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Mi­chael Mol

Professor

Subjects
Management Strategy Outsourcing Social responsibility Multinational company Africa

Primary research areas

Outsourcing and offshoring

I am interested in firm decisions to outsource or offshore activities and the consequences this has, including for corporate social responsibility.

Management innovation

I work on how organizations create and implement new management practices (including organizational structures, processes and management techniques).

Geopolitics

My work investigates how firms can create strategies to effectively handle geopolitics, including geotechnopolitics.

Strategy in Africa

I do work on strategies firms can employ in an African context, including work on informal firms.

Inequality

My research addresses the effect of firm level decisions on inequality outcomes.

My research provides decision-makers with strategies for a VUCA world

My research seeks to help decision-makers better understand a number of strategic challenges currently faced by firms, including such questions as: 

How can organizations create the new management practices they need for today? 

What are the consequences of using outsourcing and offshoring strategies for various outcomes, including corporate social (ir)responsibility? 

What are good ways for firms and policy makers to handle the impact of geopolitical changes? 

What drives decision-makers of informal firms to consider formalization? 

How do decisions by firms affect inequality outcomes faced by individuals? 

My work has significant impact on both academic thinking (for instance around 10,000 citations and receiving recognitions such as the Academy of Management Review best article award) and practice (through a variety of (social) media and uptake of our ideas in practice and around 20,000 learners around the world using our teaching case on Apple annually). I am also deeply engaged in the use of board games as a learning technology. 

Recent research projects

Offshore outsourcing and CSIR

We investigate in what ways managerial attention can reduce media attention to CSIR.

Decisions to formalize firms

We investigate how a firm’s financial and social performance relative to its expectations affects formalization.

Firms and inequality

There is significant wage inequality based on race. We investigate whether, and in what ways, employing black managers affects the wage inequality that black workers face in Brazil.

Outside activities

Executive activities, 2019–present

I have a small business for executive education and consulting activities undertaken inside and outside Denmark