Dr. Roy Suddaby

Dr. Roy Suddaby, an influential and top cited business scholar, brings his passion for organizational research and teaching to the Gustavson School of Business. Roy serves as the Francis G. Winspear Chair and works with PhD students in the area of organizational analysis.

Roy’s current research seeks to understand how corporations are adapting to changing global norms and expectations. His research focuses on organizational change and where it intersects with business and society. His current research examines the changing role of the multi-national corporation. He is interested in understanding the various ways in which corporations mimic the function and role of the nation state – i.e. corporate art collections, corporate history and museums, corporate universities and corporate social responsibility. His goal is to the find the justification for this behaviour, which goes beyond the financial bottom line and into organizational intangibles such as establishing meaning, values and culture.

Roy is the outgoing editor of the Academy of Management Review and has served as editor or guest editor for several journals. His research can be found in numerous academic journals including the Administrative Sciences Quarterly, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management Studies, and the Academy of Management Journal He has won best paper awards from the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada as well as the Greif Research Impact Award from the Academy of Management. Roy is a recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award by the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada.

In addition, Roy is a strategic research advisor at the University of Newcastle Business School and an honorary professor at Copenhagen Business School.

Suddaby, R. (2019). Objectivity and Truth: The role of the essay in management scholarship. Journal of Management Studies, 56(2), 441–447. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12340

Suddaby, R. (2019). Spiritual Myths of Consumption: Puritanism, Transcendentalism and the Consubstantiation of the American Consumer. Journal of Marketing Management, 35(5-6), 410–426. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2019.1585686

Shepherd, D., Wiklund, J., Wennberg, K., & Suddaby, R. (2019). What are we explaining? A review and agenda on initiating, engaging, performing, and contextualizing entrepreneurship. Journal of Management, 45(1), 159–196. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206318799443

Suddaby, R., Bruton, G. D., & Walsh, J. P. (2018). What we talk about when we talk about inequality: An introduction to the Journal of Management Studies Special Issue. Journal of Management Studies, 55(3), 381–393. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12333

Suddaby, R., Ganzin, M., & Minkus, A. (2018). Craft, Magic and the Re-enchantment of the World. European Management Journal, 35(3), 285–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2017.03.009

Suddaby, R., Bitektine, A., & Haack, P. (2017). Legitimacy. Academy of Management Annals, 1(11), 451–478. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2015.0101

Suddaby, R., & Foster, W. (2017). History and Organizational Change. Journal of Management, 1(43), 19–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316675031

Suddaby, R. (2016). Toward a Historical Consciousness: Following the Historic Turn in Management Thought. M@n@gement, 1(19), 46–60. https://doi.org/10.3917/mana.191.0046

Suddaby, R., Viale, T., & Gendron, Y. (2016). Reflexivity: The role of embedded social position and entrepreneurial social skill in processes of field level change. Research in Organizational Behavior, 1(36), 225–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2016.02.001

Suddaby, R., Bruton, G. D., & Si, S. X. (2015). Entrepreneurship through a Qualitative Lens: Insights on the construction and/or discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunity. Journal of Business Venturing, 30, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2014.09.003

Suddaby, R. (2010). Challenges for Institutional Theory. Journal of Management Inquiry, 19(1), 14–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492609347564

Suddaby, R. (2006). What grounded theory is not. Academy of Management Journal, 49(4), 633–642. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2006.22083020

Suddaby, R., & Greenwood, R. (2005). Rhetorical Strategies of Legitimacy. Science Quarterly, 50(1), 35–67. https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.2005.50.1.35

Editor – Essays Section, Journal of Management Studies, 2015 

Editor – Academy of Management Review, 2011-2014

Associate Editor – Academy of Management Review, 2008-2011

SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship Awards Committee (5C), 2006-2010

Guest Editor – Academy of Management Journal

Guest Editor – Journal of Management Studies

Guest Editor – Journal of Business Venturing

Guest Editor – Accounting, Auditing and Auditability Journal

Professional Development Workshop (PDW) Chair of the Management History division of the Academy of Management (2018)

Honorary Professor at Ritsumeikan University Graduate School of Management, Osaka, Japan (2018)

Thomson Reuters World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds, Business and Economics (2016, 2015, 2014)

Honorary Professor: Copenhagen Business School (2013)

Keynote Speaker: British Academy of Management, Liverpool (2013)

Guest Professor: Uppsala University (2010)

Grief Research Impact Award, USC Marshall School of Business, “Institutional Entrepreneurship…” (2012)

Distinguished Scholar – Organization and Management Theory Division, Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (2012)

Best Paper Award, Administrative Science Quarterly, “Rhetorical Strategies of Legitimacy” (2011)

Best Paper Award, Academy of Management Journal, “Institutional Entrepreneurship …” (2007)

Research Grant: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), 2013, $332,676. “Defining rhetorical history: exploring the work of corporate archivists & historians”, William Foster (Principal Investigator), Roy Suddaby, Maxim Voronov & Elden Weibe. (2013)

Research Grant: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), 2010, $97,266. “Institutional Homology: Explaining Corporate Art”. Roy Suddaby (Principal Investigator) & William Foster. (2010)

• Organizational theory (PhD)

Times Colonist, by Darron Kloster, January, 2015: UVic's Gustavson School of Business lands respected researcher