Position at IIB, other positions, and academic career

Florian Zapkau is a Chaired Professor for international business with a special focus on SME internationalization at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna). After studying business administration in Germany, Florian Zapkau co-founded a startup firm. He then rejoined academia and obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Gießen (Germany) in 2013. Next, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Düsseldorf (Germany). Florian Zapkau then joined Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam (Netherlands). After completing the tenure track, he held the position of Associate Professor for international business. He also served as the program director of the VU’s flagship MBA in International Business. In 2019, Florian Zapkau worked as a visiting research fellow at King’s College London (UK).

Prof. Zapkau has been involved in several third-party funded projects. A current example is “PragmatiKK,” an interdisciplinary research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research that develops stress assessment and prevention measures for small firms.

Florian Zapkau has teaching experience at the undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate/executive, and Ph.D. levels. In the past, he taught courses on internationalization, entrepreneurship, strategic management, and research methods. At WU, Prof. Zapkau primarily teaches in the MSc programs “Export and Internationalization Management” and “International Management / CEMS.”

Research interest

Florian Zapkau’s research is at the intersections of internationalization and entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises and young firms. More specifically, he investigates firms’ strategic decisions in the internationalization process (such as the foreign market entry mode choice) and their performance implications. He also analyzes how learning from previous foreign market entries affects firms’ future market entries. Finally, Florian Zapkau is also interested in the cognitive antecedents of individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions or corporate entrepreneurship.

His work appears in academic journals such as the Journal of Management Studies, Journal of International Business Studies, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Small Business Management, International Business Review, or Journal of Business Research. In addition, he is an editorial review board member of the Journal of Management Studies, Journal of World Business, and Management Review Quarterly.

Florian Zapkau’s work has won several research awards. Examples include best paper awards at academic conferences, the “Best Paper Award” by the International Management section of the VHB (2019), or the “Best Reviewer Award” by the Journal of World Business (2020).

Publications

Florian Benedikt Zapkau (WU Research)