Prof. Dr. Alexander Benlian

Prof. Dr. Alexander Benlian

Professor

Contact

work +49 6151 16-24310

Work S1|02 239
Hochschulstraße, 1
64289 Darmstadt

Professor Alexander Benlian has been Director of the Chair of Information Systems & Electronic Services (ise) at the Technical University of Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt) since 2012. Previously, he worked at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), where he earned his doctorate and worked as an assistant professor (habilitation candidate). In 2015, he received an offer for a full professorship (W3) in Information Systems at the University of Cologne, which he declined. Between his doctorate and his assistant professorship, he spent two years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, serving clients in the financial services, telecommunications, and software industries. Since 2018, Alexander has also been a faculty member of the Goethe Business School, Frankfurt, teaching MBA courses in the Goethe MBA. In spring/summer 2026, Alexander spent a semester at Google as a Visiting Faculty Researcher.

Fascinated by the transformative power of artificial intelligence, he investigates how algorithmic management is reshaping leadership and collaboration in modern organizations—extending to the question of how managers themselves increasingly become the subject of algorithmic control. A second focus lies in human–AI collaboration and the management of agentic AI systems that autonomously take on tasks within knowledge work. Relatedly, he explores which AI competencies—from literacy through fluency to agency—employees (and organizations) need in order to remain effective. His work crosses disciplinary boundaries, combining insights from information systems, psychology, management research, and ethics.

Prof. Benlian has cooperated with scholars and companies around the globe in several research and consulting projects. He is also a committed entrepreneurship trainer who regularly gives workshops in developing countries on behalf of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to support economic development and employment creation programs.

His research has been published in leading academic and practitioner-oriented journals like MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Service Research, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, MIT Sloan Management Review, Business Horizons, MIS Quarterly Executive, Harvard Business Manager, and several others. According to national and international research rankings, he is regularly among the top 1% of Information Systems scholars worldwide (see ranking results below).

Curriculum Vitae

2026 Google, Visiting Faculty Researcher (Spring/Summer)
2018-2020 Dean of the Department of Business, Law and Economics, TU Darmstadt
2017-2018 Associate/Vice Dean (Academic & Research) of the Department of Business, Law and Economics, TU Darmstadt
since 2018 Faculty member at Goethe Business School in the Goethe MBA
2015 Appointment to a Professorship in Information Systems (W3) from the University of Cologne, declined
since 10/2015 Speaker of the Research Profile Area “Digital Transformation” at Darmstadt University of Technology
since 05/2012 Director of the Chair for Information Systems & Electronic Services at Darmstadt University of Technology (TU Darmstadt)
2008-2012 Assistant Professor at University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
2006-2008 Consultant at the Business Technology Office (BTO), McKinsey & Company
2002-2006 PhD in Information Systems at Munich School of Management, LMU Munich
2002-2004 Honors Degree in Technology Management, Center for Digital Technology & Management (CDTM), joint programme by TUM and LMU Munich
1997-2002 Diploma in Business Administration (FernUniversität Hagen) and Master of Arts in Communication Science (LMU Munich)
Author or Co-author of over 350 articles in national and international journals (including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, MIS Quarterly Executive, Information Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Journal of Service Research, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Decision Support Systems, Electronic Markets, Information & Management, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Business Economics (Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft), Business & Information Systems Engineering (WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK), MIT Sloan Management Review, Business Horizons, Harvard Business Manager, Wirtschaftsinformatik & Management, HMD) and various conference proceedings (ICIS, ECIS, Academy of Management Proceedings, WI, AMCIS, PACIS, HICSS, CHI, SOUPS, PETS, FAccT, AIES)
Google Scholar: Link to Alexander Benlian's profile on Google Scholar
ResearchGate: Link to Alexander Benlian's profile on ResearchGate
Research stays:
  • Google (YouTube Ads, Zurich/Munich/Mountain View), Visiting Faculty Researcher (Spring/Summer 2026)
  • Stanford University (d.school), Santa Clara University (Leavey School of Business, Department of Operations Management & Information Systems), Google Inc.
  • Department of Information Technologies, HEC Montréal
  • Statistics and Computer Information Systems Department, Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, The City University of New York
  • Department of Economics, Finance and Business Administration, Ecole de Management Lyon Business School
  • School of Information Management and Systems, University of California, Berkeley, USA
  • Kogod’s Center for Information Technology and the Global Economy (CITGE), American University, Washington, D.C. as part of the “Fall 2000 Washington Semester Certificate Program”
Senior Editor of European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS)
Associate Editor of Information Systems Research and Department Editor of Business & Information Systems Engineering (BISE)
Member of the Editorial Review Board of Electronic Markets and of MISQ Executive
Distinguished Board of Advisors of the Emerald Journals Internet Research
Regular reviewer for numerous international and national IS/WI conferences and journals (z.B. MIS Quarterly, MIS Quarterly Executive, Management Science, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Management Information Systems)
Reviewer for the German Research Foundation (DFG) and 'The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada' (SSHRC)
Prof. Dr. Alexander Benlian has been honored by the Association for Information Systems (AIS) as an AIS Distinguished Member. The AIS Distinguished Member Program recognizes members who have made a significant impact on the AIS Association.
At the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2021, Alexander Benlian was awarded the Claudio Ciborra Award Runner-Up for his article “Algoactivistic Practices in Ridesharing – A Topic Modeling & Grounded Theory Approach”.
Prof. Benlian was ranked 5th in WirtschaftsWoche's business economist ranking (2014-2018), in which researchers were assessed according to their publication performance over the last 5 years. Over 2,500 business administration researchers in the DACH region were included in this ranking.
2019 Awarded the HMD Best Paper Award 2018 at the Business Informatics Conference in Siegen for the article “Digital twins – An explorative case study to investigate business models” by the authors Robin Klostermeier, Steffi Haag and Alexander Benlian
2018 Honored with an Outstanding Teaching Award in the Digital Transformation MBA at Goethe Business School
2018 Best Paper Award from the journal Review of Managerial Science for the article “Of Early Birds and Phantoms: How Sold-Out Discounts Impact Entrepreneurial Success in Reward-Based Crowdfunding” by authors Martin Adam, Michael Wessel and Alexander Benlian
2017 MIS Quarterly Executive Best Paper Award 2017 for an article on the digital transformation of IT entitled “Options for Transforming the IT Function Using Bimodal IT” by authors Ingmar Haffke, Bradley Kalgovas and Alexander Benlian
According to the Handelsblatt Business Economist Ranking 2014, Prof. Benlian is the business informatics professor with the strongest research performance in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (1st place).
Prof. Alexander Benlian ranks 8th in the ranking (best research performance) of all 2,346 business administration professors, making him one of the top 1% in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In the ranking of the most research-intensive academics under 40 years of age, Prof. Benlian came 5th overall (link to the ranking: Handelsblatt-BWL-Ranking 2014, report in hoch3 2/2015 (PDF file) (opens in new tab))
In the international business informatics research ranking based on the AIS (Association for Information Systems) Senior Scholars' Basket of Journals from 2011-2013, Prof. Benlian is the only European researcher to be ranked in the top 10 of the world's top researchers (link to the ranking: AIS-Ranking (PDF file) (opens in new tab)).
2016 Awarded the Athene Prize for Good Teaching by the Carlo and Karin Giersch Foundation
2016 Winner of the ‘2015 Electronic Markets Paper of the Year’ Award for the article: Converting freemium customers from free to premium – The role of the perceived premium fit in the case of music as a service, 24(4), pp. 259-268 (together with Thomas Wagner and Thomas Hess)
2015 Awarded a scholarship from the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Foundation on the topic of “Influencing factors of dynamic investor behavior on crowdfunding platforms”. The criteria for awarding the scholarship are the academic excellence of the scientist and the quality of his research work
2015 Winner of the Best Research Paper Award at ECIS 2015 in Münster, Germany with the paper “The Effects of Personalization on Purchase Intentions for Online News: An Experimental Study of Different Personalization Increments” (selected from a total of 913 submissions and 282 accepted articles)
2014 Awarded the Best Conference Paper Runner-Up at ICIS 2014 in Auckland, New Zealand with the paper “Understanding the dynamic interplay of social buzz and contribution behavior within and between online platforms – Evidence from crowdfunding”
2012 Awarded the TU Darmstadt E-Teaching Award by the Carlo and Karin Giersch Foundation

Publications

Publications are listed in the Research section.