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Ver­ena Girschik

Associate Professor

Topics
Strategy Medicine Sustainability Partnership Social responsibility

Primary research areas

Strategies for societal problems

My research examines companies’ market and non-market strategies for addressing societal problems. I study how companies communicate and coordinate their roles and responsibilities within ecosystems of local and global stakeholders, and how these interactions shape outcomes for both business and society.

Change from within

My research examines how people change the companies they work for from within. I am particularly interested in how employees bring societal issues into corporate politics, organize and mobilize around them, and negotiate and reshape corporate responsibilities from the bottom up.

Collaboration in societal crises

My research examines how companies contribute to collective action in response to societal crises. I focus on how people work across organizational and sectoral boundaries, with particular attention to the intricate interactions and “machine-room” dynamics through which collaborations are built and sustained in practice.

I research and teach how business can contribute responsibly to societal change.

My research examines how companies participate in societal change—how they work with societal problems and crises, and how people within and around companies seek to transform business from within. Zooming in on the relations between companies, governments, NGOs, employees, and other societal actors, I explore how corporate roles and responsibilities are negotiated, put into practice, and reshaped, and with what consequences for business and society. I conduct in-depth qualitative studies that dive into novel phenomena, particularly around employee activism and collaboration across organizational boundaries.

My research has been published in Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, and Business & Society, among others. I serve as an Associate Editor for Business & Society and on the editoral review board of Journal of Management Studies. My academic work has affected and been cited by reputed international organizations, such as the Aspen Institute and the International Labour Organization. 

I am deeply passionate about developing the next generation of scholars, among others by teaching the PhD course Case-Study Approach to Theory Building.

Recent research projects

CBS HUMAC: Private-Sector Engagement in Humanitarian Action

HUMAC — funded by Velux Fonden — researches business–humanitarian collaboration, exploring how partnerships can be organized effectively, ethically, and sustainably.
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Outside activities

I have no outside employments or activities