Students and faculty in the Sustainability subgroup recognize that the role of business is to create and distribute wealth equitably, both within and across generations. They subscribe to the principles of sustainable development, which is development that ‘meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. A core assumption of researchers in this group is that the broader social and environmental contexts matter to business and that sustainability is core to effective management of risks and opportunities in today’s world. Researchers in this group are also interested in research with the potential to address broad global challenges and to make the world a better place.
The Sustainability group therefore looks to push the boundaries of current theories and methods. We are excited by new ideas and new approaches, as current theories have not adequately addressed some of the significant macro challenges confronting us. We are also excited by research that has practical implications and engages with real-world problems and phenomena.
The faculty members comprising this group include Bob Anderson, Diane-Laure Arjaliès, Pratima (Tima) Bansal, Oana Branzei, Isam Faik, Bissan Ghaddar, Jury Gualandris, Patricia Hein, Zoe Kinias, Shengwen Li, Rob Klassen, Deishin Lee, Lara Liboni, Karen MacMillan, Wren Montgomery, Nouri Najjar, Jason Nguyen, Joshua Pearce, Gal Raz, and Laurel Steinfield. They have published cutting-edge sustainability research in top journals across disciplines, including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Operations Management, Management Accounting Research, Management Science, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal. PhD students in the Sustainability area have also received several awards including the Governor General's Gold Medal (Mark DesJardine, Natalie Slawinski), conference best paper prizes, and have placed at top schools (Tuck School of Business, McGill, etc.).
Ivey has gained an international reputation for its sustainability activities. We host the Sustainability PhD Academy, which has been bringing together 15 students and 5 faculty members from around the world annually since 2007 in this highly competitive program. Ivey’s annual Sustainability Conference also brings top global sustainability thinkers to Ivey for 2 days of deep conversation with Ivey PhD students and faculty. In addition, Ivey is home to the Centre for Building Sustainable Value, the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS), and Innovation North.
*Please note that Sustainability is a stream under General Management
Areas of Research Focus
- Short-termism, globalization, and scale
- Systems thinking/theory
- Social and environmental entrepreneurship and innovation
- Regeneration
- Collective and cross-sectoral action for sustainability
- Sustainable and conservation finance
- Impact assessment and integrated reporting
- Circular economy
- Sustainable food supply chains
- Co-evolutionary embedded systems (circular products, business models and supply chains)
- Stakeholder analysis and stakeholder governance
- Human sustainability: Building equity and eliminating marginalization in organizations
PhD Student Opportunities
The Sustainability group at Ivey is always happy to hear from superb applicants who are passionate about researching environmental and social sustainability issues. Please begin by familiarizing yourself with their specific research interests, papers, and methods. Then, please reach out to them with a detailed email on why you think you might be a fit with their research program and expertise. We receive many enquiries that look like they were written by an AI Chatbot, so we strongly encourage you to personalize the message.
You will need a faculty mentor to support your application in order to have the best chance for a successful admission. While not all faculty members have a specific opening posted, many will be able to find a spot for an exceptional candidate. Please feel free to connect with more than one faculty member, but be sure to tailor your communications rather than sending a general email that is not likely to stand out or receive a positive response.
Note that many of our members are also cross-appointed in other faculty groups, so please check the various PhD discipline pages for recruiting opportunities that align with your research interests. It may be possible for you to find a fit and apply through one or both disciplines (Business Economics & Public Policy, Entrepreneurship, Operations Management, Strategy etc.). This will still allow you to engage closely with our Sustainability faculty, students, reading group, and programming.
Please feel free to contact Dr. Tima Bansal (tbansal@ivey.ca) with any questions once you have read both this page and the general Ivey admissions and FAQ pages which cover deadlines, admissions packages, standardized testing, etc.
Thank you for your interest in Sustainability at Ivey, we look forward to hearing from you, and we wish you the best of luck in your academic adventures!
Professor Diane-Laure Arjalies is interested in supervising students willing to push the boundaries of knowledge and practice by doing qualitative and field-based work. Topics include sustainable finance (e.g., impact bonds, conservation finance), non-financial practices and reporting (e.g., impact assessment, accountability in safe and ethical spaces) and issues linked to life on land (e.g., biodiversity, regenerative farming). Interdisciplinary (e.g., political ecology, accounting), Indigenous and decolonizing approaches are welcome.
Professor Bissan Ghaddar's interests lie at the intersection of mathematical optimization and machine learning models and their application to practical problems related to sustainable and smart cities, particularly in the domains of energy, telecom, and transportation systems. In order for smart cities to become a reality, complex optimization problems in the modeling, design, and operation of these future telecom, energy, and transportation systems need to be solved. The developed models can potentially lead to improved policies that will maximize the environmental, social, and financial benefits of these critical sectors.
Professors Diane-Laure Arjaliès, Jury Gualandris, Soe Kinias and Laurel Steinfeld are interested in students to examine how multiple actors address collective action issues and promote systemic transformation in complex systems. There is a current project on how farmers and actors of the food chain interact with each other and develop communities of practices to define rules of interaction, agree on common principles, and promote sustainable change. This research involves a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including field experiments.
Professor Laurel Steinfield’s interest lie in the questions around how to create more inclusive social/environmental innovations and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Her work on inclusive social/environmental innovations covers the stages from innovation conception to implementation and reproduction, exploring how design justice perspectives might be taken forward and practically implemented, and how social innovations can be created in ways that include groups who are often marginalized, but also feasibly be sustained. Her work on inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems seeks to capture the barriers equity-deserving entrepreneurs face, interventions seeking to address these barriers, and gaps that continue to persist (e.g., in financing, accessing consumer markets). Her work spans geographical regions, with a particular focus on Southern-Eastern Africa, Colombia, and Canada.
Post-graduate Opportunities
The doctoral program in Sustainability is designed for those interested in pursuing academic careers in sustainability at top business schools.
PhD Graduates
Dr. Mark DesJardine (2016 PhD)
Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State University
The Causes and Consequences of Corporate Short-termism
Corporate short-termism is one of the most significant concerns facing companies and society today. It demands that companies maximize profits in the short term regardless of the long-term consequences. Corporate short-termism can destroy long-run wealth generation, fuel job lay-offs, impede innovation, and neglect society’s social and environmental interests. Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, declares that short-termism, “lies at the heart of many of today’s problems.”... Read more about this thesis
Dr. Natalie Slawinski (2010 PhD)
Associate Professor, Memorial University
Short on Time: The Role of Organizational Time Orientation in Business
Our research explores the role of time in explaining firm responses to social and environmental issues. We draw on time perspective and other related individual level constructs from the psychology literature, along with research on time from the organizational and sociology literatures, to develop time orientation as a multi-dimensional firm-level construct.... Read more about this thesis
