© 2026 Christian Schumacher · Vienna
WU Vienna

Christian Schumacher, PhD

ai research · 5 papers
What is AI doing to firms and the decisions inside them?
  • Search Without Build — how firms respond to shortfalls after ChatGPT Strategic Management Journal · under review
  • AI as a Ruthless Contrarian — LLMs as devil's advocates Strategic Management Society · accepted
  • Career Adaptation Under Generative AI Exposure ICIS 2026 · submitted
+2 more · click to open →
decision-making research
How organizations actually decide.
Behavioral strategy in the Carnegie tradition — aspirations, gaps, search — across AMJ, SMJ, Strategy Science, EJOR. 5 papers →
ai practitioner
Austria's AI workforce, measured.
stateofai.at + a new exposure report. drafting
stack
Claude Code Python DuckDB Revelio n8n +18
teaching
  • AI-Driven Decision-Making
  • AI for Business
  • Strategic Decision Making
in the media
Fortune · Business Insider · phys.org · Die Presse · Ö1
coverage →
cv & contact
Assistant Professor, WU Vienna · 2025–.
Previously Harvard, CBS, INSEAD. PhD & training, University of Vienna.
full record & contact →
Search Without Build: How Generative AI Decouples Performance Shortfalls from Capability Accumulation
Before ChatGPT, struggling firms hired AI talent. After, that path priced itself out — they redeploy internally, and the AI elite leaves. 30.5M individuals · S&P 500
Strategic Management Journal · under review
AI as a Ruthless Contrarian: How LLM-Powered Devil's Advocacy Enhances Strategic Decision-Making
Two pre-registered experiments. LLMs help most as devil's advocates — and ruthless AI critique beats ruthless human critique, because AI lacks social agency.
Strategic Management Society · accepted
Career Adaptation Under Generative AI Exposure
First individual-level evidence of how workers reorganize careers after the shock. The dominant pattern isn't exit — it's repositioning. ~15M workers
ICIS 2026 · submitted
Build, Apply, Operate: How AI Workforce Portfolio Composition Shapes Firm Value
The AI workforce is a portfolio, not a stock. 1,927 firms
ICIS 2026 · submitted
AI Workforce Architecture and Digital Innovation
The same architecture shapes what kind of innovation firms produce. 3,236 firms · KPSS patents
ICIS 2026 · submitted
The Bounded Rationality of Workers Facing AI
Simon's machinery at the individual worker level. The activation function compresses under AI. 27.6M workers · 32 quarters
in progress
How Mega-threats Influence Workplace Cooperation
#BlackLivesMatter and cooperation across racial lines. With Keck, Leavitt & Gupta.
Academy of Management Journal · accepted
Violence and Competition
Mass shootings, terrorism, and how underperforming firms take on risk.
Academy of Management Journal · forthcoming 2025
Biased Interpretation of Performance Feedback
How CEO overconfidence bends the reading of a firm's own numbers. Coverage in Fortune, Business Insider, Ö1.
Strategic Management Journal · 2020 · Star Paper
How well does the OWA operator represent real preferences?
Technical decision-modeling. With Reimann & Vetschera.
European Journal of Operational Research · 2017
AI Exposure in Austria
Which Austrian occupations, industries, and regions are most exposed to generative AI — where the shock hits, who absorbs it, what it means for policy.
in progress · 2026
First worker-level measurement of Austria's AI workforce. 3rd in Europe for quality — yet 97% of firms employ no AI workers. With Tihanyi & Schumacher. 2.86M records · 188,265 firms
stateofai.at · 2026
AI workflow
Claude Code · Cursor · Wispr Flow · n8n · OpenAI & Anthropic APIs · multi-agent orchestration · per-project memory
code & data
Python · R · STATA · DuckDB · parquet · pandas · pyfixest · numba
compute
Linux research VM · SSH-orchestrated jobs · Frisch-Waugh-Lovell at scale · overnight nohup runs
data sources
Revelio Labs · Compustat · KPSS patents · O*NET · Eloundou α/γ · Felten AIOE
methods
two-way FE · DiD · event studies · IV · Oster bounds · PPML · pre-registered experiments
AI-Driven Decision-Making
Workflow automation, AI decision models, AI as a debiasing coach, scenario generation. Hands-on with API calls and n8n.
WU Vienna
AI for Business
Firm-level AI transformation, the AI value chain, human–AI collaboration, the future of work.
WU Vienna
Strategic Decision Making
Decision theory, prospect theory, biases and heuristics. Taught three times.
CBS · CEMS · past
now
Assistant Professor (tenure-track), WU Vienna · 2025–
before
Copenhagen Business School (2021–24) · Marie-Curie Fellow, EU Commission (2023–24) · Schumpeter Fellow, Harvard (2019–20) · Visiting PhD, INSEAD
education
PhD Management summa cum laude · MSc Economics · MSc Business · BSc Analytic Philosophy — all University of Vienna
honors
Marie Curie Fellowship · Schumpeter Fellowship · WU Star Paper · ODC–Accenture Best Paper
trained in
Vienna · Singapore · Cambridge · Copenhagen · Beijing · Tokyo · New Orleans
Organizational risk-taking under violence — AMJ
phys.org (Nov 2025) · Die Presse (2026) · Austria Innovativ · Extrajournal (Jan 2026)
CEO overconfidence & performance feedback — SMJ 2020
Fortune · Business Insider · Management Today · AMBA Magazine · Die Presse · Kurier · Trend · Wiener Zeitung · Ö1 radio · WU press
Female executives & the SDGs — JWB 2022
Digitalization of Austrian ski resorts — with Andreas Schumacher (Fraunhofer / TU Wien)
WU press · APA Science · ISR Internationale Seilbahn-Rundschau · Seilbahnen International