Following two successful symposia on the topic at past AOM editions, we are looking forward to continuing our conversation with a Professional Development Workshop on "Contemporary Research on Addressing Societal Challenges" at this year's Academy of Management.
This PDW brings together renowned scholars to share their complementary perspectives and provide research directions for the management field to examine solutions to societal challenges. Despite increasing attention by management scholars to the study of societal challenges and the progress made by promoting sustainability and responsibility in the private sector, societal challenges have worsened. Moreover, ambiguity and backlash from policymakers and institutions regarding the SDGs reduce the motivation of profit-driven firms to address these challenges. Questions we want to discuss include: How can stakeholder governance effectively address societal problems across different institutional environments? How can prosocial behavior thrive in firms, and how can digital platforms foster such behavior? What are the challenges that AI imposes on firms' commitments to solve societal challenges, and how can firms maneuver diverse (often contrary) stakeholder expectations about critical social issues in a polarized world? How can we organize collective action to address societal challenges while accounting for political and market failures?
This year's panelists include: Paul Adler (U. of Southern California), Oana Branzei (Ivey Business School, Western U.), Flore Bridoux (Erasmus U. Rotterdam), Sinziana Dorobantu (NYU Stern), Rodolphe Durand (HEC Paris), Claudine Gartenberg (Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania), Gerard George (Georgetown U.), Dovev Lavie (Bocconi U.), Joseph Mahoney (U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Kerstin Neumann (U. of Innsbruck)
Organizers: Dovev Lavie (Bocconi U.) and Kerstin Neumann (U. of Innsbruck)
To save your spot and to help us pre-assign participants to panelists based on shared interests and preferences, please register here: https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/congress/aom-pdw-contemporary-research-on-addressing-societal-challenges/
Sponsored by the STR Division, this PDW is relevant for scholars of various division groups and will provide a vibrant, space for (early career) scholars to interact with leading experts and to develop their research ideas with the guidance of our experts, as well as to effectively integrate their research on societal challenges into mainstream strategy and organization theories. The 2026 workshop will feature:
- a moderated panel discussion in which each panelist will briefly share their perspective on societal challenges and highlight their latest research, aiming at unearthing new perspectives and theoretical/empirical considerations, followed by a short Q&A with participants.
- interactive roundtable discussions facilitated by the panelists around their topics in which pre-registered participants can discuss their own work-in-progress, while drawing on diverse theories and empirical approaches.
- a final conversation in which outcomes from each roundtable will be shared with the plenary, with discussion of potential contributions and interlinkages among the different perspectives on societal challenges and their respective solutions.
We look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia.
Kerstin Neumann
University of Innsbruck
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Kerstin Neumann
Universität Innsbruck
Innsbruck
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