Chair / Junior Professorship for Sustainability Management

In an era defined by rapid change and global crises, it's time to rethink how we approach business. Today's leaders and entrepreneurs must develop mindsets and capacities to shift perspective and reshape strategies.

This will allow them to confront the complexity surrounding us and to lead organizations, teams and communities into a future where social and environmental concerns are integral to success.

Teaching
We offer the following courses:

Bachelor in
Management (BSc)

  • Elective: Introduction to Sustainability Management & Social Entrepreneurship
  • Elective: Introduction to International Business in the 21th century
Go to the programme

Master in
Management(MIM)

  • Core Course: Sustainability
  • Advanced Organization and Management: Managing Change
Go to the programme

PhD
Programme

  • Emerging Topics in Sustainability (Paradox Theory)
  • Research Seminar
Go to the programme

Research

At the Junior Professorship for Sustainability Management, the research focus is on social entrepreneurship, sustainable development and innovation in nonprofit management. We are particularly interested in questions around organizational tensions (esp. paradoxes) and social evaluations (esp. reputation). Our research has been published in various peer reviewed journals, such as Organization Studies and Journal of Management Studies.

Current research topics

Paradox Thinking for Well-Being in Social Purpose Organizations (PATH4Well-Being)

Paradox theory suggests that effective leadership in complex, high-stakes environments requires the ability to hold seemingly contradictory goals in tension. In this project, we aim at better understanding how social purpose leaders' paradox mindsets affect their well-being, their performance, and their teams, and which and how leadership training programs and/or life experiences can cultivate a paradox mindset (funded by CHANSE/NORFACE; in Germany: DFG: 2025-2028).

Maturity Assessment Tool for Social Innovation Environments (MAT*SIE)

Nonprofit organizations benefit from an organizational environment that allows employees and organizational members to foster social innovation. For this project, we developed a maturity assessment tool and use it to explore how nonprofit organizations can create a “social innovation environment” (funded by ESCP-ERF: 2024 and 2025).

Social Entrepreneurship in the Global South

In this project, we explore how social entrepreneurship can contribute to sustainable development in the Global South, particularly sub-Saharan Africa (partially funded by Volkswagen Foundation: 2020 and 2022).

Reputation Building in Social Enterprises and Nonprofit Organizations

Nascent social enterprises oftentimes struggle to build a solid organizational reputation among customers and other stakeholders. In this project, we investigate how social enterprises can build, maintain, and improve their reputation (partially funded by DFG: 2016-2019).

Publications
Find an overview

Display :
20 publications

Academic Articles

2023

BECKER, A., C. WALDNER, L. NITSCH, S. TRAUTWEIN

Communicating Social Value: An Experimental Study on the Effects of Social Entrepreneurial Communication on Stakeholder’s Behavioral Intentions.

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP, 33 (3), 511-533

Academic Articles

2023

WALDNER, C.

In the Centre of Attention: How Social Entrepreneurs Influence Organisational Reputation

JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP, 14(1), 50-72

Conference Proceedings

2022

WALDNER, C., S. SCHRAGE, A. RASCHE

Fading In and Fading Out: The Temporary Nature of Asymmetric Paradoxical Knots within Organizations

Academy of Management (AOM), Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings

Chapters

2022

WALDNER, C., R. HAHN

Sustainable Business Models and Alternative Forms of Organizations

In: Sustainability Management - Global Perspectives on Concepts, Instruments, and Stakeholders, Rüdiger Hahn /

Chapters

2020

MERTINS, V., C. WALDNER

Evidenz-basiertes Fundraising Management

In: Handbuch Fundraising, Michael Urselmann Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

Academic Articles

2020

WALDNER, C., J. WILLEMS, J. EHMANN, F. GIES

The impact of face-to-face street fundraising on organizational reputation

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT AND VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, 25 (4)

PhD / HDR Dissertation

2019

WALDNER, C

Reputation Formation of Nonprofit and Social Entrepreneurial Organizations: Towards A Stakeholder Perspective

Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg

Academic Articles

2019

WILLEMS, J., C. WALDNER, D. VOGEL

Reputation spillover effects from grant-providing institutions

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

Academic Articles

2019

WILLEMS, J., C. WALDNER, J. RONQUILLO

Reputation Star Society: Are star ratings consulted as substitute or complementary information?

DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS

Academic Articles

2017

WILLEMS, J., C. WALDNER, Y. DERE, Y. MATSUO, K. HÖGY

The Role of Formal ThirdParty Endorsements and Informal Self-Proclaiming Signals in Nonprofit Reputation Building

NONPROFIT AND VOLUNTARY SECTOR QUARTERLY, 46(5), 1092-1105

Team and contact

Prof. Dr. Carolin Waldner - Assistant Professor for Sustainability Management

Prof. Dr. Carolin Waldner

Assistant Professor for Sustainability Management
cwaldner@escp.eu
Maria Angelica Hinestroza Hoyos - PATH4Well-being Project Manager

Maria Angelica Hinestroza Hoyos

PATH4Well-being Project Manager
ahinestroza@escp.eu
Jella Riesterer - Research Assistant and Doctoral Student

Jella Riesterer

Research Assistant and Doctoral Student
jriesterer@escp.eu