Sophie Quach is a Research Associate at Kühne Logistics University. She has a background in business psychology (B.Sc. at Leuphana University of Lüneburg with a semester abroad at University of Queensland, Australia) and international development (M.A. at Univeristy of Vienna). Sophie is about to finish her PhD in Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Vienna under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke.

Her research strives to advance our understanding of how to govern user innovations that are freely revealed as commons. Specifically, Sophie looks at how user innovators and firms can both benefit from their complementary objectives, roles and resources in joint innovation processes. She has presented her work at several peer-reviewed international conferences, including the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, DRUID, EGOS and OUI. In 2023, she was a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, hosted by Prof. Dietmar Harhoff, PhD.

In addition to her research, Sophie taught a number of project-based classes on undergraduate and graduate level, jointly conducted with multinational firms or research institutions. Amongst others, she conducted technology transfer projects for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and intrapreneurship projects for RHI Magnesita. Other classes are "Garage", in which students learn to build their own (lean) startup from initial idea to pitching it to investors, Academic Writing and debating classes.

Before starting her academic career, Sophie worked on different projects for the Otto Group; part-time during her undergraduate studies, during which she received the "Otto Group scholarship", including two internships and financial support, as well as full-time in between her undergraduate and graduate studies. Moreover, she gained experience as a workshop instructor for Austrian National Bank (OeNb) and the Vienna Business Agency, as an assistant to the foreign correspondent for South East Asia for the German public broadcasting service (ARD) and as a badminton coach, assisting in activities of the Austrian youth national team.