Dr. Adrian Ade
Short Profile
Adrian had been working as an external doctoral candidate at the Chair of Family Businesses in the Department of Strategy & Leadership since October 2020. His research focused on the concept of “socioemotional wealth” in family businesses and its impact on strategic management.
After completing his bachelor’s degree at HSBA in the second year following the school’s founding in 2008, Adrian headed a sales department in Shanghai, China. After working in Asia for several years, he went on to earn a master’s degree from the I.E. Business School in Madrid before taking on a role in project management for a Hamburg-based shipping company. Adrian currently serves as General Manager of Business & Corporate Development at the company and is responsible for various corporate investments and a joint venture.
Adrian drew on his experience in various leadership roles and at different family-owned businesses as part of his dissertation project at the Ingeborg-Gross Graduate Center at HSBA. Adrian Ade was advised by Prof. Dr. Peter Klein at HSBA and by Prof. Dr. Stefan Okruch at Andrássy University in Budapest (AUB).
Publications
Journal articles (peer-reviewed)
2026. "Navigating Uncertainty: A German Case Study on How Family Business Entrepreneurs Assess the Business Environment." Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development 33 (1): 17-48. https://doi.org/10.1108/jsbed-02-2025-0100.
2025. "A Mapping of Two Spheres: How SEW Stimulates the Strategic Analysis and Forecast of a Family Firm." Management Review Quarterly 75 (1): 705-745. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-023-00394-w.
2024. "The Knowing–doing Gap: Family SMEs and Sustainability in Germany and Sweden." Journal of the International Council for Small Business 6 (1): 55-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/26437015.2024.2390868.
Book chapters
2026. "The Stewardship PLC." In Listed Family Companies, edited by Holger Fleischer and Stefan Prigge, 75-102. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80592-597-220261004.
2023. "Germany: 20 Years of Corporate Development of Frosta AG – from Thought Leader to SDG#12 and Category Leader." In Attaining the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal of Responsible Consumption and Production, edited by Naomi Birdthistle and Rob Hales, 51-65. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80455-840-920231005.
Working Papers
2022. "The systematic view on literature – a bibliometric analysis of the research front." Working Paper, Andrássy Working Paper Series in Economics and Business Administration. https://www.andrassyuni.eu/pubfile/de-350-49-awp-adrian-ade.pdf..