The AIB Sustainability Shared Interest Group

Academic Career in Sustainability: A Workshop for PhDs and ECRs

Pursuing an academic career in sustainability, especially paired with international business, remains challenging since the domain itself is still in its infancy. However, universities, business schools, and other stakeholders are changing and embracing this paradigm shift. Given that sustainability is a wide and emerging field, PhD students may wonder how to build a “sustainable career,” given the interdisciplinary nature of the field, its normative diversity, and rapid development.

In our workshop, four early-career scholars (all of whom are Sustainability SIG officers) shed light on their learning journeys, discussing diverse pathways, challenges, and building blocks of their careers. The speakers welcome an interactive debate with the audience, sharing insights about success and failures as well as best practice advice on building impactful careers as engaged scholars in the field.

Date: March 2^nd (2-3.30pm UTC), virtual

Registration: click here

Speakers:

Sarah Ku is currently a PhD candidate at Georgia State University. She will be joining Loyola University Chicago as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Sustainable Business Management in Fall 2022. Her research examines sustainability and equity in business, with a particular focus on organizational food waste and circular strategies. She advocates for biomimicry, which is a concept that imitates strategies found in nature to solve human problems. She uses this approach to seek business solutions that work for all stakeholders and not just shareholders. Her dissertation research examines limitations of current business theories to explain the universal global phenomenon of organizational food waste. She utilizes a multiple case study approach to develop grounded theory of stakeholder governance in the context of organizational food waste management. Her overarching research objective is to explore how sustainable strategies can become standard business practice through mindful, equitable, and collaborative cooperations to advance the needs of all stakeholders.

Marc Oberhauser is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Management at ESCP Business School, Madrid. Before joining ESCP Business School in 2021, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of International Management at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, with which he is still affiliated. Marc holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration and Management from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. His teaching experience covers Sustainability, International Management & Marketing, and Research Methods. Marc's research interests comprise international business and emerging markets. In his research, Marc aims at integrating sustainability-related topics within the International Business domain and thereby bridging the gap between sustainability- and IB-research. Exemplary studies focus on CSR diffusion along Global Value Chains, CSR orientations in India, and Ethical attitudes in Russia. In addition, Marc has a particular interest in critical management studies, investigating the downsides of for example corporate operation or global initiatives. For instance, he works on the topic of corporate misconduct of multinational enterprises. Marc regularly serves as an ad hoc reviewer for several academic journals, and is a Committee Officer of the AIB Sustainability SIG.

Marina Schmitz serves as Lecturer at the Coca-Cola Chair of Sustainable Development at IEDC-Bled School of Management in Bled, Slovenia. She draws on several years of work experience as a Lecturer, Research Associate, and Project Manager at the Center for Advanced Sustainable Management (CASM) at the CBS International Business School in Cologne, Germany. Marina is passionate about challenging the status quo of how we understand and teach economy and management-related content to our students. To accomplish this goal and to create a more inclusive and sustainable society and business environment, she seeks the exchange with fellow educators and practitioners. She is currently involved in various international research projects dedicated to innovative pedagogy and engaged scholarship and pursuing her doctorate at the Chair of Human Resources Management and Asian Business at the University of Göttingen, where she also worked as a Research Associate for several years.

Haitao Yu is a post-doctoral researcher at emlyon business school. Haitao conducts research on organizations and sustainable development through the lens of place and space, using ethnographic and visual methods. He has conducted fieldwork with a luxury enterprise in a Tibetan nomadic village and a natural heritage organization in an Indigenous community on the border between Ontario and Michigan. His research has appeared in Strategic Organization and leading global academic conferences. Haitao obtained his PhD in Sustainability from Ivey Business School in Canada. He holds an MSc in Sustainable Development from HEC Paris in France, a BA in Economics, and a double degree in French from the University of International Business and Economics in China.

Co-Chairs:

John Dilyard is Professor in the Management & Information Technology and Interdisciplinary Studies Departments at St. Francis College, Brooklyn, New York. He is a Co-Chair of the Sustainability Shared Interest Group in the Academy of International Business. He earned his PhD from Rutgers University, has an MBA from the Wharton School, an MA from American University and a BA from the College of Wooster. He is the principal contact at St. Francis College for the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN) and its Community of Practice. His research interests include investigating how the private sector can best contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals and what pedagogical approaches are best to teach sustainable development at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Shasha Zhao is Associate Professor of International Business and Innovation at Surrey University Business School. Dr. Zhao is a Co-Chair of AIB Sustainability Shared Interest Group. Her research focuses on MNE innovation and knowledge management, and impact on sustainable development. She has published in journals including Journal of World Business, International Business Review, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Human Resource Management Journal, among others. Dr Zhao is editing a Special Issue in International Business Review on: MNE Innovation for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and a Special Issue in AIB Insights (official AIB journal) on: Managing Sustainable Development in International Business. She also edited a Special Issue entitled: Do MNEs contribute to, or reduce inequality?, in Critical Perspectives on International Business. Her paper on MNE innovation and knowledge hierarchy won a prestigious research award.