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Your partner to successPublished authors, renowned business leaders. Introducing our world-class faculty.

Professor Holger Ernst

Chair of Technology and Innovation Management at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management

Holger Ernst is full professor of business administration, esp. technology and innovation management at the WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany. He studied business administration at the University of Kiel, Germany and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. He received a degree in business administration (1992), his Ph.D. (1996) and the Habilitation (2001) from the University of Kiel, Germany.

Prof. Ernst is a regular visiting professor and a member of the Center for Research in Technology and Innovation (CRTI) at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA. He was appointed honorary professor and principal fellow within the Faculty of Business and Economics at the Melbourne Business School, The University of Melbourne, Australia.

Prof. Ernst’s research interests lie in the fields of strategy, innovation, commercialization of technologies, new product development and intellectual property. He has published in leading international journals such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Product Innovation Management, California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, R&D Management, Research Policy, Small Business Economics and others.

Prof. Ernst has received multiple best dissertation, best paper and other research awards. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Creativity and Innovation Management and Journal of Knowledge Management.

Prof. Ernst has 22 years of experience in executive education. He has taught in multiple executive MBA programs, e.g. the Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA Program (since KW01), the Melbourne Business School Senior Executive MBA Program (since start in 2004), the Melbourne Business School Executive MBA Program and in various WHU and Kellogg Executive Customized Programs for companies such as 3M, Dt. Börse, Esai Pharmaceuticals, Merck, L’Oreal, Süd-Chemie, Sony, Nissan, DuPont, SITA and Sony-Ericsson and universities such as Carnegie Mellon University, Drexel University, Tsinghua University and CEIBS.

Prof. Ernst received Best Teacher Awards in the WHU Full-Time MBA Program in 2006, in the Bucerius-WHU Master of Law and Business Program in 2008 and in the WHU Part-Time MBA Program in 2012.

Prof. Ernst is co-founder of the firm Patentsight, located in Bonn, Germany, that specializes in the development and selling of software products and consulting services in the field of business intelligence based on patent data. Patentsight is a market leader in its field and serves well-known clients in Europe, USA, Asia and Africa. Prof. Ernst has served on the advisory board of start-up firms and provides support as an angel investor.

Professor Holger Ernst currently teaches
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