Roy Suddaby

Biography

Roy Suddaby is the Francis G. Winspear Chair of Management at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, Canada. He also is a visiting professor of entrepreneurship at the Carson College of Business, Washington State University, USA and professor of organizational theory at Liverpool University Management School, UK. He is also an adjunct professor at IAE Business School, Argentina, and distinguished visiting professor at the Hasakyne School of Business, University of Calgary and at the Telfer School of Business, University of Ottawa.

Professor Suddaby is an internationally regarded scholar of organizational theory and institutional change. His work has contributed to our understanding of the critical role of symbolic resources—legitimacy, authenticity, identity and history—in improving an organization’s competitive position. His current research examines the changing social and symbolic role of the modern corporation and the intersection of craft and science in innovation. 

Roy is currently an Associate Editor at Academy of Management Perspectives and an Associate Editor, theory, at Human Resources Management Journal. Roy is a past editor of the Academy of Management Review and is or has been an editorial board member of the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Theory, and the Journal of Business Venturing. 

Roy is a Director of the Quest Health Institute based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Teaching

Courses taught

• Qualitative Methods (PhD)
• Organization Theory (PhD)

Selected publications

Suddaby, R., Schultz, W.S., Wood, G., Markman, G. & Weber, L. (2023) Management Policy and Practice: A Guide to Writing for AMP. Academy of Management Perspectives https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2023.0283

Suddaby, R., Ng, W., Vershinina, N., Markham, G. & Cadbury, M. (2023). Sacralization and the Intergenerational Transmission of Values in Cadbury. Family Business Review, 36(3), 296-314. https://doi.org/10.1177/08944865231188788

Suddaby, R., Israelsen, T., Bastien, F., Saylors, R. & Coraiola, D. (2023) Rhetorical History as Institutional Work. Journal of Management Studies https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12860

Suddaby, R., Israelsen, T., Mitchell, R. & Lim, D. (2023). Entrepreneurial Visions as Rhetorical History: A Diegetic Narrative Model of Stakeholder Enrollment. Academy of Management Review, 48(2), 220-243. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2020.0010

Bailey, C. & Suddaby, R. (2023). When time falls apart: Re-centering human time in organizations through the lived experience of waiting. Organization Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406231166807

Awards & grants

Recognition & awards

Professor Suddaby has won best paper awards from the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly and the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada. He has received the Greif Research Impact Award in Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California, the John F. Mee Award [twice] and the Julia Teahan Award from the Management History Division of the US Academy of Management. 

Roy is a Fellow of the US Academy of Management, a Distinguished International Scholar of the Irish Academy of Management, a JMI scholar of the US Western Academy of Management and a Member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada. Roy is a Board Member of the Society of Advanced Management Studies (UK). From 2014 to 2017 Roy was recognized by Thompson Reuters as one of the Most Influential Minds in Business and Economics.

Grants

• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), 2021. $209,395.00 “We are what we eat: Legitimacy and Identity contestation in the emerging field of alternative meat”.  Roy Suddaby & Joel Baum.

• Lee Chin Institute Research Grants, Rotman School of Business, 2020, $7,500. “What’s the Beef? The emerging contest over the legitimacy of meat.” Joel Baum (Toronto) & Roy Suddaby (Victoria).