Prof. Ph.D.

J. Peter Murmann

Professor of Strategic Management

Johann Peter Murmann is a chair holder and Professor of Strategic Management, as well as Executive Director of the Institute of Management & Strategy (IOMS) at the University of St.Gallen. He received a BA in Philosophy with Honors from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master’s and PhD degree with distinction in Management and Organizations (1998) from Columbia University. Professor Murmann mainly focuses his award-winning research activities on systematic examination of the ways companies gain or lose competitive advantage over long periods of time. He lectures at renowned universities all over the world.

Leading Competence Centers

Member of Competence Centers

Alliances, Platforms & Ecosystems

Lecturer Further Education

Strategisches Change Management

About

Prof. Ph.D. J. Peter Murmann

Johann Peter Murmann is Professor of Strategic Management at the University of St.Gallen. He was Visiting Associate Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania during the academic years of 2011/12 and 2012/13. Most recently he was a visiting scholar at Cass Business School in London and Fudan University in Shanghai. From January 2007 to May 2011, he served as Head of the Strategy & Entrepreneurship faculty unit and was Academic Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship from April 2008 until November 2011. He was also Academic Director of the Strategic Management Year of the AGSM MBA (Executive) from October 2006 to December 2011, leading a major redevelopment of the program. Before joining the AGSM – UNSW Australia Business School in January 2006, he was on the faculty of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management (from 1997 to 2005). In 2009 he was a visiting fellow at Harvard Business School and the University of Paris East. Murmann also was a visiting professor at Alto University (then Helsinki University of Technology) and the University of Lille 1. In 2001-2002, he was a research fellow at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) as well as the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Germany. He received a BA in Philosophy with Honors from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master’s and PhD degree with distinction in Management and Organizations (1998) from Columbia University. Murmann mainly focuses his research activities on systematic examination of the ways companies gain or lose competitive advantage over long periods of time. His award-winning comparative study of the early history of the synthetic dye industry was published in 2003 by Cambridge University Press under the title Knowledge and Competitive Advantage: The Coevolution of Firms, Technology and National Institutions. He is continuing his study of the synthetic dye industry, now focusing on the period from 1914 to the present. In this period, Japan, China, and India entered the industry, which was previously dominated by entirely European producers. He is presently investigating the development of solar technologies in Australia, China, Germany and the United States. He has also investigated the evolution of the global paper and pulp industry and the U.S. advertising industry. Murmann’s research is driven by the conviction that managers, whose experience is focused by necessity on the firms they have worked for, can benefit greatly from learning how all players that make up an industry gained or lost competitive advantage over longer periods of time. By collecting data about both successful and failed companies across many industries he strives to develop robust, evidence-based insights into what determines the competitive success of firms. Most recently Professor Murmann founded EEpedia (www.eepedia.net) to create an international, open-source encyclopaedia on the Internet that focuses on the history of firms, technologies, and industries. Professor Murmann published his research in books as well as in many scholarly journals like the Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Industrial & Corporate Change, Research Policy, Research in Organization Behavior and the Journal of Evolutionary Economics. Professor Murmann received numerous awards for his research on industrial and technological change. His book Knowledge and Competitive Advantage received the 2004 Joseph Schumpeter Prize and 2004 Stanley Reiter Best Paper Award at the Kellogg School of Management. He also received with Michael Tushman the 1998 Stefan Schrader Best Paper Award of the Academy of Management’s Technology and Innovation Management Division. Most recently he was awarded with Guido Bünstorf the K. William Kapp Prize by the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy. Professor Murmann has lectured to diverse audiences all over the world. He has taught core MBA and Executive MBA courses in Strategic Management and the Management of Organizations. His portfolio of Executive teaching includes courses on General Management and Corporate Growth. He has also developed a Ph.D. course on Evolutionary Theories of Organization. While at the Kellogg School of Management, he won the Chair’s Core Course Teaching Award. Professor Murmann is a member of many scholarly societies and edits websites on Evolutionary Theories in the Social Sciences (etss.net) and on Economic Evolution (economic-evolution.net). He also serves as an Associate Editor of Management and Organization Review. He has consulted companies in Australia, USA and China as well government agencies in Australia.

CV & Awards

Education

Year	Degree	Place
1998	Ph.D. in Management of Organizations with Distinction	Columbia University, USA
1997	M. Phil. in Management of Organizations	Columbia University, USA
1990	B.A. in Philosophy with Honors	University of California at Berkeley, USA
1986	Abitur, Major in Mathematics and Biology	Schloss Neubeuern, Deutschland

Work Experience

Year	Position	Organization
2016-2018	Professor	University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2006-2015	Associate Professor	University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2006-2011	Academic Director of AGSM Strategic Management Year	University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2007-2011	Head of School Strategy & Entrepreneurship	University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2008-2011	Academic Director of Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship	University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
1997 – 2005	Assistant Professor	Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA

Awards

Year	Award	Awarding Organization
2024	Ralph Gomory Best Industry Studies Paper Award (Runner-Up)	Industries Studies Association, Annual Conference 2024
2018	IACMR Best Macro Conference Paper Award	IACMR Conference
2010	Team Teaching Award	Australian School of Business, Australia
2009	Carolyn Dexter Award	Academy of Management
2004	Joseph Schumpeter Award	International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society
2004	Stanley Reiter Best Paper Award	Kelogg School of Management, USA
2002	Chairs’ Core Course Teaching Award	Kelogg School of Management, USA

Publications

Journal Articles

Kapoor, R., Johann Peter Murmann (2024). The organizational and technological origins of the U.S. shale gas revolution, 1947 to 2012. Industrial and Corporate Change, 33(1), 106-125. https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtad021
Murmann, J. P., Schuler, B. A. (2023). Exploring the structure of internal combustion engine and battery electric vehicles: implications for the architecture of the automotive industry. Industrial and Corporate Change, 32(1), 129-154. Oxford Academic, Industrial and Corporate Change Association. https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtac049
Murmann, J. P., Vogt, F. (2022). A Capabilities Framework for Dynamic Competiton: Assessing the Relative Chances of Incumbents, Start-Ups, and Diversifying Entrants. Management and Organization Review, 19(1), 141-156. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/107963
Jiang, H., Murmann, J. P. (2022). The Rise of China's Digital Economy: An Overview. Management and Organization Review(18), 790-802. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/108416
Hochstrasse, A., Murmann, J. P. (2021). China Innovation Capacity Growth Index 2015 and 2020. Management and Organization Review(17:4), 861-867. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/109853
Murmann, J. P., Guo, B., Huang, C. (2021). A Dynamic Perspective on Huawei. Management and Organization Review, 19(5), 1087-1100. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge University Press online. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/110092
Murmann, J. P., Zhu, Z. (2021). What Enables a Chinese Firm to Create New-to-the-World Innovations? A Historical Case Study of Intrafirm Coopetition in the Instant Messaging Serivice Sector. Informs, informs.org. https://doi.org/http://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2021.0142
Murmann, J. P., Zhu, Z. (2021). Intra-organizational Coopetition as a Source of New-To-The-World Innovations. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2021(1), 12106. Academy of Management. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2021.12106abstract
Murmann, J. P. (2020). Historical methods in the social sciences: Commentary on Schoemaker 2020. Futures and Foresight Science, Volume 2(Issue 3-4), e55. Wiley, Wiley Online library. https://doi.org/10.1002/ffo2.55

Conference Papers

Schuler, B. A., Murmann, J. P., Beisemann, M. (2022). Integrating the Accuracy and Time Dimension of Foresight. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/108554
Murmann, J. P., Schuler, B. A. (2022). Exploring the Structure and Modularity of Internal Combustion Engine and Battery Electric Vehicles. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/108550
Lu, Q., Tucci, C. L., Murmann, J. P., Mao, J., Deng, C. (2020). Business Model Innovation in China: From Novel Elements to Architectural Innovation. Academy of Management Proceedings, Vol. 2020, No 1. Academy of Management. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/112947
Murmann, J. P., Huang, C., Xiaobo, W. (2018). Constructing large multinational corporations from China: East meets West at Huawei, 1987-2017. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/101443

Books and Book Sections

Murmann, J. P. (2020). The Management Transformation of Huawei: Concluding Thoughts From a Comparative Perspective. 381-410. The Management Transformation of Huawei From Humble Beginnings to Global Leadership(502). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. http://www.cambridge.org/9781108426435
Li, L., Guo, B., Murmann, J. P., Wu, D. (2020). Huawei's R&D Management Transformation. 292-346. The Management Transformation of Huawei. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108550987
Wu, X., Murmann, J. P., Huang, C., Guo, B. (2020). The Management Transformation of Huawei, From Humble Beginnings to Global Leadership. Cambridge University Press. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/112382
Murmann, J. P. (2020). The management transformation of Huawei: an overview. 1-51. The Management Transformation of Huawei From Humble Beginnings to Global Leadership(502). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. http://www.cambridge.org/9781108426435
Wu, X., Murmann, J. P., Huang, C., Guo, B. (2020). The Management Transformation of Huawei: Huawei's R&D Managment Transformation. 292-346. The Management Transformation of Huawei. Cambridge University Press. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/113188
Murmann, J. P., Huang, C., Zhang, H. (2020). Huawei's Intellectual Property Management Transformation. 347-380. The Management Transformation of Huawei. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108550987
Xu, H., Murmann, J. P. (2020). The Transformation of Huawei's HR System. 209-243. The Management Transformation of Huawei. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108550987
Zhang, Z., Murmann, J. P. (2020). Transforming Product Development at Huawei: The IPD Initiative. 110-135. The Management Transformation of Huawei. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108550987
Brenner, T., Murmann, J. P. (2017). Using Simulation Experiments to Test Historical Explanations: The Development of the German Dye Industry 1857–1913. Foundations of Economic Change. Springer. https://www.springer.com/de/book/9783319620084
Murmann, J. P., Frenken, K. (2017). Toward a Systematic Framework for Research on Dominant Designs, Technological Innovations, and Industrial Change. 925-952. Creative Destruction(27). Edward Elgar Publishing, UK. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/creative-destruction
Wu, X., Murmann, J. P., Huang, C., Guo, B. (2017). The Management Transformation of Huawei - 华为管理变革. CITIC Press, China. http://item.jd.com/18177915547.html
Murmann, J. P. (2015). Evolutionary Perspectives. , 11, 114-115. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management, 11(2). Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118785317.weom110148
Murmann, J. P. (2015). Nelson, Richard R. (born 1930). The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management. Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_646-1

External Engagements

External Engagements

Year	Activity
2023	Member of Organizing Committee and host of 30^th CCC Doctoral Conference, St.Gallen (Switzerland)
2022 – today	Auto Future
2021 – today	Forecasting Strategy
2019 – today	Member of the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB)
2013 – today	Deputy Editor Management and Organization Review
2013 – 2023	Board member and director of communication, CCC Annual Doctoral Conference
2006 – 2011	Member of the Editorial Board, Strategic Management Journal
2005 – 2008	Co-organizer of Power of Richness PDWs at Academy of Management
1999 – 2007	Journal of International Business Studies
1991 – today	Member of the Academy of Management
1996 – today	Member of the Society of the History of Technology