Ulf Bosch

As a Professor of Practice in the Department of International Business, Entrepreneurship and Marketing (IBEM) of Queen's Business School (QBS), and in my role as Programme Director of the William J Clinton Leadership Institute (CLI), my research explores two major strands within the field of strategic management:

(1) International business (IB) strategy focusing on the multinational corporation (MNC) in emerging markets; and (2) digital business transformation with an emphasis on organisational change, resilience and leadership.

• The first research stream on IB strategy examines the convergence of strategic choice, institutionalism and firm-institution interaction of MNCs in China. It focuses on the relationship between strategic orientation, industry-based competitive environment, firm resources configurations, institutional context and differential performance outcomes. While it agrees with the general notion that the appropriate strategy will be a function of industry factors and firm-specific factors, there may be varying performance implications depending on key elements of the institutional context as well as (co-evolutional) firm-institution interaction.

• The second research stream on digital business transformation broadly deals with the problem of managing organisations in the face of environmental discontinuities. Specifically, it focuses on the influence of the upper echelon’s leadership practices on technology-led business model transformation including the formation of (circular) business ecosystems. It is assumed that successful digital business transformation and non-incremental innovation in organisations are a question of leadership and organisational agility rather than a question of technological capabilities. This notion is explored by looking into different configurations for organisational change, resilience and leadership viewed against corresponding performance outcomes.

• Economic validity, as measured by firm performance, is used as a dependent variable in the research constructs of both strands of investigation. In essence, my research explores which configurations organisations choose and which perform best.

Academic roles and affiliations include:

• Academic Director of the William J Clinton Leadership Institute (CLI) 09/22-04/24
• Programme Director of MSc Global Leadership and Management (GLM)
• Programme Director of Strategic Change Leadership for Digital Transformation (SCLDT)
• Programme Director of Leading Transformation through Culture (LTTC)
• Programme Director of Leading Change in the Digital Era (LCDE) with Digital Campus (LRMG) of South Africa
• Faculty Member in QBS's Department of International Business, Entrepreneurship and Marketing (IBEM)
• Guest Lecturer on Organisational Change and Culture with Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS)
• Reviewer for UC Berkeley's quartlerly academic journal California Management Review (CMR)

Academic involvement include: 

• BSc International Business | Global Business Environment (MGT1015)
• BSc Accounting | Managerial Behaviour (MGT2008)
• MSc Global Leadership and Management | Strategic Leadership (MGT7185)
• MSc Global Leadership and Management | Research Methods (MGT7190)
• MBA | Technology-driven Change (MBA)
• MBA | Leading Transformation in a Digital World (MBA)
• EMBA China Ext. | Digital Transformation and Innovation (CEMBA)
• PgDip Innovation Management | Strategic Change Leadership (PGDip)
• Senior Exec. Programme | The Dynamics of Leading Digital Transformation (SEP)
• Bespoke Exececutive Programme | Delivering Strategic Change (ALMAC)
• Masterclass | Distinctive Leadership in the Digital Age (DLDA)
• Masterclass | DIGITAL OFFROAD (DO)

Academic education:

• PhD in Strategy, King's Business School, King's College London (KCL), UK
• MBA, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Shanghai, China
• BA (First-class Hons), European School of Business (ESB), London, UK / Reutlingen, Germany

Industry experience:

In addition to my academic work, I have gained more than 20 years of strategy and Big4 consulting experience serving as Head of Practice with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Towers Watson (WTW) as well as in international project roles with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants (RBSC) and Robert Bosch (RB).

• PwC: Organisational Change & Talent Management Consulting
• Towers Watson: Org. Transformation & Human Capital Consulting
• Roland Berger: Strategy Consulting, Automotive Industry
• Robert Bosch: Sino-Foreign JV, Sales Overseas

Based out of Europe as well as China, I have led 200+ strategy and transformation programmes for some of the world’s most discerning clients such as Airbus, Credit Suisse, BASF, Bosch, HSBC, Siemens and Volkswagen. In terms of practitioner-oriented throught leadership, I have initiated the global research series Return-on-Change (RoC), a joint-initiative of PwC, WHU Business School and BMW.

While combing rigorous scholarly research with first-hand practical experience, I also have a high aptitude to tell stories through engaging narratives. In this capacity, I have been an invited TEDx (Talk) speaker at RWTH Aachen and has been asked by Google to team up and co-author DIGITAL OFFROAD (Haufe), a critically acclaimed book on digitalisation strategies.