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Faculty
David Wagner is Professor for International Business and Digital Business, Academic Director for the Doctor in Business Administration (DBA) and Vice Dean for Research at Munich Business School. He teaches, does research, and consults in the fields of digital strategy, digital innovation, and digital transformation. He is the winner of the MBS Teaching Award 2022 and the MBS Research Award 2023.
David Wagner studied management and economics at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany, and management psychology at University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. He earned his doctoral degree from the joint graduate program of the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder and the German Graduate School of Management and Law in Heilbronn, Germany. He was a visiting scholar at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, among others.
Besides his experience in academia, David Wagner has worked in the field of international economic development, at various technology companies, and as a consultant for digital business. In parallel to his commitments at Munich Business School, he has continued to work with high-profile organizations in both the private and the public sector.
In his research, David Wagner investigates how digital technologies create value and foster innovations. In this context, he studies which strategies and/or capabilities organizations need to develop to address technological changes. David Wagner has an extensive track record in the field of social media and online communities. He has published multiple journal papers, book chapters, and reports, and frequently speaks at conferences, workshops, and media outlets.
At MBS: Professor for International Business & Digital Business; Academic Director, Doctor of Business Administration (DBA); Vice Dean, Research
Programs: 51品茶 International Business, Master in Sports Business and Communication, Master of Business Administration, Doctor of Business Administration
Focus: Strategic Management, International Business, Digital Business, Information Systems, Online Communities, Social Media
Courses: Idea Development & Start ups (BA), Digital Business & Innovation (BA), Product Lifecycle Management (BA), Innovative Leadership (SBC), Online Marketing (SBC), Social Media Management (SBC), Digital Sports (SBC), Master Thesis Preparation (SBC), Business Project (SBC), Digital Business Transformation (MBA), Critical Thinking in Business Administration (DBA), Contemporary Issues in Business and Management (DBA), Research Approaches and Designs (DBA)
ACADEMIC JOURNAL
Wagner, D., Richter, A., & Oertel, B. (2024). Wie gesund ist meine Community? 鈥 Kennzahlen zur Erfolgsmessung von Online Communities. WiSt - Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Studium, 53(7鈥8), 47鈥50.
Wagner, D. (2023). A Review and Research Agenda for Brand Communities in Sports. International Journal of Sport Communication, 16(3), 335鈥343.
Kramer, K., Wagner, D., & Scheck, B. (2021). Reaping the digital dividend? Sport marketing鈥檚 move into esports: insights from Germany. European Journal of International Management, 15(2/3), 339鈥366.
Wagner, D., Wenzel, M., Wagner, H.-T., & Koch, J. (2017). Sense, seize, reconfigure: Online communities as strategic assets. Journal of Business Strategy, 38(5), 27鈥34.
Wagner, D., Vollmar, G., & Wagner, H.-T. (2014). The impact of information technology on knowledge creation: An affordance approach to social media. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 27(1), 31鈥44.
PRACTITIONER JOURNAL
Wagner, D. (2024). Like Wikipedia and Firefox, it鈥檚 time to embrace the opportunity of community. I by IMD, 16, 29鈥32.
Kramer, K., Rittmann, C., & Wagner, D. (2024). Neue Wege gehen. markenartikel, 86(5), 100鈥103.
Wagner, D. (2017). Eine Chance f眉r Kultur: Community Management im Kulturmarketing. Kultur und Management im Dialog, 121, 17-22.
Wagner, D., & Schirmer, H. (2016). Digitales HRM 鈥 鈥淕estalten oder Verwalten?鈥. personal manager, 2, 32-35.
Wagner, D., Wagner, H.-T., & Ellermann, B. (2016). Online Communities als Quelle von Ideen und Innovationen. Ideen- und Innovationsmanagement, 1, 7-11.
BOOKS/ACADEMIC BOOK CHAPTER
Wagner, D. (2025). Community Centricity 鈥 ein neues Leitbild f眉r Organisationen. In T. Laub (Ed.), Community. Menschen bef盲higen. Potenziale entfalten. Transformation gestalten. Vom Publikum zur erfolgreichen Community (pp. 47鈥50). Independently Published.
Zeeb, J., & Wagner, D. (2023). Assessing the PESO Model in the German Automotive Industry: Results of an Expert Study and Introduction of the Content Flow Model. In A.-K. Langner & G. Schuster (Eds.), Holistische Social-Media-Strategien (pp. 143鈥157). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Matz, L., Abeza, G., & Wagner, D. (2022). Covid-19 and the Bundesliga: A study of digital fan engagement strategies in professional soccer. In P. M. Pedersen (Ed.), Research Handbook on Sport and COVID-19 (pp. 301-312). Edward Elgar.
Wagner, D. (2021). Online Communities in Sport. In G. Abeza, N. O鈥橰eilly, & J. Sanderson (Eds.), Social Media in Sport: Theory and Practice (pp. 57鈥82). World Scientific.
Wenzel, M., Rauch, M., Adebile, A., Bogodistov, Y., C茅nophat, S., Hartmann, M., Wagner, D., & Wohlgemuth, V. (2021). Dynamic Capabilities: Celebrating the Plurality of Understandings of the Concept. In T. Bay贸n, M. Eisend, J. Koch, A. S枚llner, M. Vodosek, & H.-T. Wagner (Eds.), Dynamic Capabilities and Relationships: Discourses, Concepts, and Reflections (pp. 5鈥32). Springer International Publishing.
Piersig, K., Pumpat, M., Wagner, D., & Eckhardt, A. (2020). Erfolgsfaktoren f眉r die didaktische Gestaltung von Corporate MOOCs: Erkenntnisse aus dem GGS-MOOC Human Resource Management in the Digital Age. In M. Deimann & C. Friedl (Eds.), Machen MOOCs Karriere?鈥疎ine praxisnahe Reflexion 眉ber Erfahrungen von Unternehmen (pp. 77-105). Springer Gabler.
Wagner, D., Schnurr, J.-M., Enke, S., & Ellermann, B. (2016). Auf dem Weg zur vernetzten Organisation: Ein Pl盲doyer f眉r professionelles Community Management in der digitalen Transformation. In A. Rossmann, M. Besch, & G. Stei (Eds.), Enterprise Social Networks (pp. 41-60). Springer.
Zagst, M., Richter, A., & Wagner, D. (2014). 脺berzeugen, Sensibilisieren und Coachen von F眉hrungskr盲ften. In A. Richter (Ed.), Vernetzte Organisation (pp. 260-270). De Gruyter Oldenbourg.
ACADEMIC CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Ruoff, L., & Wagner, D. (2024). Assessing the implementation of digital transformation strategies in the German sport industry: An expert study. In Proceedings of the 27th GeNeMe Conference (pp. 33鈥44).
Zeiher, S., Richter, A., & Wagner, D. (2023). Towards domain-specific knowledge on digital transformation 鈥 The case of the furniture industry. In Proceedings of the 31st European Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems.
Wagner, D., Happe, R., Laub, T., Paech, V., Spinks, D., & Wagenaar, K. (2021). Building communities of community builders 鈥 An international perspective. In T. K枚hler & E. Schoop (Eds.), Gemeinschaften in neuen Medien: Digitale Partizipation in hybriden Realit盲ten und Gemeinschaften: 24. Workshop GeNeMe'21, Dresden, Germany, October 6-8, 2021 (pp. 388-393). TUDpress.
Puschkasch, T., & Wagner, D. (2020). Managing cloud computing across the product lifecycle: Development of a conceptual model. In K. R. Lang, J. Xu, B. Zhu, X. Liu, M. J. Shaw, H. Zhang, & M. Fan (Eds.), Smart business: Technology and data enabled innovative business models and practices: 18th Workshop on e-Business, WeB 2019, Munich, Germany, December 14, 2019, revised selected papers (pp. 1-10). Springer International Publishing.
Tykholoz, Y., Wagner, D., & Richter, A. (2020). Use cases of enterprise social software in consulting: A practice perspective. In T. K枚hler & E. Schoop (Eds.), Gemeinschaften in neuen Medien: Von hybriden Realit盲ten zu hybriden Gemeinschaften: 23. Workshop GeNeMe'20, Dresden, Germany, October 7-9, 2020 (pp. 342-352). TUDpress.
Wagner, D., Schirmer, H., Br眉ck, A., & Peter, G. (2020). Online-Panel: Communities und Netzwerke als Treiber des digitalen Wandels. In T. K枚hler & E. Schoop (Eds.), Gemeinschaften in neuen Medien: Von hybriden Realit盲ten zu hybriden Gemeinschaften: 23. Workshop GeNeMe'20, Dresden, Germany, October 7-9, 2020 (pp. 60-64). TUDpress.
Wagner, D., Ellermann, B., Sch枚n, E.-M., & Kosub, M. (2020). Online-Panel: Conversational platforms als strategisches Digitalisierungsinstrument. In T. K枚hler & E. Schoop (Eds.), Gemeinschaften in neuen Medien: Von hybriden Realit盲ten zu hybriden Gemeinschaften: 23. Workshop GeNeMe'20, Dresden, Germany, October 7-9, 2020 (pp. 75-79). TUDpress.
Wagner, D. (2018). Community Management in 2018: Bedeutung, Trends und Praktiken. In T. K枚hler E. Schoop, & N. Kahnwald (Eds.), Communities in new media: Research on knowledge communities in science, business, education & public administration. Proceedings of 21st GeNeMe Conference (GeNeMe '18), Dresden, Germany, October 24-26, 2018 (pp. 10-11).
Piersig, K., Egloffstein, M., Pumpat, M., Eckhardt, A., & Wagner, D. (2017). Designing SPOCs for student engagement: Experiences from management education. In C. Delgado Kloos, M. P茅rez Sanagust铆n, P. Jermann, D. Seaton, S. White, D. Jansen, & M. Calise (Eds.), Proceedings of EMOOCs 2017: Work in progress papers of the experience and research tracks and position papers of the policy track (pp. 40-46). Legan茅s, Spain, 22-26 May 2017.
Shuradze, G., Wagner, H.-T., & Wagner, D. (2015). Technological platforms and innovation: Review, integration, and extension. In Proceedings of the 21st Americas Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems.
Wenzel, M., Wagner, D., Wagner, H.-T., & Koch, J. (2015). Digitization and path-disruption: An examination in the funeral industry. In Proceedings of the 23rd European Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems.
Richter, A., & Wagner, D. (2014). Leadership 2.0: Engaging and supporting leaders in the transition towards a networked organization. In Proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 574-583). IEEE Computer Society.
Wagner, D. (2014). Developing social capital in online communities: The challenge of fluidity. In Proceedings of the 20th Americas Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems.
Wagner, D., Richter, A., Trier, M., & Wagner, H.-T. (2014). Toward a conceptualization of online community health. In Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems.
Wagner, D., & Wagner, H.-T. (2013). Online communities and dynamic capabilities: A cross-case examination of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguration. In Proceedings of the 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems.
ACADEMIC CONFERENCE PRESENTATION
Wagner, D., Khapova, S., Falkenstein, M., Jabeen, F., Parry, E., Pellegrini, E. K., & Brock, J. (2025, July 25-29). Creating impact through professional doctorates: Publications, challenges, and long-term effects [Professional development workshop]. 85th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Copenhagen, Denmark.
de Nul, L., Dixson-Decl猫ve, S., van Veldhoven, S., Wagner, D., & Wijkman, A. (2025, March 25). Exploring new economic models [Conference panel]. GLOBE EU Conference: Charting the path to sustainable economic development, European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium.
Warren, C., Achen, R., Clavio, G., & Wagner, D. (2024, November 6鈥8). Development and validation of a sport brand community engagement survey [Conference presentation]. Annual Meeting of the Sport Marketing Association, St. Louis, MO, United States.
Wagner, D., Breese, R., Bartunek, J., Issah, S., Khapova, S., Miller, J., Pellegrini, E., & Polyakova, O. (2024, August 9鈥13). Maximizing the impact of professional doctorates [Professional development workshop]. 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Chicago, IL, United States.
Abeza, G., Achen, R., Cianfrone, B., Frederick, E., Mamo, Y., O鈥橰eilly, N., Sanderson, J., Su, Y., & Wagner, D. (2022, June 2鈥4). Social media as an agent of change in sport [Conference presentation]. Annual Conference of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM), Atlanta, GA, United States.
Wagner, D., & Di Bella, J. (2016, September 17鈥20). Real-life learning as a pedagogical approach in business schools [Conference presentation]. Annual Meeting of the Strategic Management Society, Berlin, Germany.
Wagner, D., Wenzel, M., Wagner, H.-T., & Koch, J. (2016, June 27鈥29). Exploring the strategic impact of online communities: A dynamic capabilities perspective [Conference presentation]. 21st IAMB Conference, Montreal, Canada.
Rauch, M., & Wagner, D. (2015, August 7鈥11). Dynamic capabilities: Bridging diverging conversations [Symposium]. Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Wagner, D., & Moser, C. (2015, August 7鈥11). Online communities research: Quo vadis? Perspectives on knowledge work, collaboration, & innovation [Symposium]. Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Reischauer, G., & Wagner, D. (2014, August 1鈥5). Dynamic capabilities and path dependence: Organizational adaptability in turbulent environments [Symposium]. Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Wagner, D., & Vodosek, M. (2013, August 9鈥13). Microfoundations of dynamic capabilities [Symposium]. Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Orlando, FL, United States.
Wagner, D., Wagner, H.-T., & Koch, J. (2013, September 28鈥揙ctober 1). Exploring dynamic capabilities in community contexts: An empirical investigation [Conference presentation]. Annual Meeting of the Strategic Management Society, Atlanta, GA, United States.
PRACTITIONER MEETING PRESENTATION
Wagner, D. (2025, March 27). Community Future(s): Wohin entwickelt sich das Feld? [Conference presentation]. Community Glitz, Munich, Germany.
Wagner, D. (2021, July 27). Ist Customer Engagement 眉ber Social Media 眉berhaupt (noch) m枚glich? [Conference presentation]. #d2mtalk Marathon, Munich, Germany.
Wagner, D. (2021, April 27). Trends im Customer Engagement und Community Management [Conference session]. #d2mtalk, Episode鈥55, Munich, Germany.
Clauss, A., Laub, T., L盲mmer, S., Schnurr, J.-M., & Wagner, D. (2018, October 27鈥28). Social Media und Community Management in 2018 [Conference presentation]. CommunityCamp, Berlin, Germany.
Wagner, D. (2018, December 12). Social-Media- und Community-Management in Deutschland鈥2018 [Conference presentation]. 84th Mercedes鈥態enz Social Media Night, Stuttgart, Germany.
Wagner, D. (2018, October 24). Social Media im Sportmanagement [Conference presentation]. MedienCampus Bayern, Munich, Germany.
Wagner, D. (2017, May 12). Aufbau und Management von Brand Communities [Conference presentation]. Gesellschaft f眉r angewandtes Markenwissen e.V., Berlin, Germany.
Wagner, D. (2016, October 26). Social Media und Community Management in 2016 [Conference presentation]. 61st Mercedes鈥態enz Social Media Night, Stuttgart, Germany.
Ellermann, B., Enke, S., Laub, T., L盲mmer, S., Schnurr, J.-M., & Wagner, D. (2016, October 22鈥23). Social-Media- und Community-Management in鈥2016 [Conference presentation]. CommunityCamp, Berlin, Germany.
Wagner, D. (2016, March 2). Zum Status von Social Media und Community Management in D鈥慉鈥慍H [Conference presentation]. 53rd Mercedes鈥態enz Social Media Night, Stuttgart, Germany.
Wagner, D. (2015, October 20). Zum Status von Social Media und Community Management in D鈥慉鈥慍H [Conference presentation]. Social Business Club / IBM Connect, Cologne, Germany.
Wagner, D., Schnurr, J.-M., Ellermann, B., Laub, T., Enke, S., & L盲mmer, S. (2015, October 24鈥25). Zum Status von Social-Media- und Community-Management in D鈥慉鈥慍H [Conference presentation]. CommunityCamp, Berlin, Germany.
Wagner, D., & Oertel, B. (2013, October 26鈥27). Was ist Forengesundheit (oder wie messe ich den Gesundheitszustand meiner Community)? [Conference presentation]. CommunityCamp, Berlin, Germany.
WORKING PAPER/REPORT
Clauss, A., Collet, S., Laub, T., L盲mmer, S., Schnurr, J.-M., & Wagner, D. (2020). Profilinterviews zu den BVCM-Berufsbildern. Bundesverband Community Management e. V. f眉r digitale Kommunikation und Social Media.
Clauss, A., Collet, S., Laub, T., L盲mmer, S., Schnurr, J.-M., & Wagner, D. (2019). Social-Media- und Community-Management in Deutschland 2018. Bundesverband Community Management e.V. f眉r digitale Kommunikation und Social Media.
Ellermann, B., Enke, S., Laub, T., L盲mmer, S., Schnurr, J.-M., & Wagner, D. (2016). Social-Media- und Community-Management in 2016. Bundesverband Community Management e.V. f眉r digitale Kommunikation und Social Media.
Wagner, D., Schnurr, J.-M., Ellermann, B., Laub, T., Enke, S., & L盲mmer, S. (2015). Zum Status von Social-Media- und Community-Management in D-A-CH. Bundesverband Community Management e. V. f眉r digitale Kommunikation und Social-Media.
Dornis, A., Scherer, B., Wagner, D., Vollmar, G., Kimmich, M., Peter, G., & D眉ckert, S. (2011). Positionspapier: Wissensmanagement und Enterprise 2.0. Gesellschaft f眉r Wissensmanagement.
SUPERVISIONS DBA/PhD/DOCTORATE
Taherian, E. M. (2024). Towards transient advantages: The role of knowledge management on productivity [Doctoral dissertation, Sheffield Hallam University]. Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive.
Supervised with Prof. Kayhan Tajeddini.
Diepolder, M. (2025). Digital transformation of manufacturing SMEs as holistic organizational change [Doctoral dissertation, Sheffield Hallam University].
Supervised with Dr. Sohrab Moshiri.
Benzinger, K. (in progress). Business model innovation in shared services: A dynamic capabilities perspective. Sheffield Hallam University.
Supervised with Dr. Alisha Ali and Dr. Philip Coombes.
Kohnke, K. (in progress). Digital innovation through blockchain鈥慴ased ecosystem strategies: A new institutional economics perspective. Sheffield Hallam University.
Supervised with Dr. Xiaohong Li and Dr. Drew Woodhouse.
Mohan, L. (in progress). How can Indo-German management synthesis and adaptive leadership improve bilateral collaboration? Sheffield Hallam University.
Supervised with Prof. Diana Sharpe and Prof. Thomas R枚hm.
Pariente, A. (in progress). Impact of generative artificial intelligence on leaders鈥 cognition in strategic decision making. Sheffield Hallam University.