Florian investigates organizational transformation processes, especially non-organic growth strategies such as Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), from strategic, organizational, and procedural perspectives. Particularly, he investigates how firms should strategically think and organisationally embed M&A to survive in the long run and how firms can effectively manage the acquisition process.

Prior to joining the University of Bristol Business School, he was the Sir Roland Smith Chair in Strategic Management at Lancaster Univeristy management School. Before Lancaster, he was a professor for strategic management at Innsbruck University, lecturer at MCI Management Center Innsbruck, and managing director of the SMA Research Lab.

As engagement plays an important role for him, he regularly exchanges with executives, consultants, and M&A associations. He was actively involved in multiple M&A processes and supported a wide range of firms in developing acquisition strategies and acquisition integration approaches. Since February 2020 he is editor in chief of the M&A Review. Furthermore, he is co-founder and chief research officer of MADiscover GmbH (www.madiscover.com), a start-up company that digitalised M&A screening. 

His research has been published in outlets such as Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of World Business, Long Range Planning, Journal of Business Research, International Business Review, Group and Organization Management, and others, and was awarded with the “M&A Science Award” Germany in 2010 and 2015 and the “Best Paper Award” of the SIG Strategic Management of the European Academy of Management. In 2022 he received the Medal for Research from the British Academy of Management.