Dr. Roy Suddaby

Roy Suddaby is the Winspear Chair of Management at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, Canada. He also holds the Chair in Organization Theory at the Management School at the University of Liverpool, UK an Honorary Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and is an adjunct Professor at Ritsumeikan University, Japan.

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 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, and the Journal of Business Venturing. 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 was recently named JMI Scholar by the Western Academy of Management. Thompson Reuters identified Roy as one of the world’s most highly cited researchers in business and economics in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Journal publications

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

Recognition & Awards

 Grants

• "The process of stakeholder management: An investigation of social managers and their stakeholders", Funded by Killam Research Fund Committee, University of Alberta (September 1, 2012) ($29,951.00), Completed, Fall 2012, PI William Foster with CoInvestigator Roy Suddaby
  
  
• "The Management of Corporate Social Memory: The role of the corporate historian/ archivist.", Funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) (September 1, 2011) ($57,044.00), Completed, Fall 2011, PI William Foster with CoInvestigator Roy Suddaby, CoInvestigator Elden Weibe
  
  
• "Institutional Homology: Explaining Corporate Art", Funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) (September 1, 2010 - September 1, 2013) ($97,266.00), Completed, Fall 2010, PI Roy Suddaby with CoInvestigator William Foster
  
  
• "Post­ professional regulation", Funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) (September 1, 2005 - September 1, 2008) ($92,600.00), Completed, Fall 2005, PI Roy Suddaby with CoInvestigator David Cooper
  
  
• "The production of trust and distrust in capital markets under threat", Funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) (September 1, 2003) ($122,975.00), Completed, Fall 2003, PI Yves Gendron with CoInvestigator Roy Suddaby

Current & Upcoming Courses

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