Philipp Sandner

Philipp Sandner (23 February 1980 – 16 January 2024) was a German economist and professor at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, where he founded and led the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center (FSBC).

Life and career Sandner was born in 1980 in Heidelberg. Following his Abitur, he completed civilian service in 1999 and studied business administration with a specialisation in business informatics (Wirtschaftsinformatik) at the University of Mannheim and at the Copenhagen Business School from 2000 to 2005. From 2005 to 2009, he worked as a researcher at the Institute for Innovation Research, Technology Management and Entrepreneurship at LMU Munich under Dietmar Harhoff. He obtained his doctorate (Dr. oec. publ.) in 2009 with his dissertation on The Valuation of Intangible Assets at LMU Munich. He also completed his Master of Business Research (MBR) at this institution. He attended the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology at the University of California, Berkeley for a research placement in 2008. From 2010 to 2012, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair for Strategy and Organisation under Isabell Welpe at the Technical University of Munich. as well as to the working group of the EU Blockchain Observatory of the European Union. Furthermore, the working group "National Risk Analysis", established by the Federal Ministry of Finance, consulted Sandner on matters concerning crypto assets such as Bitcoin.

The German business magazine Capital listed Sandner in the category "Top 40 under 40". According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he was also among Germany's most influential economists in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.

Sandner died on 16 January 2024, at the age of 43. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.

Positions

Sandner regarded the development of blockchain technologies as a long-term disruptive innovation that would significantly transform the financial sector. In an interview with ARD, he stated that security token offerings would "significantly change the business model of Deutsche Börse in a few years".

Sandner received several scholarships and best paper awards. His research was published in international journals such as the Journal of Marketing, Administrative Science Quarterly, Research Policy, the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Business Venturing. His teaching covered digitalisation, entrepreneurship, innovation management and intellectual property rights.

Selected publications A. Ter Wal, O. Alexy, J. Block, P. Sandner: "The best of both worlds: the benefits of open-specialized and closed-diverse syndication networks for new ventures' success". In: Administrative Science Quarterly. Vol. 61, No. 3, 2016, pp. 393–432. P. Böing, E. Müller, P. Sandner: "China's R&D Explosion: analyzing productivity effects across ownership types and over time". In: Research Policy. Vol. 45, No. 1, 2016, pp. 159–176. A. Tumasjan, T. Sprenger, P. Sandner, I. Welpe: "Election forecasts with Twitter: how 140 characters reflect the political landscape". In: Social Science Computer Review. Vol. 29, No. 4, 2011, pp. 402–418. P. Sandner, I. Welpe, A. Tumasjan: Die Zukunft ist dezentral: wie die Blockchain Unternehmen und den Finanzsektor auf den Kopf stellen wird. 2020. P. Sandner, I. Welpe, A. Tumasjan: Der Blockchain-Faktor: wie die Blockchain unsere Gesellschaft verändern wird. 2019. P. Sandner: The Valuation of Intangible Assets: an Exploration of Patent and Trademark Portfolios. Dissertation, LMU Munich, 2009.