Gerda Gemser

Professor Gerda Gemser is Full Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Chair of Entrepreneurship in the Department of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne. She earned her PhD in Management from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Her academic career encompasses prior roles as Associate Professor of Design Management at Delft University of Technology from 2008 to 2012, Associate Professor in the Department of Strategic Management & Business Environment at the University of Groningen from 2001 to 2008, and Full Professor of Business and Design at RMIT University before joining the University of Melbourne in January 2020.

Gemser's research specializations include the management of creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation, with particular emphasis on co-creation, design leadership, design innovation, qualitative research methods, and the management of paradoxical tensions affecting change, innovation, and performance. Her ongoing projects explore how cognitive diversity in spatial and temporal orientations fosters business model innovation, the influence of experience versus pure reasoning on strategic convergence in the context of climate change, and the tension between artistic and commercial objectives in creative industries. She primarily identifies as a qualitative management scholar, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative approaches, and collaborates with government bodies, professional associations, and companies on research initiatives. Gemser publishes scholarly articles and books targeted at both academic audiences and industry practitioners. She currently serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Product Innovation Management for the term 2025-2027. Notable publications include "Design Leadership Ignited: Elevating Design at Scale" (Stanford University Press, 2022; co-authored with E. Quint and G. Calabretta; translated into Italian and Chinese), "Entrepreneurial Ways of Designing and Designerly Ways of Entrepreneuring: Exploring the Relationship between Design Thinking and Effectuation Theory" (Journal of Product Innovation Management; co-authored with N. F. Klenner and I. O. Karpen), "The Interplay between Intuition and Rationality in Strategic Decision Making: A Paradox Perspective" (Organization Studies; co-authored with G. Calabretta and N. M. Wijnberg), and "Co-creation with Customers: An Evolving Innovation Research Field" (Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2015; co-authored with H. Perks). Her scholarship has accumulated over 3,200 citations across 73 publications.

Professional Email: gerda.gemser@unimelb.edu.au