Douglas Wegner holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2011), Brazil. He joined FDC | Fundação Dom Cabral in 2021 and is currently a full-time professor engaged in research projects and teaching collaborative strategies. He was a visiting researcher at TU Dortmund (2019), the University of Sevilla (2016) and the College for Social Sciences and Humanities at the University Alliance Ruhr in Germany (2024). Douglas is a research fellow at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in Brazil.
He supervised four doctoral dissertations and 22 master's theses until August 2025. Douglas has also coordinated research projects sponsored by Brazilian agencies on topics such as collaborative governance and strategies. He is a member of Collab4Good, a research group at FDC focused on topics such as grand challenges, collaborative governance, innovation ecosystems and collaborative strategies. Douglas also leads the track “Ecosystems, Platforms, Networks and Business Clusters” at the Brazilian Academy of Management (EnAnpad).
He has published articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial Marketing Management, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Supply Chain Management – An International Journal, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Technology Management and Innovation, Journal of Knowledge Management, Creativity and Innovation Management, Journal of Cleaner Production, International Review of Applied Economics, and Journal of Rural Studies.

International research experience
2024 College for Social Sciences and Humanities – University Alliance Ruhr (Germany) – Fellow researcher. Contact: Prof. Jürgen Howaldt.
2019 University of Dortmund (Germany) – Visiting Scholar. Contact: Prof. Jürgen Howaldt. Social Research Centre.
2016 University of Seville (Spain) – Visiting Scholar. Contact: Prof. Isidoro Romero, Faculty of Business Administration.
2009 University of Cologne (Germany) – Visiting Student. Contact: Prof. Mark Ebers, Seminar for Business Administration, Corporate Development and Organization.

Research interests
My research interests broadly focus on the role of collaboration in improving business and society. This broad interest has allowed me to focus on different topics and empirical contexts over the last few years: small-firm networks, the governance of collaborative networks, networks for social innovation, networking capabilities, paradoxes and tensions in collaborative networks, open innovation and innovation networks, solidarity economy cooperatives, and collaboration to solve grand challenges.
Recently, I have been focusing on strategies to develop collaborative digital platforms and collaborative digital ecosystems. The cross-fertilization of my previous research experience and the new topics can produce original and relevant knowledge that helps society minimize grand challenges and wicked problems.

Topics:
• Collaborative strategies, ranging from collaborative governance to networks, alliances, and partnerships
• Digital platforms and digital innovation ecosystems, aiming to understand their creation and development
• Collaboration to address major societal challenges, such as circular ecosystems, collaboration, and co-opetition to foster sustainable development
• Social innovation and social innovation ecosystems, integrating multiple stakeholders to produce innovations with social and environmental goals