer, S. Bohn, S., Grünheid, T., Händschke, S., Kerekes, R., Müller, J., & Walgenbach, P. (2015). Die Kommunikation von Verantwortung – Eine explorative Studie der Internetkommunikation von drei DAX30 Unternehmen. In H. Alwart (Eds.), Freiheitsverluste in Rechtsregime, Gesellschaft und Wissenschaft. (pp. 129-152). Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg: Mohr Siebeck. Publication details

Working paper

Kettemann, M. C. & Bohn, S. (2023). Verantwortliche Unternehmensführung in der Plattformwirtschaft. Europäische Strategien für eine fairere Ordnung der globalen Digitalökonomie. Working Paper Forschungsförderung 275, Düsseldorf: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung,. Publication details

Other publications

Fecher, B., Gümüsay, A. A., Bohn, S. & A. Jobin (2023). Resilience without accountability holds back transformative change. LSE Impact Blog. Publication details

Bohn, S. (2023). Saving orangutan habitats – digital technology and rainforest protection in Indonesia. encore. Publication details

Fecher, B., Gümüşay, A. A., Bohn, S., & Jobin, A. (2023). Resilience without accountability holds back transformative change. LSE Impact Blog. Publication details

Bihr, P., Bohn, S., & Send, H. (2021). Free technologies for the whole world to use – why open source hardware is in the public interest. Digital Society Blog, 18.01.2021. Publication details

Activities

Lectures and presentations

Stories from values and profits. How the construction of narratives contributed to the emergence of the digital platform field
40th EGOS Colloquium - Crossroads for Organizations: Time, Space, and People. EGOS. University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy: 04.07.2024 Further information

Stephan Bohn, Alina Kontareva, David Risi

Understanding platform dominance: The role of financialization strategies in the evolution of the platform organizational form.
EGOS: 39th EGOS Colloquium 2023: Sub-theme 75: The New Faces and Interfaces of Digital Platforms. EGOS. University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy: 06.07.2023 Further information

Alina Kontareva, Stephan Bohn

Growing Institutional Complexity – Field Transitioning Processes Towards Constellation Complexity.
47. Workshop der WK ORG. Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria: 15.03.2023 Further information

Stephan Bohn, Ali Aslan Gümüşay

Digital organizing in open-source IoT companies. The mutual relationship between datafication and connectification.
38th EGOS Colloquium: Organizing: The Beauty of Imperfection. Wirtschaftsuniversität, Vienna, Austria: 07.07.2022 Further information

Stephan Bohn, Ali Aslan Gümüsay

Curation and control in open innovation processes. How individuals organize collaborative knowledge creation in IoT hardware companies.
36th EGOS Colloquium - Organizing for a Sustainable Future: Responsibility, Renewal & Resistance. EGOS, Online, Germany: 04.07.2020

Mehera Hassan, Hendrik Send, Heike Hölzner, Stephan Bohn

Transiting toward greener solutions? A comparative study of the e-mobility discourse in Norway and Germany during times of change (2000-2018).
36th EGOS Colloquium - Organizing for a Sustainable Future: Responsibility, Renewal & Resistance.. EGOS, Online, Germany: 04.07.2020

Birthe Soppe, Stephan Bohn

Path Creation as Contestation, Imbrication and Emancipation: How Music Distribution Became Digital.
VHB Conference 2020. VHB, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt on the Main, Germany: 20.03.2020

Harry Sminia, Jörg Sydow, Stephan Bohn,

How Values Promote Actions in Institutions: A Systematic Review of New Institutionalist Research Corporate Social Responsibility.
79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Academy of Management, Boston, USA: 13.08.2019

David Risi, Laurence Vigneau, Stephan Bohn

Field-configuring projects? A machine learning approach about how projects shape the meaning of electronic mobility in Germany
79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Academy of Management, Boston, USA: 13.08.2019

Stephan Bohn, Timo Braun

Path creation as contestation, competition, and collaboration: How digital distribution of music came about.
35th EGOS Colloquium. EGOS, Edinburgh, United Kingdom: 06.07.2019

Stephan Bohn, Harry Sminia, Jörg Sydow

Communication in crisis. The case of Enron.
Ilmenau Research Forum. Ilmenau Research Forum, Ilmenau, Germany: 09.05.2019

Simon Oertel, Stephan Bohn

Field-configuring projects? How projects shape the meaning of electronic mobility in Germany
34th Workshop WK Org. WK Org, Münster, Germany: 15.02.2019

Stephan Bohn, Timo Braun

Stressed and shattered: Field-level change and consequences of high degree complexity in the German energy market.
78th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Academy of Management, Chicago, USA: 14.08.2018

Stephan Bohn, Martin Kunze, Maik Günther

Field-configuring projects? How projects shape the meaning of electronic mobility in Germany.
34th EGOS Colloquium. EGOS, Tallinn, Estonia: 07.07.2018

Stephan Bohn, Timo Braun

Made to Break - A Longitudinal Study About the Development of the German Energy Transition and the Inherent Role of Social Innovations.
Leibniz Research Alliance on Energy Transitions "Breaking the Rules". WZB, Berlin, Germany: 15.06.2018

Stephan Bohn

Machine Learning & Topic Modeling. Combining Qualitative Research and Big Data.
Digital Humanities Talks. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany: 08.06.2018

Stephan Bohn

Topic modeling and Management Research. Mapping fields with big data.
AOM Big Data and Managing in a Digital Economy. Academy of Management, Surrey, United Kingdom: 20.04.2018

Stephan Bohn, Aleksandra Perendija, Harsh Jha Kumar.

Framing electromobility. A topic modeling approach.
SPRU research forum. Science Policy Research Forum, Brighton, United Kingdom: 04.04.2018

C. Rogge, Stephan Bohn.

Literature review of new institutionalist research on corporate social responsibility: A current and future research agenda.
14th New Institutionalism Workshop. Bocconi University, Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management, Mailand, Italy: 17.03.2018

Laurence Vigneau, David Risi, Stephan Bohn.

Stressed and shattered: Field-level change and consequences of high degree complexity in the German energy market.
33th EGOS Colloquium. EGOS, Copenhagen, Denmark: 08.07.2017

Stephan Bohn, Martin Kunze, Maik Günther

Stressed and shattered: Field-level change and consequences of high degree complexity in the German energy market. (mit Martin Kunze & Maik Günther)
13th New Institutionalism Workshop. Universität Mannheim, Jerusalem, Israel: 20.03.2017

Stephan Bohn, Martin Kunze, Maik Günther

Living with tensions. Paradoxical strategies in the organizational handling of CSR implementation processes.
41th Workshop of the commission organization. Commission Organization, Hamburg, Germany: 17.02.2017

Stephan Bohn, Peter Walgenbach

Topic modeling - From exploration to evidence the case of the German energy transition
WZB Big Data Brown-Bag Seminar. WZB, Berlin, Germany: 15.12.2016

Stephan Bohn

Because of security... Dynamic frames, and vocabularies in the debate over the German energy transition (1997-2011)
32th EGOS Colloquium. EGOS, Neaples, Italy: 09.07.2016

Stephan Bohn

Living with tensions. Paradoxical strategies in the organizational handling of CSR implementation processes.
EGOS Pre-Colloquium. EGOS, Neaples, Italy: 05.07.2016

Stephan Bohn, Peter Walgenbach

The creativity of organizations in the taking of management panaceas - On the implementation of CSR in German high-tech firms.
75th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Academy of Management, Vancouver, Canada: 11.08.2015

Stephan Bohn, Anne Galander, Peter Walgenbach

Refusing, connecting and playing off conflicting institutional demands. A longitudinal study on the organizational handling of the end of nuclear power, climate protection, and the energy turnaround in Germany.
31th EGOS Colloquium. EGOS, Athens, Greece: 04.07.2015

Stephan Bohn, Peter Walgenbach

Refusing, connecting and playing off conflicting institutional demands. A longitudinal study on the organizational handling of the end of nuclear power, climate protection, and the energy turnaround in Germany.
10th New Institutionalism Workshop. Universität Mannheim, Rom, Italy: 21.03.2014

Stephan Bohn, Peter Walgenbach

Rhetorik, Entkopplung und Ambivalenztoleranz. Eine qualitative Studie zum Umgang von Unternehmen mit Konflikten zwischen divergierenden institutionalisierten Erwartungen.
38th Workshop of the commission organization. Commission Organization, Jena, Germany: 28.02.2014

Stephan Bohn

Panels

Digital organizing & strategizing in open-source IoT companies. The mutual relationship between datafication and connectification.
38th EGOS Colloquium: Organizing: The Beauty of Imperfection. WU, Vienna, Vienna, Austria: 07.08.2022 Further information

Stephan Bohn, Ali Aslan Gümüsay

Toward a new methodological paradigm in transition studies? Recent approaches for analyzing collections of texts by discourse (network) analysis, topic modeling and natural language processing
12th International Sustainability Transitions Conference (IST). Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung, Online, Germany: 05.10.2021 Further information

Christian Binz, Stephan Bohn, Jonas Heiberg, Daniel Hain, Birthe Soppe & Bernhard Truffer

Moderation of workshops and panels

Presentation: Hostile frame takeover. Co-opting the security frame in the German nuclear energy debate
Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM-2021). Academy of Management, Online, USA: 03.08.2021 Further information

Stephan Bohn, Nora Lohmeyer, Harsh Kumar Jha & Juliane Reinecke

Organisation of events

Lunch Talk | National platforms in a world of global platform giants: the case of Russian domestic competitors
08.06.2023. Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany (International) Further information

Alina Kontareva, Daniel Pothmann, Sarah Spitz, Stephan Bohn

Lunch Talk | How India Became a Global Hub for IT Outsourcing and Consulting
with attending Vip: Matthias Kipping. 17.04.2023. Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany (National) Further information

Daniel Pothmann, Sarah Spitz, Stephan Bohn

Digitaler Salon: Green Surveillance
25.01.2023. Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany (National) Further information

Daniel Pothmann, Sarah Spitz, Stephan Bohn

Multi-stakeholder dialogue: Digital technology for rainforest protection
13.12.2022. Ayana Midplaza, Jakarta, Indonesien. Co-Organised by: Digital Transformation Center Indonesia (International)

Stephan Bohn, Christian Grauvogel, Moritz Timm

Panel discussion: Digital technology for rainforest protection
13.12.2022. Ayana Midplaza, Jakarta, Indonesia. Co-Organised by: Digital Transformation Center Indonesia (International)

Stephan Bohn, Christian Grauvogel, Moritz Timm

Lunch Talk Series I Digitalisation & Sustainability I Protection of Natural Resources
17.11.2022. Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany (International) Further information

Sarah Spitz, Stephan Bohn

Digital Lunch Talk with Johanna Mair, Alberto Bertello, Thomas Gegenhuber & Stephan Bohn
Open Lunch Talk Series. The potential of Open Innovation to cope with Grand Challenges.. 30.11.2021. Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany (International) Further information

Stephan Bohn, Thomas Schildhauer, Hendrik Send

Media appearances

Regenwaldschutz mit digitalen Lösungen: „Digitalisierung macht Entwicklungen sichtbar, so dass sie von niemandem mehr negiert werden können.“ (13.03.2023). RESET Digital for Good
Further information

Regenwaldschutz mit digitalen Lösungen: „Digitalisierung macht Entwicklungen sichtbar, so dass sie von niemandem mehr negiert werden können.“ (13.03.2023). RESET – Digital for Good
Further information

Facebook in der Kritik: Das Unternehmen ist längst “too big to fail” (09.10.2021). Deutschlandfunk Kultur, BREITBAND
Further information

Media

Deutschlandfunk Kultur, BREITBAND
Facebook in der Kritik: Das Unternehmen ist längst “too big to fail”

Stephan Bohn, Dr.

Task Force: Digital Organizing

Increase corporate political responsibility and accountability of digital platforms

Digitalisation and Climate

Platform Alternatives

Books

Journal articles and conference proceedings

Book contributions and chapters

Working paper

Other publications

Lectures and presentations

Panels

Moderation of workshops and panels

Organisation of events

Media appearances

Facebook in der Kritik: Das Unternehmen ist längst “too big to fail”

Position

Contact

RESEARCH PROGRAMME / GROUP

Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Society

Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Global Digital Transformation

Expertise

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