Curriculum Vitae:

Academics

• Since 06/2025 – External Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Duisburg-Essen
• 02/2017 – 06/2021 – PhD in Information Systems, University of Zurich
• 04/2014 – 12/2016 – M.Sc. in Information Systems, University of Duisburg-Essen
• 04/2011 – 03/2014 – B.Sc. in Information Systems, University of Duisburg-Essen
• Studies abroad
  • University of Warsaw (2015–2016)
  • Hawai’i Pacific University (2015)
  • University of Economics Wroclaw (2013)

Work Experience

• Since 12/2024 – Programs Manager, Starknet Foundation, Singapore
• 08/2024 – 10/2024 – Voting Power Distribution Lead, Optimism Foundation, Zurich
• 01/2022 – 06/2024 – Committee Chair, Technical Advisory Committee, Tezos Foundation, Zug
• 09/2021 – 06/2024 – Managing Director of Operations, Tezos Foundation, Zug
• 04/2021 – 08/2021 – Senior Consultant, EY Switzerland, Zurich
• 09/2017 – 12/2020 – Co-initiator / Governance Lead, cardossier, Zurich
• 10/2014 – 10/2016 – Assistant / Intern, PwC, Duisburg
• 09/2013 – 12/2014 – Scientific Assistant, University of Duisburg-Essen

Honours and Awards:

• Best Paper Award, HICSS 2019, Internet and the Digital Economy Track,Maui, Hawaii, USA.
• Fellow of CHAIS (Doctoral Consortium), Zurich, Switzerland.
• Fellow of HICSS (Doctoral Consortium), Maui, Hawaii, USA.

Fields of Research:

• Blockchain/DLT/Open-Source Governance
• Decentralized Autonomous Organizations
• Commons Governance
• Blockchain Use Cases

Publications

Conference Publications (peer-reviewed)

Ziolkowski, R., & Schwabe, G. (2022). Mine, Yours,… Ours? Managing Stakeholder Conflicts in an Enterprise Blockchain Consortium. Proceedings of the 55th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Maui, Hawaii, USA.https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/211820/

Schmid, R., Ziolkowski, R., & Schwabe, G. (2022). Together or not? Exploring stakeholders in public and permissionless blockchains. Proceedings of the 55th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Maui, Hawaii, USA.https://aisel.aisnet.org/hicss-55/os/blockchain/12/

Ziolkowski, R., Miscione, G., & Schwabe, G. (2020b). Exploring Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: Towards Shared Interests and ‘Code is Constitution.’ Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Information Systems, Hyderabad, India. 

Miscione, G., Goerke, T., Klein, S., Schwabe, G., & Ziolkowski, R. (2019b). Hanseatic Governance: Understanding Blockchain as Organizational Technology. Proceedings of the Fortieth International Conference on Information Systems, Munich, Germany. 

Miscione, G., Ziolkowski, R., Zavolokina, L., & Schwabe, G. (2018). Tribal Governance: The Business of Blockchain Authentication. Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. https://doi.org/10.24251/HICSS.2018.566

Ziolkowski, R., Miscione, G., & Schwabe, G. (2018). Consensus through Blockchains: Exploring Governance across inter-organizational Settings. Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Information Systems, San Francisco, CA, USA https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-177370 

Ziolkowski, R., Parangi, G., Miscione, G., & Schwabe, G. (2019, January 8). Examining Gentle Rivalry: Decision-Making in Blockchain Systems. Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Maui, Hawaii, USA.http://hdl.handle

Journal Publications (peer-reviewed)

Karger, E., Brée, T., Ziolkowski, R., Jagals, M., & Ahlemann, F. (2024). Blockchain in Smart Cities: A Bibliometric Analysis and Overview. International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), 21(03), 1–31.https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/ijitmx/v21y2024i03ns0219877024500251.html

Bauer, I., Ziolkowski, R., Hacker, J., & Schwabe, G. (2023). Why Blockchain: A Socio-technical Perspective on the Motives of Business Consortia Members to Engage with Blockchain Technology. Distributed Ledger Technologies: Research and Practice, 2(2), 1–27.https://doi.org/10.1145/3573893

Ziolkowski, R., Miscione, G., & Schwabe, G. (2020a). Decision Problems in Blockchain Governance: Old Wine in New Bottles or Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes? Journal of Management Information Systems, 37(2), 316–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2020.1759974

Other Publications

Ziolkowski, R. (2021). Exploring Blockchain Governance. Dissertation, University of Zurich, Switzerland. https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/211448/

Miscione, G., Richter, C., & Ziolkowski, R. (2020). Authenticating deeds/organizing society: Considerations for Blockchain-based Land Registries. In W. De Vries (Ed.), Responsible and Smart Land Management Interventions: An African Context (pp. 133–147). CRC Press: Taylor & Francis.

Miscione, G., Goerke, T., Klein, S., Schwabe, G., & Ziolkowski, R. (2019a). From authentication to ‘Hanseatic governance’: Blockchain as organizational technology. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) seminar series organized by the Department of Management, London, UK. https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/handle/10197/10575

Publications:

• Korn, Falco; Kolender, Dennis; Ziolkowski, Rafael; Karger, Erik; Ahlemann, Frederik: Mind The Mess: A Matrix Of Personal Knowledge Management Challenges Across The Knowledge Lifecycle. In: ECIS 2026 Proceedings. 1st Edition. Association for Information Systems (AIS), Milan, Italy, 2026. Abstract Details Citation

  Knowledge workers struggle to manage, retrieve, and apply knowledge across fragmented digital environments. Existing research is either dated or fragmented along either specific knowledge management challenges or domains. This study investigates limitations of personal knowledge management (PKM) through 27 semi-structured expert interviews with experienced knowledge workers. In our inductive study, we identify 50 first-order PKM challenges, which we organize into ten second-order themes and four aggregate dimensions that capture their underlying nature. Our categorization distinguishes cognitive, behavioral, technical, and information-related dimensions and maps all challenges onto four canonical knowledge management processes which enables a systematic diagnosis of where and why PKM breaks. In doing so, our study contributes to a more granular empirical catalogue of PKM challenges and a conceptual foundation for designing and evaluating future PKM solutions.

• Hoffmann, David; Ahlemann, Frederik; Ziolkowski, Rafael; Karger, Erik; Lyytinen, Kalle; Reining, Stefan: Organizing For Digital Business Model Innovation In Incumbent Firms: Which Digital Innovation Management Configurations Enable Or Constrain Digital Business Model Innovation?. In: ECIS 2026 Proceedings. 1st Edition. Association for Information Systems (AIS), Milan, Italy, 2026. Abstract Details Citation

  Firms facing hyper-competitive digital environments need the ability to innovate in their business models. Yet, many struggle due to misaligned organizational arrangements that produce strategic inertia. Building on organizational information processing theory, we investigate which digital inno-vation management configurations shape digitally enabled business model innovation under varying contextual conditions. Using survey data from 251 firms and fsQCA, we identify multiple equifinal configurations associated with both effective and ineffective digital business model innovation. Our results reveal that configurations can complement, substitute for, or trade off with one another de-pending on firms’ strategic posture and the level of environmental turbulence. Overall, the study ad-vances a configurational perspective on organizing for digital business model innovation by identify-ing empirically grounded archetypes of digital innovation management configurations that enable or constrain innovation outcomes.

• Karger, Erik; Jeppe, Arne; Ziolkowski, Rafael; Korn, Falco; Hackel, Tobias; Harr, Michael; Brée, Tim; Ahlemann, Frederik: Artificial intelligence for wildfire detection and management. In: Discover Artificial Intelligence, Vol2026 (2026), No 6. doi:10.1007/s44163-026-01087-5 Details Citation