Thematic interests
Theme 1: Responses to Global Challenges
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Since my student years, I have had a keen interest in how businesses, states and other actors tackle global development challenges, such as poverty, education, migration, healthcare and climate change. My interest was sparked by my favorite professor at Free University Berlin - development expert and world traveler Dieter Weiss, whose vivid stories inspired me to become a UNICEF volunteer in Nepal. The picture shows me with the chair of a local partner NGO in Lekhnath Municipality, where I also stayed. Coming back to Berlin, I wrote my Master's thesis on public private partnerships in development. Since then, I have mainly studied sustainability standards in coffee - their emergence, interaction and diffusion. With my colleague Juliane Reinecke I discovered how the modular principle has promoted sustainable practice across idiosyncratic local contexts.
With my appointment as Professor of Strategy and Innovation at University of Sussex in 2019, I have begun to pursue this theme more systematically, building collaborations with the Institute of Development Studies and the Science Policy Research Unit. I also worked with the consulting group Climate Focus on a study of sustainable practices in cocoa. Thanks to the RM Phillips Foundation, I was able in 2020 to design a PhD scholarship around "Strategic Responses to Grand Societal Challenges" and the Sustainable Development Goals. I also co-founded, together with Dr. Steven Brieger, the Responsible Business Research Group. We host regular seminars (see Events). More to come. Stay tuned!
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Of course, ever since I got interested in development I have wrestled with a fundamental question: How is my mindset shaped by my upbringing and sense of entitlement as a privileged white guy? I have no easy answer for that, but I try to follow my role model Dieter Weiss, who taught me to engage in the world with curiosity, humility and humanity.
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Theme 2: Global Value Chains and Development
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After my PhD, I spontaneously moved from Germany to the United States to join Arie Lewin's Offshoring Research Network at Duke University as a research associate. This project deepened my interest in how developing countries can participate in and benefit from global value chains. Together with colleagues from the US and Europe, I studied global sourcing of knowledge work, the emergence of global delivery models, hidden costs of offshoring and client-supplier dynamics. I also developed the concept of knowledge services clusters to describe new service hubs in developing countries.
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Later, I developed a keen interest in how sub-Saharan Africa can benefit from global outsourcing. In particular my trip to Kenya in 2012, where I stayed with my colleague and friend Marcus Larsen and his partner Githa Kurdahl, started a longer-term journey of Africa-centered studies. First I focused on the outsourcing industry in Kenya and South Africa. I took the above picture when I visited KenCall, one of Kenya's leading call centers at that time. Later I started researching a trend called "impact sourcing" as well as various forms of social entrepreneurship (see below). I co-authored an article on business research on Africa and I am involved in a special issue on Chinese foreign direct investment in Africa. I also organized and co-sponsored several workshops on Africa and development. For more details see About Me.
Theme 3: Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
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My youngest theme builds on the other two and focuses on new social business models and ecosystems supporting them. My starting point for this theme was my random encounter with "impact sourcing" in Kenya - the hiring and training of disadvantaged youth for global business services. Together with my former PhD student Chacko Kannothra and other colleagues I have studied impact sourcing strategies and growth challenges. In 2020, I further launched a collaboration with the Maharishi Institute in South Africa, which specializes in educating, training and placing disadvantaged youth. More on that in Engagements.
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Later I expanded the social innovation theme by studying new forms of social entrepreneurship together with my PhD student Stas Vavilov, who is collaborating with the MIT-owned agency D-Lab. Related to that, I did field studies in Rwanda and Uganda in 2018, to study new social business models.
During my field trips, I had the chance to meet various fascinating social businesses and ecosystem support agencies. Many of them specialize in training entrepreneurs from disadvantaged communities. Examples include: Inkomoko, a consulting firm that trains refugee entrepreneurs in Rwanda; Design without Borders, an agency that operates in Uganda and specializes in teaching human-centred design concepts across products and services (see picture of a board game they use to teach farmers); and the Social Innovation Academy (SINA) in Uganda, which trains marginalized youth to become social entrepreneurs through a unique community concept. More on SINA in Initiatives.
In 2021, I added another exciting theme, which will guide my work both as an academic and filmmaker: the role of so-called impact film production in affecting social change. Films are increasingly used to change people's minds and behaviors, and to influence policy and education. One example is the Academy-award winning film Roma which was used to push for better legal protection of domestic workers (one central theme of the film) in both Mexico and the U.S. Further examples of impact production are provided in the Impact Field Guide by Doc Society. I am interested in studying the process and challenges of impact film production, while also participating in projects.
More about my work can be found in About Me, Publications, Initiatives, Films, Blogs and Events. Enjoy!