Frederik Pfretzschner

After graduating with an M.Sc. in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, I returned to Heriot-Watt University in 2016 to undertake a part time PhD. At the same time, I am working as a project manager at the International Supply Chain Association (BVL) based in Bremen, Germany. 

Prior to joining Heriot-Watt, I completed a multi-year traineeship in the field of logistics and transportation and obtained an undergraduate degree in transport economics from the German Academy for Foreign Trade and Logistic (DAV) in Bremen. In addition, I gained work experience with a globally operating shipping company and worked as project manager for automotive logistics with a leading German contract logistics provider.

My PhD research is supervised by Prof. Christine Rutherford and Prof. Kate Sang and focuses on innovation in 3PL service providers. Considering that the logistics industry is thought of to be not very innovative, my research predominantly aims to find out how the capability of 3PL service providers to develop new service innovations can be enhanced. In this context, I am particularly interested in the role of knowledge and organizational learning and how these concepts enable the creation of new logistics services.