Seckler Christoph | ESCP Business School

Christoph Seckler

Full Professor of Entrepreneurial Strategy

Department : Entrepreneurship
Campus : Berlin

Prof. Dr. Christoph Seckler is Full Professor of Entrepreneurship at ESCP Business School (Berlin campus). He holds the Chair of Entrepreneurial Strategy, serves as Academic Director of EMDIEL, ESCP’s Executive Master in Entrepreneurial Leadership, as well as Academic Director of INSPIRE and the Center for Design Science in Entrepreneurship (DS:E). (…)

Christoph’s work aims at enabling leaders to deliberately design the future rather than merely react to it. He advances a design-oriented perspective on entrepreneurship across his research, teaching, and practice collaborations.

In his research, Christoph advances a design science approach to entrepreneurship, shifting scholarship from explaining what is toward designing how entrepreneurship could be shaped. His work has been published in leading international journals, including Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Management Studies, and Accounting, Organizations and Society. He also serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Business Venturing Design, a leading international outlet for design science in entrepreneurship.

In his teaching, Christoph shifts the focus of education from analyzing the past to designing contexts in which students and executives develop the capacity to shape the future. Rather than primarily transmitting knowledge, his programs create structured environments for experimentation, iteration, and reflection, enabling participants to grow as entrepreneurial leaders.

In practice, Christoph collaborates with organizations to build cultures that move beyond preserving the status quo toward systematic experimentation, learning, and a constructive approach to errors and mistakes. His work has been featured in international media such as the Financial Times, World Economic Forum, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Harvard Business Manager. He co-published the Error Culture Report for Germany in collaboration with EY Germany.

For more information, please feel free to reach out to him or visit his website.

PUBLICATIONS
AWARDS AND HONORS

Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2026

2026

Thinkers50

Nomination for Herbert Simon Best Paper Award

2025

DESRIST 2025 conference

Best Program in Entrepreneurship Education in Germany

2023

La French Tech

Best Teacher Award

2021

Master in Strategy and Digital Business, ESCP Business School

“Top 40 Under 40”

2021

Recognized as “Top 40 Under 40” by the German magazine Capital

Capital

Top 10 Upcoming Business Scholars

2021

Capital

Paper nominated as finalist for the “OMT Louis Pondy Best Dissertation Paper Award”

2020

2020 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

Nominated for Best Paper Award

2019

G-Forum

Best Paper Award in Management Consulting

2017

Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

Winner of the “Thomson South-Western Outstanding Research-Based Paper on Management Consulting”

2017

Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

Nominated for the “Carolyn Dexter Award” for best international paper

2013

Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

Winner of the “Information Age Publishing Award: Outstanding Doctoral Student Paper on Management Consulting”

2013

Academy of Management

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Academic Articles

2025

Trash to Treasure: Design Principles for Developing Cascading and Repurposing Business Models through Systemic Stakeholder Collaboration

Academic Articles

2024

An institutional perspective on fear of failure and its effects across three entrepreneurship stages

Conference Presentations

2024

Design Science In Entrepreneurship And Its Implications For Business Models for Sustainability

Conference Proceedings

2024

Design-oriented Research in Entrepreneurship: A Methodological Review

Media

2024

Feature: Menschen und Muster - Wie uns Demut resilienter macht

Media

2024

Feature: Schöner scheitern

Media

2024

Feature: Schöner scheitern - Warum die richtige Fehlerkultur gerade während der KI-Transformation so wichtig ist

Conference Proceedings

2024

Impact Scholars, Unite! Building Bridges Across Communities Interested in Creating Impact

Media

2024

Interview: How error culture can improve performance

Media

2024

KOMPLEX 2024 Podcast zum Vortrag: Scheitern – wie geht das?

Research and expertise

News

LIVE at ESCP Berlin: Entrepreneur Conversations – Innovation & Beyond with Heike Panella

Inside the ESCP Extension School: expanding access to practical, flexible learning

Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2026

2026

Thinkers50

Nomination for Herbert Simon Best Paper Award

2025

DESRIST 2025 conference

Best Program in Entrepreneurship Education in Germany

2023

La French Tech

Best Teacher Award

2021

Master in Strategy and Digital Business, ESCP Business School

“Top 40 Under 40”

2021

Capital

Top 10 Upcoming Business Scholars

2021

Capital

Paper nominated as finalist for the “OMT Louis Pondy Best Dissertation Paper Award”

2020

2020 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

Nominated for Best Paper Award

2019

G-Forum

Best Paper Award in Management Consulting

2017

Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

Winner of the “Thomson South-Western Outstanding Research-Based Paper on Management Consulting”

2017

Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

Nominated for the “Carolyn Dexter Award” for best international paper

2013

Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

Winner of the “Information Age Publishing Award: Outstanding Doctoral Student Paper on Management Consulting”

2013

Academy of Management

Research and expertise

News

LIVE at ESCP Berlin: Entrepreneur Conversations – Innovation & Beyond with Heike Panella

Inside the ESCP Extension School: expanding access to practical, flexible learning