Bernd is a Lecturer (Assistant Prof) at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship within Strathclyde Business School. He gained a BEng in Mechanical Engineering (Germany) and a MSc in Management of Technology (USA) on a Fulbright scholarship before pursuing a PhD in Management Science at the University of Strathclyde. Prior to joining HCE as a Lecturer, he has worked at Utrecht University School of Economics.

His research aims to understand innovative and entrepreneurial activity from a complex systems perspective and using the entrepreneurial ecosystem concept as a frame of refence for understanding why some regions prosper and others struggle. His research has been published in leading international journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and the European Journal of Operational Research. You can read more about his research and teaching on the following pages.

Complementary to these activities, Bernd is a co-founder and the inaugural managing director of the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Research Network Ltd. EERN is a non-profit organisation that aims to form a community of researchers, entrepreneurs, and policy makers, among others, to enhance collaboration and fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and growth in regions around the world.

The overarching theme of Bernd’s research is to understand innovative and entrepreneurial action from a complex systems perspective and using the entrepreneurial ecosystems concept as a means to explain why some regions produce more start-ups or scale-ups than others. It will show how interdependent actors and factors and their configuration in a particular territory enable entrepreneurship and structural transformation of the economy. In particular, current research efforts focus on:

• Entrepreneurial ecosystems and the context for productive entrepreneurship 
• Entrepreneurial economies, structural changes, and regional development
• Networks and how they manifest themselves in institutions and culture
• Entrepreneurial universities as gatekeepers and anchor organisations
• Transformative innovations and scale-ups
• Learning, collaboration, and information flows in complex social systems
• Modelling complex systems using system dynamics, agent-based modelling, GIS, and network science 
• Methodological innovation around complex events for modelling emergent behaviour

• Entrepreneurial ecosystems
• Geography of innovation and entrepreneurship
• Regional economic development
• Platforms, high-growth, and scale-ups
• Entrepreneurial universities
• Academic entrepreneurship
• Complex socio-economic systems
• System dynamics
• Agent-based modelling
• Hybrid simulations

Bernd is passionate about helping others realise their entrepreneurial potential, particularly working with students and graduates from engineering and the sciences. In line with his research, his teaching incorporates system thinking and forming a comprehensive understanding of the complexity of innovation and entrepreneurship in a wider socio-economic context. Bernd has taught a variety of subjects at all levels from undergraduate to graduate and PhD level, including methodological topics such as system dynamics and agent-based modelling as well as a range of topics in the areas of new venture creation, innovation management, and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Furthermore, Bernd has worked with external partners such as HEIs and other support organisations and a growing part of his teaching involves working with executives and designing programmes for policy makers and other ecosystem actors.