MY RESEARCH PROGRAM

MY RESEARCH PROGRAM IS ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE AGENCY (E.G., EMIRBAYER AND MISCHE, 1998), AND FOCUSES ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES.
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I AM CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN TWO MAIN RESEARCH PROJECTS: 1) SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY IN GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS AND 2) WORKPLACE INCLUSION. BOTH ARE EXPLAINED MORE IN DETAIL IN THIS WEBSITE.
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ESPECIALLY WITH REGARDS TO SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY IN GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS, I CRITIQUE THE DOMINANT ASSUMPTION THAT SOCIAL CHANGE IN MANY EMERGING MARKETS IS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE TOP-DOWN AND MACRO-LEVEL INTERVENTION OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES AND LARGE MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS - OFTEN HEADQUARTERED IN THE WEST. THIS ASSUMPTION HAS LED RESEARCHERS TO NEGLECT THE VOICES OF LOCAL MANAGERS, LOCAL WORKERS AND THEIR COLLECTIVES.
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I ARGUE THAT, AS ACADEMICS AND RESPONSIBLE CITIZENS, WE SHOULD PAY MORE ATTENTION TO THE LOCAL CONTEXT. I SPECIFICALLY HIGHLIGHT THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPLORING HOW LOCAL MANAGERS, LOCAL WORKERS AND THEIR COLLECTIVES IN EMERGING MARKETS ORGANIZE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE BOTTOM-UP (IN BOTH POSITIVE AND PERHAPS LESS POSITIVE WAYS). WHILE EMBRACING A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST EPISTEMOLOGY AND A POSTMODERN ORIENTATION, MUCH OF MY RESEARCH IS THEN BASED ON THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:
 
"HOW DO LOCAL MANAGERS, LOCAL WORKERS AND THEIR COLLECTIVES ORGANIZE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE BOTTOM-UP IN EMERGING MARKETS?"
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ALTHOUGH LOCAL MANAGERS, LOCAL WORKERS AND THEIR COLLECTIVES POSSES MANY OF THE AGENCY SKILLS AND ABILITIES TO ORGANIZE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE, WE OFTEN DO NOT HEAR MUCH ABOUT THEM: I BELIEVE WE NEED A PARADIGM SHIFT FROM TRADITIONAL AND TOP-DOWN APPROACHES TO MANAGING SOCIAL CHANGE.
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RESEARCH METHODS
I AM PARTICULARLY PASSIONATE ABOUT EMPIRICALLY GROUNDED AND PROBLEM-DRIVEN EXPLORATORY RESEARCH. I WORK WITH PRIMARY AND ORIGINAL QUALITATIVE DATA THROUGH FACE-TO-FACE AND ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERVIEWS WHILE BEING ON THE FIELD. I PARTICULARLY VALUE OBSERVATIONS AND PARTICIPATORY EXAMINATION (LINCOLN AND GUBA 1985). ALTHOUGH I AM WELL AWARE OF THE EFFORTS AND SACRIFICES NEEDED TO COLLECT EVIDENCE THROUGH THIS TYPE OF RESEARCH, I BELIEVE THAT THE ITERATIVE AND IN-PERSON APPROACH ADDS MUCH CREDENCE TO THE VALIDITY OF THE FINDINGS. THUS, I ADOPT AN ARRAY OF DIFFERENT RESEARCH RESEARCH APPROACHES THAT INCLUDE GROUNDED THEORY, CONTENT ANALYSIS AND IN-DEPTH CASE STUDY ANALYSIS (E.G., EISENHARDT 1989; EISENHARDT, GRAEBNER, AND SONENSHEIN 2016).
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DURING MY ACADEMIC CAREER, I CONDUCTED HUNDREDS OF INTERVIEWS AND SPENT MONTHS DOING RESEARCH ON THE FIELD, MOSTLY IN BANGLADESH, THAILAND, SWEDEN, JAPAN, AND SRI LANKA.
 
REFERENCES
EISENHARDT, K. M. 1989. “BUILDING THEORIES FROM CASE STUDY RESEARCH.” ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT REVIEW 14(4):532–550.
EISENHARDT, K. M., M. E. GRAEBNER, AND S. SONENSHEIN. 2016. “GRAND CHALLENGES AND INDUCTIVE METHODS: RIGOR WITHOUT RIGOR MORTIS.” ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 59(4):1113–1123.
EMIRBAYER, M., AND A. MISCHE. 1998. “WHAT IS AGENCY?” AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 103(4):692–1023.
LINCOLN, Y. S., AND E. G. GUBA. 1985. NATURALISTIC INQUIRY. LONDON: SAGE PUBLICATIONS.