Karl Taeuscher (Täuscher) is a Senior Lecturer of Strategy and Entrepreneurship in the Innovation Management and Policy (IMP) Division at the Alliance Manchester Business School. In his previous roles, he worked as a Research Fellow at the Chair for Strategic Management and Organization at the Bayreuth University and as a Doctoral Researcher in the Business Model group at the Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy (IMW). Karl's research focuses primarily on the legitimation, growth, and competitive strategies of new ventures, particularly in platform markets.

Karl's main research interests are related to new ventures' legitimation, growth, and competitive strategies, particularly in platform-based markets, and most of his research projects are set in the context of online marketplaces. Other research interests - and potential areas for thesis supervision - include business model innovation; crowdfunding; the legitimation and growth of new market categories; organizational identities and narratives; and social evaluations. 

Karl’s current teaching/supervising activities include:

• Fundamentals of Strategy (UG)
• High-Tech Entrepreneurship (MSc)
• Supervision of Dissertations (UG, MSc)
• International Business Project (MBA)

Research supervision

I am happy to hear from potential PhD students who are interested in pursuing a PhD under my supervision.

Before reaching out, please ensure that your intended topic aligns with my research interests. You can learn more about my research interests by clicking on the "Research and Projects" tab.

I am most interested in supervising ambitious PhD students in the following areas:

• Cultural entrepreneurship (click here for a good introduction), including the role of entrepreneurs' storytelling (narrative) and the legitimation of new ventures 
• Platform strategy (click here for a review of the literature), particularly competition between online platforms

Practically speaking, I'm generally most interested in research projects that aim to explain the performance outcomes of (technology) startups. This would include projects that aim to explain how startups successfully attract funding or projects that aim to explain why and how startups manage to gain traction among their customers. While you should have some interest in the practical implications of your research project, I particularly welcome applications from students who are interested in pursuing a career in academia.

I'm open to different methodological approaches but have a preference for PhD students with an interest in large-scale quantitative methods or lab experiments. I do not expect that you have already developed such methodological skills when entering the PhD programme but I prefer students with a motivation to master at least one quantitative methodology at the end of their PhD project.

Before sending me an inquiry, please remember that you only get one shot at making a good first impression. Sending out a generic email to many different scholars will unlikely get you many favorable responses. Rather, I strongly recommend you to take the time to read my latest research (you can sort-rank my publications by year via Google scholar). I don't expect you to come up with a research project that is fully tailored to my interests, but your inquiry should clearly show how your proposed project fits with my research interests.

Please send your initial inquiry by email and include both a CV and a short research proposal (3 pages or less). The CV should also highlight how you are qualified to undertake a PhD project. Your research proposal should directly engage with the literature concerning one of my research topics, and should include one primary research question. You can generally identify the research topic of a paper by reading the first paragraph of its introduction.