About the ESTT

The Energy & Strategy Think Tank (ESTT) is a collaboration between Verbund, Wien Energie and the Institute for Strategic Management (ISM) at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). Aims of the ESTT: Megatrends such as digitalization, decentralization, and decarbonisation are reshaping the energy industry and adjacent capital-​intensive industries. To lead, navigate, and understand these disruptive…

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About the Team

The ESTT team at WU consists of experts on strategy, innovation, organization, and sustainability in and beyond the energy industry. Georg Reischauer  (Head) Christian Bruck Philipp Buss Alexander Engelmann Nina Hampl  Melanie Wiener  

Workshop on Platforms and Ecosystems

ESTT member G. Reischauer co-organized the workshop “Creating and Capturing Value with Platforms and Ecosystems: The Road Ahead”. The workshop discussed papers from colleagues around the globe on how to create and capture value with platforms and ecosystems as well as how the field will likely develop in the future, and called for new papers…

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ESTT at the Hybrid AOM Meeting 2022 in Seattle

ESTT members contributed to the 2022 Hybrid Academy of Management (AOM) Meeting in Seattle (USA)  as follows: Panel Symposium “Digital Sustainability: Can We Tackle Climate Change with Bits and Bytes?” Panel Symposium “Practices and Purposes of Digital Organizing” Paper Presentation “Governing Ecosystems to Generate Digital Innovation”

Workshop on Strategizing for Sustainability

ESTT member G. Reischauer co-organized the workshop “Strategizing for Sustainability”. The workshop discussed papers from colleagues around the globe on how to effectively integrate the concepts of sustainability into different strategizing activities of organizations, and called for new papers in these important research fields.

ESTT at the EGOS Colloquium 2022, Vienna

ESTT members contributed to the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium 2022, Vienna  with the following papers: How product-focused incumbents compete and cooperate in the face of platform envelopment Strengthening the identity of mature ecosystems after rival entry The design of incumbent-sponsored meta-organizations  for creating sustainability-oriented innovation

ESTT at the R&D Management Conference, Trento

ESTT member A. Engelmann contributed to the 2022 R&D Management Conference, Trento (Italy) from 11-13 July, with the following paper: Governing Ecosystems to Generate Digital Innovation

Master Thesis on Energy Communities

The master thesis “Energy Communities: Best Practices, Players and Business Models in Austria, Germany and Switzerland” looks at the key characteristics of business models in energy communities and compares them for the German-speaking countries. Here is the abstract: Consumers are at the center of the energy transition from a centralized to a decentralized system with…

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Final Presentations of Course “Strategic Entrepreneurship”

In June 2022, selected students from WU’s SIMC master program presented findings to partner executives as part of the business project course on “Strategic Entrepreneurship”. The course focused on in-depth market and competitor analyses as well as customer journey analyses based on desk research and interviews. The general aim was to analyze the implications of…

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ESTT at the EURAM Conference 2022

ESTT member A. Engelmann participated in the European Academy of Management (EURAM) Conference 2022 in Winterthur, from 15th-17th of June 2022. Dynamic capabilities for sustainability: Developing an integrative typology.

ESTT at the Sustainability Science Days 2022

ESTT members participated in the Sustainability Science Days Conference 2022 in Helsinki, from 18th-19th of May 2022. Digital sustainability: Tackling climate change with bits and bytes Dynamic capabilities for sustainability: Developing an integrative typology

Innovation Talk “Sustainable Business Model Design”

This Innovation Talk with the title “Sustainable Business Model Design – Using Patterns to Create Sustainable Value” was held by Florian Lüdeke-Freund, Professor of Corporate Sustainability at the ESCP Europe School of Business Berlin. His expertise and research focus are in the area of innovative business models in the context of environmental and social sustainability….

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