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About us

Karlshochschule combines business, society, and culture to create an international and practice-oriented study program.

Contact

  • Karlstraße 36 – 38, 76133 Karlsruhe, DE
  • +49 721 48095 0
  • info@karlshochschule.de
  • Mo. – Fr. 8:30 – 17:00 Uhr

Prof. Dr. Stephan A. Jansen

Professor of Organization, Management and Leadership

Stephan is drawn to the places where sectors stop being separate. A social enterprise that is neither charity nor company. A foundation whose private wealth functions as public power. A university built from scratch as an experiment in what a university could be. He founded one at thirty-two and ran it for eleven years, and he now studies — and builds — the hybrid organisations that sit between market, state and civil society.

Founder before theorist

At twenty-seven Stephan founded the Institute for Mergers & Acquisitions at Witten/Herdecke; his book on M&A is now in its sixth edition and remains a standard German reference. In 2003 he founded Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen and served as its president and managing director until 2014, alongside holding the Chair of Strategic Organization and Finance and founding its Civil Society Center. He has since co-founded an urban mobility company and a consultancy for social and digital transformation, and advises federal ministries and the Chancellery. He teaches organisation and leadership as someone who has had to make both work under real conditions.

Between market, state and civil society

Much of Stephan’s research concerns organisations that refuse the standard categories. He has published on the conceptual history of social enterprises, on how social ventures finance different scaling strategies, on the innovation systems of welfare organisations, and on entrepreneurial philanthropy — private wealth acting as what he calls a fifth power. His work draws on systems theory and organisational sociology, which gives it a distinctive quality: less interested in praising hybrid organisations than in understanding what they actually do to accountability and to democratic control.

Cities, mobility and the paradoxes of movement

Since 2016 Stephan has been managing director of BICICLI, a company working on urban cycling infrastructure for organisations, and his research on the future of urban mobility runs alongside it. He writes and speaks on the magnetism of metropolitan areas, on the resource politics of the mobility transition, and on the awkward question of whether individual mobility remains socially defensible. As with the rest of his work, the practice and the theory are not kept in separate rooms.

Education as the underlying question

Running through everything is a preoccupation with education itself — what universities are for, what leadership should be taught, and what curiosity requires in a digital age. He has published a book on the subject and edited several volumes on education, participation and the state. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford and Harvard Business School, appears in the global Thinkers50 ranking, and writes a regular column in brand eins. He has taught at Karlshochschule part-time since the summer semester of 2016.

The interesting organisations are the ones that don't fit the categories we have for them.

Facts, figures and the full CV

  • At the university since the summer semester of 2016 (part-time)
  • Organization
  • Management
  • Leadership
  • Finance
  • Civil society
  • Social entrepreneurship

Theories

  • Systems theory
  • Organizational and network theories
  • Management and leadership sociology
  • Innovation theories

Phenomena

    • Philanthropy
    • Civil society
    • Urban development and urban mobility
    • Business model and social innovation
    • Mergers and acquisitions
    • Education
  • Chair of Strategic Organization and Finance (SOFI), Zeppelin University
  • Founding Director, Civil Society Center (CiSoC), Zeppelin University
  • Visiting Scholar, Stanford University
  • Visiting Scholar, Harvard Business School
  • Doctorate (Dr. rer. pol.), Witten/Herdecke Private University
  • Studies in economics and management at Witten/Herdecke, New York University and Tokyo Keizai University
  • Since 2016 — Managing Director, Gesellschaft für Urbane Mobilität BICICLI Holding GmbH and BICICLI Corporate Cycling Solutions GmbH & Co. KG
  • Since 2015 — Partner, Das 18te Kamel & Komplizen GmbH & Co. KG, consultancy for social and digital transformation
  • 2003–2014 — Founding President and Managing Director, Zeppelin Universität gemeinnützige GmbH, Friedrichshafen
  • 1997–2003 — Founder and Director, Institute for Mergers & Acquisitions (IMA), University of Witten/Herdecke
  • 1999 — Co-founder, cosinex GmbH
  • Consulting for corporations, foundations and government, including federal ministries and the Chancellery
  • Future of Urban Mobility (2017–2021)
  • Entrepreneurial Philanthropy: Private Wealth as 5th Power, with private foundations and Stanford University (2015–2017)
  • Innovation Systems of Welfare Organizations, with Caritas (2013–2016)
  • Business Model Innovation of SMEs and Family-Owned Companies in Mobility and Energy, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (2012–2016)
  • International Research Network for Social Economic Empowerment (IRENE SEE) in Colombia, Ethiopia, Mexico and South Africa, funded by Siemens Stiftung (2010–2016)
    • Editorial advisory board, Zeitschrift für Management (ZfM)
    • Advisory board, innoscripta GmbH, Munich
    • Advisory board, Würth Freie Schule Anne-Sophie Foundation, Künzelsau and Berlin
    • Advisory board, Rock Your Life! gGmbH
    • Advisory board, Kinderstiftung Bodensee (Caritas)
    • Founding advisory board, KIRON University gGmbH
    • Founding advisory board, Kreatives Unternehmertum gGmbH
  • Listed in the global Thinkers50 ranking
  • Funding from the Herbert Quandt Foundation
  • Fulbright scholarship, Higher Education Expert Seminar
  • Scholarship of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)
  • Member, Association of German University Professors of Business Administration (VHB)
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Monographs

  • Jansen, S. A. (2018). Liberation of Education: Schönschrift für die Neugier in digitalen Zeiten. Berlin: Nicolai.
  • Jansen, S. A. (2015). Mergers & Acquisitions: Unternehmensakquisitionen und -kooperationen. Wiesbaden: Gabler, 6th revised edition.
  • Jansen, S. A. (2004). Management von Unternehmenszusammenschlüssen: Theorien, Thesen, Tests und Tools. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
  • Jansen, S. A. & Priddat, B. P. (2001). Electronic Government: Neue Potentiale für einen modernen Staat. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
  • Littmann, P. & Jansen, S. A. (2000). Oszillodox: Virtualisierung — die permanente Neuerfindung der Organisation. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.

Edited volumes

  • Hehenberger, L., Jansen, S. A. & Hentschel, B. (eds.) (2016). Entrepreneurial Solutions for Social Challenges in Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mexico and South Africa. Munich: Siemens Stiftung & Civil Society Center.
  • Jansen, S. A., Heinze, R. & Beckmann, M. (eds.) (2013). Sozialunternehmen in Deutschland: Analysen, Trends und Handlungsempfehlungen. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
  • Jansen, S. A., Schröter, E. & Stehr, N. (eds.) (2013). Fragile Stabilität — stabile Fragilität. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
  • Jansen, S. A., Schröter, E. & Stehr, N. (eds.) (2012). Bürger. Macht. Staat? Neue Formen gesellschaftlicher Teilhabe, Teilnahme und Arbeitsteilung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
  • Jansen, S. A., Schröter, E. & Stehr, N. (eds.) (2012). Positive Distanz? Multidisziplinäre Annäherungen an den Abstand und die Distanzierung in Theorie und Praxis. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Selected chapters and articles

  • Jansen, S. A. & Spiess-Knafl, W. (2019). Intersectoral M&A transactions. In Kraemer & Schons (eds.), Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Enterprise. Springer.
  • Jansen, S. A. (2018). Magnetism of metropolitan areas. In Globart (ed.), Ordnung — was die Welt zusammenhält. De Gruyter, 75ff.
  • Spiess-Knafl, W., Mast, C. & Jansen, S. A. (2015). On the nature of social business model innovation. Social Business, 5(2), 113–130.
  • Jansen, S. A. & Mast, C. (2014). Convergent business model innovations in Germany. Zeitschrift Führung + Organisation (zfo), 82, 25–31.
  • Spiess-Knafl, W. & Jansen, S. A. (2014). Social enterprises and the financing of different scaling strategies. In Pate & Wankel (eds.), Emerging Research Directions in Social Entrepreneurship. Springer.
  • Jansen, S. A. (2013). Begriffs- und Konzeptgeschichte von Sozialunternehmen: Eine differenztheoretische Typologisierung. In Jansen, Heinze & Beckmann (eds.), Sozialunternehmen in Deutschland, 35–78.
  • Jansen, S. A. (2013). Skalierung sozialer Wirksamkeit. In Jansen, Heinze & Beckmann (eds.), Sozialunternehmen in Deutschland, 79–100.

Columns

  • brand eins — “Fragen an Stephan A. Jansen”, bimonthly
  • enorm — on urban mobility

Selected lectures

  • Digitization beyond hypnosis: Utopian and dystopian perspectives for European civil society — Social Innovation Summit, Stuttgart (2019)
  • Business model innovations and the federal government’s high-tech strategy — 5th Innovation Dialogue of the Federal Chancellor, Berlin (2013)
  • Social entrepreneurship: The hybridization of markets, state and civil society — Wilson Center, Washington DC (2013)
  • Is individual mobility still socially acceptable? — St. Gallen Symposium (2014)

The full publication list is available on request.

Want to study with Stephan?

He teaches organisation, management, leadership, finance and social entrepreneurship. Come to an info day, sit in on a session, or write to him directly.

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