HENNING PIEZUNKA

MY FOCUS: OPPORTUNITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS

I have a Ph.D. in Engineering. I know the hard stuff. Opportunities and Relationships are often soft, but mastering the soft staff can be the hardest.

I work with companies and people so that they better understand, navigate, and effectively manage opportunities and relationships.

The people and companies I work with strive to be more entrepreneurial, more innovative, and more competitive. They understand that opportunities and relationships are crucial to reaching their goals in business and in their careers.

I believe there are two things entrepreneurs must master - and that we can all learn from entrepreneurs: How to identify great opportunities and how to leverage relationships to make the most out of them.

If you want to learn more about opportunities and relationships, check out my research, attend my live webinars (taken by more than 25.000 people), book one of my online courses, or hire me for speaking or a workshop.

MY BACKGROUND

• Profession. Associate Professor at INSEAD in Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprises & Visiting Professor at the Wharton Business School at UPenn. I have received multiple awards for my research and my teaching.

• Education. Ph.D. from Stanford, M.Sc. London School of Economics (LSE), & Dipl.-Kfm. Universität Mannheim.

• Experience. Founder-CEO of a webdesign company. 25 full-time employees, customers in 80 countries. Sold in 2015. Biggest success: The company is still active and thriving in 2024.

• Further Info. Academic CV | LinkedIn

MY RESEARCH

I am an expert on opportunities and relationship, and conduct cutting-edge research. My research has won multiple awards and has been published by leading academic journals. For an overview of my academic papers, see my Academic CV and Google Scholar.

Funny story: the list of papers can be used to find something to read – not just to count.

Crowdsourcing of Ideas. How (should) organizations manage the relationships with the people who share their ideas with them (e.g., employees, customers, users) in order to benefit from novel ideas?

• Park, Piezunka & Dahlander (2023) “Co-evolutionary lock-in in crowdsourcing: How consistent selection reduces sourcing variety” [Journal, PDF] Academy of Management Journal

• Piezunka & Dahlander (2019) “Idea Rejected, Tie Formed - Organizations’ Feedback on Crowdsourced Ideas” [Journal, PDF] Academy of Management Journal Vol. 62(2), 503 - 530 Article on INSEAD Knowledge🔗, Source code🔗, Video summarizing the paper🔗, Podcast on Rejection🔗

• Piezunka & Dahlander (2015) “Distant Search, Narrow Attention: How Crowding Alters Organizations’ Filtering of Suggestions in Crowdsourcing” [Journal, PDF] Academy of Management Journal Vol. 58(3) 856 - 880 Video summarizing the paper🔗, Blog post by Henrich Greve🔗, Article on INSEAD Knowledge🔗, Video on Crowdsourcing🔗, Source code🔗

• Piezunka & Dahlander (2014) “Open to Suggestions: How Organizations Elicit Suggestions Through Proactive and Reactive Attention” [Journal, PDF] Research Policy Vol. 43(5), 812 - 827 Article on Harvard Business Review🔗, Article on INSEAD Knowledge🔗

Evaluation & Organizational Design. How can organizations design evaluation processes?

• Piezunka & Schilke (2023) “The Dual Function of Organizational Structure: Aggregating and Shaping Individuals’ Votes” [Journal, PDF] Organization Science

• Piezunka, Aggarwal & Posen (2022) “The Aggregation Learning Trade-Off” [Journal, PDF] Organization Science Vol. 33(3) 1095 - 1115 Video explaining the core concept learning by participating 🔗, Video on contrarians🔗

• Klapper, H., H. Piezunka. & L. Dahlander (2023) “Peer Evaluations: Evaluating and being evaluated” Organization Science

Collaboration and Competition

• Gaessler & Piezunka, (2023) “Training with AI – Evidence from Chess Computers” [Journal, PDF] Strategic Management Journal

• Piezunka & Grohsjean, (2023) “Collaborations that Hurt Firm Performance but Help Employees’ Careers” [Journal, PDF] Strategic Management Journal

• Katila, Piezunka, Reineke & Eisenhardt (2022)“Big Fish vs. Big Pond? Entrepreneurs, Established Firms, and Antecedents of Tie Formation” [Journal, PDF] Academy of Management Journal Vol. 65(2), 427 - 452 Video summary🔗

• Clough & Piezunka (2020) “Tie Dissolution in Market Networks: A Theory of Vicarious Performance Feedback” [Journal, PDF] Administrative Science Quarterly Vol. 65(4), 927 - 1017 Video on evaluating suppliers🔗

• Li & Piezunka (2019) “The Uniplex Third: Enabling Single-Domain Role Transitions in Multiplex Relationships” [Journal, PDF] Administrative Science Quarterly Vol. 65(2), 314 - 358 Blogpost by Henrich Greve🔗, Interview on ASQ Blog🔗, Article on INSEAD Knowledge🔗, Article on LSE Business Review🔗, Video on Succession🔗

• Piezunka, Lee, Haynes & Bothner (2018) “Escalation of Competition into Conflict in Competitive Networks of Formula One Drivers” [Journal, PDF]
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (Coverage in various news outlets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20) Article on INSEAD Knowledge🔗, Article on Harvard Business Review🔗, Blogpost by Henrich Greve🔗

• Katila, Chen & Piezunka (2012) “All the Right Moves: How Entrepreneurs Compete Effectively in New and Old Markets” [Journal, PDF] Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal Vol. 6, 116 - 132 Article on INSEAD Knowledge🔗

While my focus is on general insights around relational intelligence, I am fond of the empirical contexts of my research. These are (1) startups and tech companies, (2) family businesses, and (3) sports (e.g., Formula 1, soccer, and chess).

MY LINKTREE

• How to succeed in the job academic market

• Code for text analysis

• My YouTube Channel (e.g., interviews with entrepreneurs, investors, and academics)

• Acceptance speech for the Emerging Scholar Award

Don’t be a stranger. Write me: henning.piezunka@insead.edu