Biography
Johann Fortwengel is a Professor of International Management and the Head of Department, Strategy, International Management & Entrepreneurship at King's Business School, holding a secondary appointment as a Research Associate at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria. Previously, he was Reader (2021-2025), Senior Lecturer (2019-2021) and Lecturer (2016-2019) at King's.
Before joining King's in 2016, Johann was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan and the University of South Carolina. In 2023, Johann was a Visiting Professor at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University.
Johann holds a doctorate from Freie Universität Berlin (awarded in 2014), an MA in Global Studies (awarded in 2011), and a BA in Sociology (awarded in 2009). Before moving to the UK, Johann lived in Germany, Finland, Canada, South Africa, India, and the US.
His research focuses on how multinational enterprises navigate their operations across institutional and country differences. One current research interest revolves around how multinational enterprises develop answers to 'who we are' — or their organisational identity.
Johann's work has appeared in the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of World Business, Organization Science, and Strategic Organization, among other outlets. His research has received funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the British Academy/Leverhulme. Johann has received awards for his research, peer reviewing, and teaching.
He currently serves as an Associate Editor and the Outreach Editor of the Journal of Management Studies, and he is the incoming General Editor of JMS, starting his term on 1 January 2026. Johann sat/sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Management International Review, and Strategic Organization. Johann also serves as an academic advisor for the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission.
Leveraging his research expertise, Johann advises multinational enterprises, small and medium-sized firms, think tanks, and local and federal governments. One area of his consulting activities is the continuing challenge of navigating a post-COVID-19 world.
Johann's Research Excellence Framework 2021 impact case study was called Creating human capital: Apprenticeship programmes in the UK and the US. Read the impact feature on this case study.