Anna Kim
Peter Brojde Faculty Scholar in Entrepreneurship
PhD in Management Studies, University of Cambridge
Bachelor of Business Administration, Seoul National University
Anna Kim is Associate Professor in Management for Sustainability and Peter Brojde Faculty Scholar in Entrepreneurship at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University. She holds a Ph.D. in management studies from the University of Cambridge. Prior to her academic career, Anna worked for Oxfam International and other international development agencies. Her research interests include organizing for sustainability, social entrepreneurship, Indigenous entrepreneurship, and linguistic inclusiveness in organizations.
Anna’s research has offered new ways of seeing and acting for sustainable development, such as a long-present perspective (Kim, Bansal, & Haugh, 2019), scaling deep (Kim & Kim, 2022), and a triadic perspective on social impact (Kim, 2025), and has been published in top-tier management journals including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Organization Science. The research contexts of her ethnographic and qualitative studies include Fairtrade-certified tea and coffee producer organizations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Nepal, start-ups in post-industrial Detroit, Indigenous enterprises on Turtle Island, digital innovation in Kenya, multilingualism in Kazakhstan, as well as fair trade social enterprises in Canada and the UK. Anna’s work has been recognized by several major academic awards, including Responsible Research in Management Award, OMT Best International Paper Award, ONE-SIM Outreach Award, ONE Best Paper in Entrepreneurship and Natural Environment Award, and OMT Best Environmental & Social Practices Paper Award at the Academy of Management. Her research has also been widely featured in the media (e.g., Forbes, The Globe and Mail) and practitioner-oriented journals (e.g., Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review), inspiring real-world initiatives such as Scale Deep Grants in Kansas City.
Anna has developed and taught several courses on sustainability and organizational theory, including Systems Thinking & Sustainability (undergraduates), Organizing for Sustainability (PhD), and New Paradigms for Strategic Management: Organizing in Time and Space (PhD). She served as Desautels’ inaugural Director of Sustainability in 2022 and led the BCom Managing for Sustainability Major and Concentration Programs (2019–22) in collaboration with the Department of Geography and the Bieler School of Environment. Anna is the recipient of 2023 Fetherstonhaugh Family Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award, 2024 ONE Early Career Teaching Award, and several teaching case prizes.
Journal Articles
Kim, A. (2025) “Harambee! A triadic perspective on social impact: Organizations, evaluators, and target beneficiaries in Kenya.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 70 (1): 246–291. [ASQ]
Koo, E. J. & Kim, A. (2024) "Linguistic inclusiveness in organizations: A Russophone bank in post-Soviet Kazakhstan.” Academy of Management Journal, 67 (6): 1577–1611. [AMJ]
Kim, S. & Kim, A. (2022) "Going viral or growing like an oak tree? Towards sustainable local development through entrepreneurship." Academy of Management Journal, 65 (5): 1709–1746. [AMJ] [eScholarship@McGill] [delve podcast]
Kim, S. & Kim, A. (2022) "How entrepreneurship can revitalize local communities." Harvard Business Review. [HBR] [eScholarship@McGill]
Cho, C. H., Kim, A., Rodrigue, M., & Schneider, T. (2020) “Towards a better understanding of sustainability accounting and management research and teaching in North America: a look at the community.” Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 11 (6): 985–1007. [SAMPJ]
Oborn, E., Barrett, M., Orlikowski, W., Kim, A. (2019) “Trajectory dynamics in innovation: Developing and transforming a mobile money service across time and place.” Organization Science, 30 (5): 1097–1123. [Org.Sci.] [eScholarship@McGill]
Kim, A., Bansal, P., & Haugh, H. (2019) “No time like the present: How a present time perspective can foster sustainable development.” Academy of Management Journal, 62 (2): 607–634. [AMJ] [eScholarship@McGill] [4-minute video]
Bansal, P., Kim, A., & Wood, M. (2018) “Hidden in plain sight: The importance of scale in organizations’ attention to issues.” Academy of Management Review, 43 (2): 217–241. [AMR] [eScholarship@McGill]
Teaching Cases
Kim, A. & Renaud, C. (2018) “Ten Thousand Villages in crisis: Can the fair trade pioneer survive and flourish in an economic downturn?” (« Dix Mille Villages en péril : le pionnier du commerce équitable peut-il survivre à la crise économique? ») International Journal of Case Studies in Management, vol. 16, no. 3. [Harvard] [HEC] [The Case Centre]
Kim, A. & Perreault-Henry, J. (2018) “PlayPumps: Playful solutions to water problems in Africa?” (« PlayPumps : la solution au manque d’eau en Afrique, un jeu d’enfant? ») International Journal of Case Studies in Management, vol. 16, no. 3. [Harvard] [HEC] [The Case Centre]
El-Khoury, J. & Kim, A. (2018) “Gardens without Borders: Creating corporate-social enterprise collaborations for sustainability.” (« Jardins sans frontières : développement durable et collaborations entre entreprises sociales et conventionnelles ») International Journal of Case Studies in Management, vol. 16, no. 2. [Harvard] [HEC] [The Case Centre]
Barrett, M., Kim, A., & Prince, K. (2011) “M-PESA power: Leveraging service innovation in emerging economies.” The Case Centre: 911-007-1. [SAGE] [The Case Centre]
Book Chapters
David, C. & Kim. A. (2010) “Developing markets, building networks: Promoting Fair Trade in Asia.” In K. Macdonald & S. Marshall (Eds.), Fair Trade, Corporate Accountability and Beyond: Experiments in Global Justice Governance Mechanisms. Surrey: Ashgate, 57–74.
2024 Responsible Research in Management Award [Distinguished Winner], co-sponsored by the Academy of Management Fellows and Responsible Research in Business and Management
2024 Academy of Management Journal (AMJ) Impact Award [Finalist]
2024 ONE Early Career Teaching Award [Winner], Organizations and the Natural Environment (ONE) Division, Academy of Management
2024 President’s Prize for Public Engagement through Media, Prize for Emerging Researchers [Winner], McGill University
2023 ONE-SIM Outreach Award [Winner], Organizations and the Natural Environment (ONE) and Social Issues in Management (SIM) Divisions, Academy of Management [3-minute video] [NBS article]
2023 ONE Best Paper in Entrepreneurship and Natural Environment Award [Winner], Organizations and the Natural Environment (ONE) Division, Academy of Management
2023 Academy of Management Journal (AMJ) Best Article Award [Finalist]
2023 Fetherstonhaugh Family Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award [Recipient], Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University
2022 Responsible Research in Management Award [Winner], co-sponsored by the Academy of Management Fellows and Responsible Research in Business and Management
2022 Peter Brojde Faculty Scholar Award in Entrepreneurship [Recipient], Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University
2021–23 The Case Centre Classic Case Collection [Top 10 classic cases; Category: Knowledge, Information and Communication Systems] for three consecutive years
2020 OCIS Best Published Paper Award [First runner-up], Organizational Communication & Information Systems (OCIS) Division, Academy of Management
2019 Academy of Management Review (AMR) Best Article Award [Finalist]
2018 OMT Best International Paper Award [Winner], Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division, Academy of Management
2018 Carolyn Dexter Award [Nominee], Academy of Management
2017 oikos Case Writing Competition Prize, Social Entrepreneurship Track [Runner-up]
2015 OMT Best Paper Award on Environmental and Social Practices [Winner], Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division, Academy of Management
2014–19 The Case Centre Best Selling Case Prize [Winner; Category: Knowledge, Information and Communication Systems] for six consecutive years
2014 ITC-Emerald Best International Dissertation Award [Winner], International Theme Committee (ITC), Academy of Management
2014 SBE Best Dissertation Award [Finalist], Society for Business Ethics
2014 SIM Best Dissertation Award [Finalist], Social Issues in Management (SIM) Division, Academy of Management
2012 Ivey/ARCS PhD Sustainability Academy Best Paper Award [Winner], Ivey Business School & Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability
2024 Ethnography Atelier. ‘Anna Kim: Fieldwork with Respect’, Ethnography Atelier Podcast, September 2.
2023 Aarts, D. ‘Why a new breed of startup is taking the slow-but-steady route to growth’, The Globe and Mail, September 29.
2023 Fischhoff, M. ‘Effective Outreach for Sustainability Research’, Network for Business Sustainability, August 16.
2023 ONE-SIM Outreach Award. ‘Tips on Outreach Activities by 2023 Award Winners – Suntae Kim and Anna Kim’, August 3.
2022 Fadden, R. ‘Scale Deep Not Up for Sustainable Local Entrepreneurship with Anna Kim and Suntae Kim’, Delve, November 24.
2018 OMT Interview with Anna Kim, Winner of the 2018 OMT Best International Paper Award, Academy of Management, October 29.
2014 Out of Africa: Award-winning research on Fair Trade and development. News@Ivey, October 14.
