About Me
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
I, Katrin Heucher, am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Innovation Management and Strategy, University of Groningen. My research lies at the intersection of sustainability management and organization studies. In particular, I study practices and processes related to paradoxical tensions that occur in organizations when implementing a sustainability strategy.
To this end, I conducted extended fieldwork during my Doctoral Studies at Loughborough University, UK, to observe behavior and changes over time. My research uses qualitative methods such as organizational ethnography to study corporate sustainability and paradox. During my postdoctoral fellowship at the Erb Institute at the University of Michigan, I built on and complemented my research from her doctoral degree by expanding her work on organizational sustainability and the individual change agents that advocate for internal change.
During the 2021 Academy of Management Annual Meeting, I was awarded the prestigious AOM ONE Best Dissertation Award for my dissertation on "Living with Paradoxical Tensions in Corporate Sustainability" (a ten-page summary of my dissertation is available upon request).
Previously, I worked in the chemical industry in the areas of international marketing and business strategy. Throughout my studies (BA in Regional studies China and Business Administration at the University of Cologne, Germany; and MSc in International Management (for China) at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK), I have also gained significant insight into the FMCG and chemical industry and have shown a passion for experiencing different cultures (working and studying in Germany, China, and UK).