Dr Sarah Stephen PhD
Lecturer in Strategy & Business Ethics Strategy, IB and Entrepreneurship
About
Personal Statement
I recently joined the SIBE group as Lecturer of Strategy & Business Ethics. Prior to this, I was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of St Gallen (Switzerland), where I was also a Lecturer in Contextual Studies. I received my PhD in Economics (specialising in Management) from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), where I was a Graduate Assistant and an FNS-funded Researcher. In addition to my academic qualifications in Management, I have a multidisciplinary undergraduate and postgraduate background, encompassing life and physical sciences, environmental sciences, and English & French literature.
My research is generally at the interface of society and the environment and organisations (particularly, the financial services). I am specifically interested in environmental responsibility/performance, responsible investing/ESG, climate action, and ethical decision-making. I often draw from, and contribute to, organisational theory, particularly on organisational fields, institutional change, and institutional entrepreneurship. I have also researched on the quality of qualitative research.
My teaching interests mirror my research interests. I will be teaching Global Capitalist Systems in the spring semester. At the University of St Gallen, I was teaching (2020-2023) a course which I designed: Corporations, Finance, and the World. The course, which was open to students from all postgraduate programmes, was included as an optional course in the university's CEMS (Master in International Management offered by a global alliance of business schools) portfolio. At St Gallen, I also supervise MA theses from the Banking and Finance, Accounting and Finance, and Strategic and International Management programmes. Prior to this, I was the course assistant of "Environmental Crisis and Societal Change" (M.Sc), "Business and Society" (EMBA), “Unethical Decision Making in Organizations” (M.Sc, and online), Approche Générale du Management, and Introduction à l'éthique des affaires (B.Sc), all at the University of Lausanne.
My professional activities include blogging on research or recent news relating to environment or health and editing and administering the blog of https://businessandsociety.orgBusiness & Society journal. I also chair the Membership Committee of the Social Issues in Management division of the Academy of Management. I was also recently elected as the Representative-at-Large of the division.