Dr. Michael Lustenberger

Work at ZHAW

Position

Senior Lecturer & Researcher

Focus

• Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
• Blockchain Technologies for Business Application
• Industrie 4.0 & Digitale Transformation
• Supply Chain Management
• Lean Management

Teaching

• Operations and Process Management
• Supply Chain Management

Experience

• Supply Chain Manager
  AGROSID Bolivia (Santa Cruz, Bolivia)
  07 / 2012 - 05 / 2015
• External Consultant
  Kimberly-Clark Bolivia (Santa Cruz, Bolivia)
  11 / 2013 - 05 / 2014
• Operations Manager
  AAS Freight AG (Zürich, Switzerland)
  02 / 2009 - 05 / 2012
• Product & Project Manager
  CVA Management & Consulting AG (Zürich, Schweiz)
  09 / 2000 - 05 / 2012

Education and Continuing education

Education

• Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) / Business Administration
  Middlesex University London
  05 / 2015 - 03 / 2023
• Master of Science (MSc) / Operations and Supply Chain Management
  University of Liverpool (UK)
  05 / 2012 - 07 / 2014
• Master of Arts (MA) / History, Political Science & International Law
  University of Zürich
  09 / 2000 - 06 / 2005

Continuing Education

Certificate of Advanced Studies in Higher & Professional Education
ZHAW School of Management & Law
07 / 2017

Network

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1503-6826

Projects

• Exploring Decentralized Governance for NPOs / Co-project leader / ongoing
• Decentralised Decision-Making in DAOs: Learnings for Digital Democracy / Co-project leader / ongoing
• Data Center at Home / Project leader / completed
• Collaborative networks: The evolution of project work in a digital world with DAOs / Co-project leader / completed
• Inno Booster Blockchain Breezing / Deputy project leader / completed
• Self-organization as a driver of e-participation: DAOs and their potential for social participation / Project leader / completed
• Tokenomics framework for the governance of decentralised autonomous organisations / Deputy project leader / completed
• Inno Booster Blockchain FTWinnerdApp / Deputy project leader / completed
• Inno Booster Blockchain DMRV Biogas / Project leader / completed
• Agroforestry Carbon Token System / Project leader / completed
• DAO Radar Switzerland / Deputy project leader / completed
• DAOify - Decentralized Autonomous Organizations / Project leader / completed
• MetaRoom / Deputy project leader / completed
• RightFootForward – Innovative business model with the possibility to donate based on blockchain technology / Co-project leader / completed
• Build-Your-Own DAO – Designing and Implementing a Decentralized Autonomous Organization / Co-project leader / completed
• no1s1 – A house owned by no one but itself / Team member / completed
• Blockchain Technology in Interorganizational Collaboration / Co-project leader / completed
• A Governance Framework for the Swiss Blockchain Ecosystem / Co-project leader / completed
• Supernodes in the dHealth Network / Team member / completed
• Decentralized Registration and Trading Platform for Emission Certificates / Co-project leader / completed
• Expert Group of the Swiss Alliance for Data-intensive (NTN-Network) / Project leader / completed

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

• Wollenschläger, S., & Lustenberger, M. (2026). Self-organization and digital participation : evaluating DAOs and alternative governance models. Information Polity. https://doi.org/10.1177/15701255261421040
• Bassi, E., Lustenberger, M., & Letina, S. (2025). Blockchain-based voluntary carbon market : strategic insights into network structure. Frontiers in Blockchain, 8(1603695). https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2025.1603695
• Lustenberger, M., Wollenschläger, S., & Küng, L. (2025). DAO as digital governance tool for collaborative housing. Frontiers in Blockchain, 8(1523951). https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2025.1523951
• Lustenberger, M., Spychiger, F., Küng, L., Bassi, E., & Wollenschläger, S. (2025). DAO research trends : reflections and learnings from the first European DAO workshop (DAWO). Applied Sciences, 15(7), 3491. https://doi.org/10.3390/app15073491
• Lustenberger, M., Küng, L., & Spychiger, F. (2025). Designing community governance : learnings from DAOs. The Journal of the British Blockchain Association, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.31585/jbba-8-1-(4)2025
• Lustenberger, M., Spychiger, F., Küng, L., & Martignoni, J. (2025). DAOs as property owners : a conceptual exploration from the perspective of organizational system theory. Journal of Organization Design, 14(2), 127–143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41469-025-00186-4
• Lustenberger, M., & Spychiger, F. (2025). Blockchain in supply chains : an unfulfilled promise. Supply Chain Management, 30(2), 178–194. https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-03-2024-0192
• Spychiger, F., Lustenberger, M., Martignoni, J., Schädler, L., & Lehner, P. (2023). Organizing projects with blockchain through a decentralized autonomous organization. Project Leadership and Society, 4(100102). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2023.100102
• Schädler, L., Lustenberger, M., & Spychiger, F. (2023). Analyzing decision-making in blockchain governance. Frontiers in Blockchain, 23(6). https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2023.1256651
• Lustenberger, M., Malešević , S., & Spychiger, F. (2021). Ecosystem readiness : blockchain adoption is driven externally. Frontiers in Blockchain, 4(720454). https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2021.720454
• Malešević, S., Lustenberger, M., & Spychiger, F. (2020). Applying distributed ledger concepts to a Swiss regional label ecosystem. Logistics, 4(32). https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics4040032

Book chapters, peer-reviewed

• Spychiger, F., Lustenberger, M., & Küng, L. (2025). Decision-making in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). In M. Themistocleous (Ed.), Handbook of blockchain technology (pp. 142–163). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803922805.00020
• Lustenberger, M., Spychiger, F., & Taylor, M. (2019). Optimierung des Supply Chain Informationsaustauschs mit Blockchain-Startups. In Digitalisierung in der Praxis : so schaffen KMU den Weg in die Zukunft (pp. 209–221). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26137-5_14

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

• Decentralized autonomous organizations – governance, technology, and legal perspectives : proceedings of the 2nd European DAO Workshop (DAWO), Zürich, Switzerland, 2025. (2025). In M. Lustenberger, F. Spychiger, & L. Küng (Eds.), 2nd European DAO Workshop (DAWO), Zurich, Switzerland, 23-24 June 2025. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-03273-7
• Küng, L., Lustenberger, M., & Spychiger, F. (2024, September 13). Decision-making in a more-than-human world. Blockchain Kaigi, Zurich, Switzerland, 12-13 September 2024.
• Lustenberger, M., Spychiger, F., & Küng, L. (2024, April 30). Designing a decentralized autonomous organization. ECIS 2024 Proceedings. https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2024/track16_fintech/track16_fintech/6/
• Martignoni, J., Spychiger, F., Lustenberger, M., & Lehner, P. (2023). Decentralizing project management by a DAO : a first attempt. 23rd EURAM Annual Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 14-16 June 2023.
• Spychiger, F., & Lustenberger, M. (2022). Decision-making in blockchains. 22nd EURAM Annual Conference, Winterthur, Switzerland, 15-17 June 2022. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-25564
• Lustenberger, M., Spychiger, F., & Malešević, S. (2020). Towards a better understanding of the value of blockchains in supply chain management [Conference paper]. Information Systems : 16th European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern Conference, Proceedings, 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44322-1_8

Other publications

• Lustenberger, M., Spychiger, F., Küng, L., & Cuadra, P. (2024). Mastering DAOs : a practical guidebook for building and managing decentralized autonomous organizations (2nd revised edition). ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-2543
• Lustenberger, M., Spychiger, F., Küng, L., Bassi, E., & Wollenschläger, S. (2024). DAO research trends : reflections and learnings from the first European DAO Workshop (DAWO). SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4944742
• Lustenberger, M., & Spychiger, F. (2019). Blockchain als Grundlage des Informationsaustausches. Fokus Swiss. https://fokus.swiss/2019/07/03/blockchain-als-grundlage-des-informationsaustausches/
• Heim, E., Miszak, F., & Lustenberger, M. (2017). Zero Inventory – ein überholtes Konzept? : sind tiefe Lagerbestände wirklich ertragssteigernd? Zeitschrift für wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb, 112(10), 666–669. https://doi.org/10.3139/104.111805
• Ehrat, M., & Lustenberger, M. (2016). Risiko von “Industrie 4.0”. Competence, 2010(7), 34–36. https://www.zhaw.ch/storage/sml/ueber-uns/sml-magazin-competence-nr7.pdf

Oral conference contributions and abstracts

• Lustenberger, M. (2018). Blockchain-Technologie im Supply Chain Management. F&E-Konferenz zu Industrie 4.0, Brugg-Windisch, 15. Januar 2018. http://www.industrie2025.ch/agenda/fe-konferenz-2018.html
• Lustenberger, M. (2017). Blockchain-Technologie in Supply Chain Management. Zweite F&E Konferenz zur Industrie 4.0, Winterthur, 11. Januar 2017.

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