Sub-Plenary 1-4

Creating Desirable Futures: Challenges and Prospects for Organizational Scholars

 

Thursday, July 3, 2025, 14:00–15:30 EEST

Room:  Deree – 7th Level Auditorium


Organizers:
Ali Aslan Gümüsay, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
Emilio Marti, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands
 
Panelists:
Andrew W. Crane, University of Bath, United Kingdom
Laura Marie Edinger-Schons, University of Hamburg, Germany
Mette Morsing, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Juliane Reinecke, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Georges Romme, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
André Spicer, Bayes Business School, City, University of London, United Kingdom
 

More and more organizational scholars describe their role not just in terms of interpreting social phenomena, but as contributing to the creation of more desirable futures. Yet, helping to create desirable futures involves serious challenges: from normative questions about what futures are desirable in the first place to practical questions about how organizational scholars can redefine their roles. In this sub-plenary, we explore three approaches to creating desirable futures – by doing research, by transforming business schools, and by engaging in outreach activities – and critically discuss the challenges associated with each approach.

1. Researching desirable futures

The basic challenge for research on desirable futures is that no data is available about the future yet. Traditional ways of doing research therefore often fall short when it comes to researching desirable futures. Two leading organizational scholars outline how they deal with this challenge.

  • Juliane Reinecke argues for a paradigm shift in the way organization scholars construct theory: rather than theorizing the empirical past, she elaborates on the possibility of prospective theorizing – a future-oriented approach to theorizing that is concerned with imagining and co-creating desirable futures by adopting a pragmatist, preparatory and prefigurative orientation to theory construction.

  • Georges Romme explains how design science methodology enables scholars to not only study, but also (help) create desirable futures. He will outline a typical design science cycle and illustrate it with various new tools and practices that were created and tested with this cycle.

 

2. Transforming business schools to advance desirable futures

Many business schools focus on teaching their students knowledge, skills, and attitudes that the market may need, without systematic considerations about what knowledge, skills, and attitudes is needed to create more desirable futures. In the sub-plenary, two leading scholars therefore the role that business schools can play in creating desirable futures.

  • André Spicer draws on his experience as the Dean of Bayes Business School, City, University of London, to reflect on how business schools can influence the career trajectories of their students.

  • Laura Marie Edinger-Schons shares her experiences as Chief Sustainability Officer of the Universität Hamburg. She reflects on the ongoing paradigm shift in universities in general and business school specifically, which in many ways mimics the ongoing shift from profit to purpose orientation in the business world.

 

3. Outreach activities to advance desirable futures

For research insights to influence practice and thereby foster desirable futures, organizational scholars need to reach out to non-academic audiences. Yet, scholars often lack the skills for outreach activities or struggle with translation difficulties. Two leading scholars outline how they deal with these challenges.

  • Mette Morsing speaks about her work at UN PRME and now as Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment in Oxford.

  • Andrew W. Crane reflects on how he tries to make his research insights accessible to non-academic audiences for topics such as modern slavery.


The sub-plenary’s format includes an introduction by the organizers (10 minutes); six statements (15 minutes each) by the panelists; a moderated discussion amongst the panelists and with the audience (30 minutes); and a farewell by the organizers (5 minutes).
 

Biographies

Andrew W. Crane is Professor of Business and Society at the University of Bath, United Kingdom. His research focuses on issues such as modern slavery, the political role of business, cross-sector partnerships, and CSR communication. On these issues, Andrew consults standard setting organizations and speaks regularly to leading media, such as the BBC or Financial Times.
 
Laura Marie Edinger-Schons is Professor of Sustainable Business at the University of Hamburg, Germany. She is also a member of the Executive Board of the University of Hamburg as Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of the Sustainability Office. Until November 2022, she was Professor of Sustainable Business and Vice-President Sustainability and Information Provision at the University of Mannheim, Germany. In her research, Laura Marie focuses on how organizations can contribute to sustainable development, especially through purpose, participation, and impact measurement.
 
Ali Aslan Gümüsay is Professor of Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Sustainability at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany, and Head of Research Group Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Society at the Humboldt Institute for Internet & Society Berlin. His research focuses on (1) values, meaning and hybridity in entrepreneurship; (2) grand challenges, sustainability and new forms of organizing; (3) digitalization, management and innovation; as well as (4) impact, scholarship and futures.
 
Emilio Marti is an Associate Professor at the Rotterdam School of Management, The Netherlands. He uses insights from organization theory and strategy research to analyze how different types of shareholders influence corporate sustainability, with a particular interest in sustainable investing. Emilio’s research has been published in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management Studies, or Organization Science and practitioner outlets such as HBR.org.
 
Mette Morsing is Professor of Business Sustainability at the University of Oxford, Director of the Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and Environment, fellow at St Edmund Hall and Honorary Member of Magdalen College, United Kingdom. She has published on sustainability topics in Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, Human Relations, Organization, Journal of Business Research, among others. Mette previously served the United Nations as Head of Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), UN Global Compact, in New York, USA, a role she held from 2020–2023.
 
Juliane Reinecke is Professor of Management Studies and Sustainability Lead at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom as well as Senior Associate at Oxford Net Zero. She focuses on theoretical questions around impactful theories, desirable futures and temporality. Juliane’s empirical research focuses on the formation of transnational governance institutions for sustainable business and global value chains, such as through multi-stakeholder initiatives, collective action, and social movements. Juliane serves as Associate Editor of the Academy of Management Journal.
 
Georges Romme is a Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. Most of his research draws on a design science approach that combines creative design with rigorous science. Georges has published in Organization Science, ET&P, SMJ, JMS, Research Policy, Technovation, and many other journals incl. HBR.org. He received the Distinguished Scholar-Practitioner Award of the Academy of Management. His monograph “The Quest for Professionalism” received the EURAM’s Best Book Award in 2017.
 
André Spicer is the Executive Dean of Bayes Business School, City, University of London, United Kingdom, where he is also a Professor of Organisational Behaviour. André is an expert in the areas of Organisational Behaviour, Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility, and has published his work on these topics in both academic articles and several books, including “The Stupidity Paradox” (profile), “Metaphors we Lead By” (Routledge), “The Wellness Syndrome” (Polity), “Business Bullshit” (Routledge) and “Desperately Seeking Self Improvement” (OR).