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Jette Steen Knud­sen

Professor

Subjects
Employment Sustainability Politics ESG Internationalisation Social responsibility

Primary research areas

The re­la­tion­ship between gov­ern­ment reg­u­la­tion and cor­por­ate sustain­ability
I study how gov­ern­ments chan­nel mar­ket pres­sures to strengthen—or at least not harm—so­cial and en­vir­on­ment­al con­di­tions. My re­search asks: how do gov­ern­ments design policies, and how do firms re­spond to them?
Gov­ern­ment policies for cor­por­ate sustain­ability
One new pro­ject ex­am­ines the grow­ing di­ver­gence between US and EU reg­u­la­tion: EU Di­versity, Equity, and In­clu­sion (DEI) man­dates vs. Trump 2.0’s DEI ban, EU Green Deal sup­port for re­new­ables vs. US roll­backs, and how mul­tina­tion­als nav­ig­ate these con­flict­ing frame­works.
Com­pany CSR policies
An­oth­er stream of re­search ex­am­ines the or­gan­iz­a­tion of com­pany-level CSR activ­it­ies. I also ex­am­ine how su­per­vis­ory boards man­age sustain­ability chal­lenges and op­por­tun­it­ies.
ESG and im­pact on en­vir­on­ment­al per­form­ance
Do cor­por­ate gov­ernance mech­an­isms and ESG im­prove en­vir­on­ment­al per­form­ance and if so why/why not?

I seek to un­der­stand how gov­ern­ments can chan­nel mar­ket pres­sures to strengthen - or at least not harm - so­cial and en­vir­on­ment­al con­di­tions in a highly glob­al­ized busi­ness en­vir­on­ment.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF MY SCHOLARSHIP   

I have written two scholarly books: Visible Hands:  Government Regulation of Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Business (Cambridge University Press with Jeremy Moon 2017); one in Danish (DJOEF Publishing with Torben Pedersen, Rikke Kolbech, Ole Kirkelund and Jacob Pyndt, Globalization Begins at Home, 2006)). 

I have also written 24 academic articles in the leading peer-reviewed business in society journals: Business Ethics Quarterly and  Journal of Business Ethics (in the Financial Times top 50 business school journal  rankings) and leading peer-reviewed comparative politics/public policy/comparative political economy journals such as British Journal of Industrial Relations, Journal of European Public Policy, Policy and Politics, Political Studies, Regulation and Governance, European Journal of Industrial Relations and Comparative Political Studies.  

I have edited two special issues inleading journals: Regulation and Governance and Journal of Management Studies (forthcoming). 

I have written 12 book chapters (peer-reviewed).  Four more chapters are forthcoming that focus on the role of government and corporate sustainability (including one with Cambridge University Press and one with Oxford University Press). 

Publications

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4 November 2025

Media Portrayals of Post-Rana Plaza CSR Initiatives for Worker Safety

Perspectives on Legitimacy From Bangladesh, the UK and the USA

Jet­te Ste­en Knud­sen, Professor

Erin Leit­hei­ser, Part-time Lecturer

Je­re­my Moon, Professor

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2 April 2025

Trump vil bestemme europæiske virksomheder personalepolitik

Jet­te Ste­en Knud­sen, Professor

Go to publication

28 January 2025

Trumps diversitetsopgør smitter af på virksomheder

Jet­te Ste­en Knud­sen, Professor

Go to publication

Outside activities

CBS Ex­ec­ut­ive , 2020 -

Teach­ing in the Found­a­tion Board Pro­gram (on sustain­ability in the board room)

Balt­ic Man­age­ment Edu­ca­tion , 2024 -

Teach­ing in the Balt­ic Man­age­ment Edu­ca­tion Pro­gram (on sustain­ability in the board room)

SASE mini-con­fer­ence , 2025 - 2026

Co-or­gan­izer: SASE mini-con­fer­ence MC06: Or­gan­iz­a­tions, Sustain­ability Back­lash and the “War on Woke” (Bor­deaux 1-3 July 2025)