Prof. Dr. Oliver Alexy

Oliver Alexy is Professor of Innovation and Organization Design, having joined the TUM School of Management in 2012. Previously, he held several roles in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Group at Imperial College Business School in London, England. He teaches on topics such as organizational design, open innovation, entrepreneurial strategy & growth, and social entrepreneurship in the undergraduate, graduate, and executive programs at TUM School of Management and other schools of TUM, such as Informatics. He is also a liaison officer ("Vertrauensdozent") for the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.

In his research, Oliver studies how to design organizations that effectively deal with extreme uncertainty, such as high-tech start-ups, R&D units, or online communities. His recent interests mainly revolve around questions of how collaboration, knowledge disclosure, or framing strategies may help uncertainty-facing organizations become more legitimate or more innovative, grow or reestablish themselves, or build or commandeer innovation ecosystems.

Oliver's work has been published in leading academic and practitioner-oriented outlets, such as the Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal, as well as Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Sloan Management Review, and McKinsey Quarterly. Currently, he is a co-editor of Strategic Organization and sits on the editorial review board of several management journals.

A list of Oliver's work is available here as well as on Google Scholar. Some of his working papers can be found at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=476270.

Download a copy of Oliver's vita here.

For students: Information on writing a final thesis in Innovation and Organization Design

Key Publications

  • Dattée, Brice; Alexy, Oliver; Autio, Erkko: Maneuvering in Poor Visibility: How Firms Play the Ecosystem Game when Uncertainty is High. Academy of Management Journal 61 (2), 2018, 466-498 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Puranam, Phanish; Alexy, Oliver; Reitzig, Markus: What's "New" about New Forms of Organizing? Academy of Management Review 39 (2), 2014, 162-180 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Alexy, Oliver; George, Gerard; Salter, Ammon: Cui Bono? The Selective Revealing of Knowledge and Its Implications for Innovative Activity. Academy of Management Review 38 (2), 2013, 270-291 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Alexy, Oliver; Criscuolo, Paola; Salter, Ammon: Does IP Strategy Have to Cripple Open Innovation? Sloan Management Review 51 (1), 2009, 71-77 more… BibTeX

Contact information:
o.alexy@tum.de
Phone: +49.89.289.52803
Fax:     +49.89.289.52899

Office hours: on appointment