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Ver­ena Girschik

Associate Professor

Subjects
Strategy Medicine Sustainability Partnership Social responsibility

Primary research areas

Busi­ness and so­ci­et­al change
Study­ing com­pan­ies’ mar­ket and non-mar­ket strategies in ad­dress­ing so­ci­et­al prob­lems
In­sider so­cial change agents
Study­ing how people trans­form the com­pan­ies they work for from the in­side out
Busi­ness and hu­man­it­ari­an­ism
Study­ing private-sec­tor en­gage­ment in hu­man­it­ari­an ac­tion, en­com­passing the chal­lenges, op­por­tun­it­ies, mo­tiv­a­tions, and mod­al­it­ies in­volved.

Re­search in­sights for em­power­ing change­makers to trans­form busi­ness and so­ci­ety

My research focuses on the responsibilities of multinational companies in the context of complex societal problems and humanitarian crises. Zooming in on the relations between companies, governments, NGOs, and other societal actors, I explore how companies negotiate their roles and responsibilities, how they perform them, and with what consequences. I am passionate about conducting in-depth qualitative studies that dive into novel phenomena, especially in the areas of employee activism and business-humanitarian collaboration.  

My research has been published in Business & Society, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management Studies, and Human Relations, among others. I serve as an Associate Editor for Business & Society. 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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