Marlene Herz, PhD

Marlene Herz is a Post-doctoral Researcher at Kühne Logistics University (KLU). She earned her PhD in Quantitative Economics from Goethe University Frankfurt in 2026, graduating summa cum laude. She previously completed a Master's in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a Bachelor's in Economics at the University of Cologne.

Her research lies at the intersection of innovation strategy and innovation management and follows two main streams. The first examines how external stakeholders, particularly shareholders, shape the scale and direction of corporate innovation. The second investigates how firms generate and evaluate ideas, both from within the organization and from external sources.

Marlene complements her academic work with practical experience in public sector consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and at the Competence Center for Economic Policy and Private Sector Development at GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit).