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Interim Prof. Dr. habil. Jan-Philipp Ahrens

Jan-Philipp Ahrens hat eine Glatze und einen Bart. Er trägt eine Brille, ein weißes Hemd mit Krawatte und ein dunkes Jacket.
Head of the Interdisciplinary Research Group Family Firms of the University of Mannheim

Jan-Philipp Ahrens holds a venia legendi (Habilitation) from the Faculty of Business Studies at University of Mannheim. With a focus on sustainability, digitalization and social impact of businesses, he teaches Strategic and International Management, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Family Business Management, and Applied Econometrics at the chair of SME Research and Entrepreneurship. He is the Head of the Interdisciplinary Research Group Family Firms of the University of Mannheim and interim Professor for Future of Work, HR Management, & Organization at University Duisburg-Essen.

Short Portrait

Jan-Philipp Ahrens's research appears in international peer-reviewed high level journals, such as Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice (Impact factor: 6.193) or ICIS (VHB: A), he is author of the books “125 Jahre Mittelstand – Freiheit, Markwirtschaft, Soziale Verantwortung” and “Topics in Entrepreneurship and Family Business Management” and supported tech-reports comissioned by German Federal Ministries. His research won more than 10 international peer-reviewed awards, including a “Best Paper Award” at the European Academy of Management in 2013, a “Best Paper Award” at 2014 Family Enterprise Research Conference (USA), an award of the Family Firm Institute (USA / publisher of the Family Business Review), and was selected 2015 and 2019 for the “Best Paper Proceedings” of the Academy of Management (USA). His work on gender equality in CEO leadership was awarded with the WOVEN publish prize 2015. In 2016 and 2019 his research was credited with best article awards at the International Family Business Research Forum (Italy/France), and in 2017 his work on Family CEOs was awarded the “Best Article Award” at the Forum Mittelstandsforschung (Austria). Moreover, his research was nominated for international peer-reviewed awards multiple times.

Jan-Philipp Ahrens is a frequent reviewer for several international top journals, was honored for this service by receiving a best reviewer award, and he supports his profession by co-organizing international conference tracks at European Academy of Management and the Interdisciplinary European Conference on Entrepreneurship Research. He teaches at Bachelor, Master, and PhD level (entrepreneurship and innovation management, strategic and international management, and econometrics), is a frequent speaker in classes for international executive education (family business management, entrepreneurship and innovation management, University of Mannheim Business School), and has coached more than 20 start-up teams. Jan-Philipp Ahrens’s research is frequently discussed in the public media, such as Deutschlandradio/Deutschlandfunk, Spiegel Online, Der Standard (Austria), PCGames Hardware, Heise online, or Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Jan-Philipp Ahrens gained his PhD (Dr. rer. pol.) from the University of Mannheim (2/2010–6/2013). During his dissertation he was a visiting student at the Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität München, following to a visit at the Humboldt University at Berlin in the BDPEMS-Program (Berlin Doctoral Program of Economics and Management Science). From 7/2013–9/2014 he joined the German Federal Ministry of Finance in Berlin as a political advisor in business restructuring. Marathon-Rowing is one of the passions of him. In 2007 he finished 3rd in the quad-scull team discipline of the international Rhine marathon contest and 1st in the eight-team of the Technical University Munich at the 2012 Roseninsel contest.

Jan-Philipp Ahrens's research interests include

  • family business management
  • entrepreneurship and innovation management
  • digital entrepreneurship & crowdfunding
  • sustainability and social impact
  • strategic and international management
  • crisis management & corporate change
  • CEO attributes and behavioral biases
  • gender equality in leadership
  • controlling & value-based management
  • development economics
  • regional and urban development

Outstanding students who wish to dedicate their master thesis to quantitative research related to the above research interest and aim to continue as PhD student may apply for a supervision of their master thesis. Outstanding M.Sc. theses may be published at Junior Management Science: Junior Management Science is the academic journal to publish outstanding theses in business and management. Further exemplary theses can be found on the their website https://jums.academy/ JUMS – get inspired!

For further information, it is referred to:
Interdisciplinary Research Group Family Firms of the University of Mannheim
Researchgate Profile Jan-Philipp Ahrens
LinkedIn Profile Jan-Philipp Ahrens