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Technical University of Munich

Governing Transformative Technologies

Recent years have been marked by a growing interest in transformative technologies (TT). These technologies reshape socio-economic orders in fundamental and lasting ways. Although TT are frequently seen as the key to tackling today's grand societal challenges, including climate change, energy security, health, mobility, and education, they can create problems on their own, just like previous technologies have contributed to today’s grand challenges, such as inequality, technological dependence, the decline of local and national industries, or challenges to democracy, privacy, and ethical norms. Moreover, new technologies like AI, autonomous driving, or gene editing have prompted considerable public controversy, buoyed by what could be described as growing innovation skepticism at large.

These ambivalences of TT – their positive and negative impacts, and the need to balance disruptiveness and competition against democratic deliberation and social cohesion – have triggered a major rethinking in the social sciences studying innovation and entrepreneurship about their core assumptions, empirical scope, as well as the tools and metrics needed to assess and shape novel technologies.

The GoTransTech TUM Innovation Network consisting of scholars from different disciplines around the topic innovation - economics, management, science and technology studies, sociology, psychology and political science is committed to the transdisciplinary study of the ambivalence of TT with the ambition of developing a more sustainable way of understanding and steering innovation for societal benefit. The Network aims to address these changing demands on innovation theory, empirical research, and practice head-on. Using an integrative, interdisciplinary social science approach in conjunction with strong ties to engineering expertise, the researchers rethink the foundations for studying and evaluating TT. Finally, they advance new theories, methods and empirical evidence to capture the complexity and ambivalence of the transformative dynamics ensuing from, and shaping, novel technologies across scales, markets and societies.

Our Team

Doctoral researchers

  • Cecilia Ayres Peres (SOT - Innovation Research)
  • Nadine Benninger (SOM - Marketing and Consumer Research)
  • Felix Kurz (SOT - Economics of Innovation)
  • Jochen Madler (Business Analytics and Intelligent Systems)
  • Fabienne Marco (Public Policy, Governance and Innovative Systems)
  • Michael Nitschmann (Science, Technology and Society)
  • Nadine Osbild (STS - Innovation Research)

Postdoctoral researchers

  • Dr. Carolin Feldmeier (SOM - Business Administration - Entrepreneurship)
  • Dr. Zinaida Vasilyeva (SOT - Innovation Research)

Doctoral theses

  • Governance and Responsibility in Emerging Quantum Computing Technologies (Cecilia Ayres Peres)
  • Exploring cultural differences in consumers' cognitive fexibility (Nadine Benninger)
  • Mission Orientation and Innovation Cluster in the European Union (Felix Kurz)

Publications

  1. Irwin, A., Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M, 2024. Innovation, in: Irwin, A., Felt, U. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of STS. Edward Elgar.
  2. Chapman, Gary, Hottenrott, Hanna. (2024), Founder Personality and Start-up Subsidies, Industry and Innovation. 31(2), 241-270, https://doi.org/10.1080/13662716.2023.2243235
  3. Gasser, U., & Mayer-Schönberger, V. (2024), Guardrails: Guiding Human Decisions in the Age of AI. Princeton: Princeton University Press
  4. Gottschalk, Sandra; Hottenrott, Hanna (2024), Das Gründungsgeschehen in Deutschland, Wirtschaftsdienst,104,1,64-66. DOI: 10.2478/wd-2024-0019
  5. Weissenböck, Eva; Breugst, Nicola; Patzelt, Holger; Dibbern, Rieke: Equity ownership and identification with the founding team. Applied Psychology, 2024
  6. Kakatkar, Aishwarya; Patzelt, Holger; Breugst, Nicola: Towards a Dynamic Model of Entrepreneurial Energy. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2024
  7. Wang, W.-X., Hempel, C., & Roosen, J. (2024). A Means-End Chain approach to investigate consumer motives for the choice of bread made from heritage cereals. Journal of Food Products Marketing: forthcoming.
  8. Neubig, C.M., Staudigel, M., & Roosen, J. (2024). Can Health Trump Taste? Implicit and Explicit Attitudes toward Sugar-Reduction Claims and their Differentiated Impact on Purchase Intention for Cereals. Agribusiness, forthcoming.
  9. Buocz, T., Pfotenhauer, S., Eisenberger, I., 2023. Regulatory sandboxes in the AI Act: reconciling innovation and safety? Law, Innovation and Technology 15, 357–389. https://doi.org/10.1080/17579961.2023.2245678
  10. Cuevas-Garcia, C., Pepponi, F., Pfotenhauer, S.M., 2023. Maintaining innovation: How to make sewer robots and innovation policy work in Barcelona. Soc Stud Sci 03063127231207082. https://doi.org/10.1177/03063127231207082#
  11. Gasser, U. (2023). An EU landmark for AI governance. Science, 15 Jun 2023, Vol 280, Issue 6651, 1203
  12. Kasneci, E., Sessler, K., Küchemann, S., Bannert, M., Dementieva, D., Fischer, F., Gasser, U. et al. (2023). ChatGPT for good? On opportunities and challenges of large language models for education, Learning and Individual Differences, Volume 103, 2023, 1-9.
  13. Knopf, S., Frahm, N., M. Pfotenhauer, S., 2023. How Neurotech Start-Ups Envision Ethical Futures: Demarcation, Deferral, Delegation. Sci Eng Ethics 29, 4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-022-00421-1
  14. Kop, M., Aboy, M., De Jong, E., Gasser, U.. Minssen, T., Cohen, I. G., Brongersma, M., Quintel, T., Floridi, L.; Laflamme, R. (2023). 10 Principles for Responsible Quantum Innovation, https://ssrn.com/abstract=4475556
  15. Kop, M., Aboy, M., De Jong, E., Gasser, U.. Minssen, T., Cohen, I. G., Brongersma, M., Quintel, T., Floridi, L.; Laflamme, R. (2023). Towards Responsible Quantum Technology, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society Research Publication Series No. 2023-1, https://ssrn.com/abstract=4393248.
  16. Pfotenhauer, S., 2023. From “More Innovation” to “Better Innovation”? Engaging Science, Technology, and Society 9, 97–106. https://doi.org/10.17351/ests2023.1365
  17. Pfotenhauer, S.M., Wentland, A., Ruge, L., 2023. Understanding regional innovation cultures: Narratives, directionality, and conservative innovation in Bavaria. Research Policy 52, 104704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2022.104704
  18. Ruess, A.K., Müller, R., Pfotenhauer, S.M., 2023. Opportunity or responsibility? Tracing co-creation in the European policy discourse. Science and Public Policy 50, 433–444. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scac079
  19. Schoonjans, Eline; Hottenrott, Hanna; Buchwald, Achim 2023, Welcome on board? Appointment dynamics of women as directors, Journal of Business Ethics,1-29, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05451-8.
  20. Füner, Lena and Berger, Marius and Bersch, Johannes and Hottenrott, Hanna, Local Networks and New Business Formation (2023). ZEW - Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 67 http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4690061
  21. Rodepeter, Elisa and Gschnaidtner, Christoph and Hottenrott, Hanna, Big Data and Start-up Performance (2023). ZEW - Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 61. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4672111                               
  22. Breithaupt, Patrick and Hottenrott, Hanna and Rammer, Christian and Römer, Konstantin, Mapping Employee Mobility and Employer Networks Using Professional Network Data ( 2023). ZEW - Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 41 http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4625849                                
  23. Chapman, Gary; Hottenrott, Hanna; (2023), Founder Human Capital, Start-up Subsidies, and Innovation: Evidence from New Ventures, Academy of Management Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.5465/AMPROC.2023.15202abstract
  24. Domurath, Anne; Taggar, Simon; Patzelt, Holger: A contingency model of employees’ turnover intent in young ventures. Small Business Economics, 2023, forthcoming
  25. Kakatkar, Aishwarya; Patzelt, Holger; Breugst, Nicola: Trust in entrepreneurial teams: The role of team narratives. Applied Psychology, 2023
  26. Mittermaier, A.; Patzelt, H.; Shepherd, D. A.: Motivating Prosocial Venturing in Response to a Humanitarian Crisis: Building Theory From the Refugee Crisis in Germany. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 47 (3), 2023, 924-963
  27. Preller, Rebecca; Breugst, Nicola; Patzelt, Holger; Dibbern, Rieke: Team resilience building in response to co-founder exits. Journal of Business Venturing 38 (6), 2023, 106328
  28. Shepherd, Dean A.; Breugst, Nicola; Patzelt, Holger: A founding-team model of creating a venture's culture. Journal of Business Venturing 38 (2), 2023, 106286
  29. Shepherd, Dean A; Patzelt, Holger: Lean scholarship. Small Business Economics, 2023, forthcoming
  30. Tacke, Friedrich; Knockaert, Mirjam; Patzelt, Holger; Breugst, Nicola: When do greedy entrepreneurs exhibit unethical pro-organizational behavior? The role of new venture team trust. Journal of Management 49 (3), 2023, 974–1004
  31. Wongprawmas, R., Andreani, G., Franchini, C., Biasini, B., Rosi, A., Dolgopolova, I., Roosen, J., Menozzi, D., Gómez, M.I., Scazzina, F., Mora C., Sogari, G. (2023). Nudging Italian University Students towards Healthy and Sustainable Food Choices: an online experiment. Food Quality and Preference, 104971. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2023.104971
  32. SAPEA (Science advice for Policy by European Academies incl. J Roosen working group authors) (2023). Towards Sustainable Food Consumption. Evidence Review Report Informing the Scientific Opinion of the European Commission Group of Chief Scientific Advisors. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8031939 available at https://sapea.info/topic/food-consumption/
  33. Drescher, L. S., Grebitus, C., & Roosen, J. (2023). Exploring Food Consumption Trends on Twitter with Social Media Analytics: The Example of# Veganuary. EuroChoices, 22(2), 45-52.
  34. Roosen, J., Neubig, C.M., Staudigel, M., Agovi, H., 2023. Product appeal, sensory perception and consumer demand. European Review of Agricultural Economics, jbad020, https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/jbad020 6.
  35. Drescher, L. S., Roosen, J., Aue, K., Dressel, K., Schär, W., Götz, A., 2023: Sentiments in the COVID-19 crisis communication of German authorities and independent experts on Twitter. Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz 66(6), 2023, 689-699.
  36. Gasser, U., & Almeida, V. (2022). Futures of Digital Governance, Communications of the ACM, March 2022, Vol. 65 No. 3, 30-32.
  37. Kostick-Quenet, K., Mandl, K.D., Minssen, T., Cohen G.I., Gasser, U., Kohane, I., McGuire, A.L. (2022). How NFTs could transform health information exchange: Can patients regain control over their health information? Science, 3 Feb 2022, Vol 375, Issue 6580, 500-502
  38. Mittermaier, A.; Shepherd, D. A.; Patzelt, H.: We Cannot Direct the Wind, But We Can Adjust the Sails: Prosocial Ventures' Responses to Potential Resource Threats. Organization Science 33 (3), 2022, 1116-1141
  39. Shepherd, Dean; Sattari, Rose; Patzelt, Holger: A social model of opportunity development: Building and engaging communities of inquiry. Journal of Business Venturing 37 (1), 2022, 106033
  40. Pfotenhauer, S., Laurent, B., Papageorgiou, K., Stilgoe, and J., 2022. The politics of scaling. Soc Stud Sci 52, 3–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/03063127211048945
  41. Frahm, N., Doezema, T., Pfotenhauer, S., 2022. Fixing Technology with Society: The Coproduction of Democratic Deficits and Responsible Innovation at the OECD and the European Commission. Science, Technology, & Human Values 47, 174–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243921999100
  42. Chapman, G. and H. Hottenrott (2022). Green start-ups and the role of founder personality, Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Volume 17, e00316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2022.e00316
  43. Hottenrott, Hanna; (2022), Financing constraints for innovation, Elgar Encyclopedia on the Economics of Knowledge and Innovation, Chapter 18, 153,, Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839106996
  44. Hottenrott, Hanna (2022), Research and development subsidies, Elgar Encyclopedia on the Economics of Knowledge and Innovation, Chapter 52 ,420, Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839106996
  45. Becker, Annette; Hottenrott, Hanna; Mukherjee, Anwesha; (2022) Division of labor in R&D? Firm size and specialization in corporate research, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization,194,1-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2021.12.006
  46. Dei, J., Dressel, K., Eisner, P., Roosen, J., & Hauner, H. (2022). The Food start-up scene in the metropolitan area of Munich. A comparison between 2020 and 2017. Ernährungsumschau, 69(7), 112-7.
  47. Dolgopolova, I., Li, B., Pirhonen, H., Roosen, J., 2022. The effect of attribute framing on consumers’ attitudes and intentions toward food: A Meta- analysis. Biobased and Applied Economics, 10, 253–264. https://doi.org/10.36253/bae-11511
  48. Roosen, J., M. Staudigel, S. Rahbauer (2022). Demand elasticities for fresh meat and welfare effects of meat taxes in Germany. Food Policy, 106 (November 2021), 102194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102194.
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