Research focus

• Sustainability Management
• Sustainable Strategies & Business Models
• Sustainable Transformation
• Sustainability Reporting

Dr. Josua Oll joined the Management Research Group at the University of Oldenburg as a postdoctoral researcher in July 2019. His research focuses on sustainability management, with a particular emphasis on sustainable strategies and business models, the management of sustainable transformation, and sustainability reporting. Specifically, his research addresses three key questions: (1) How do discontinuities in the organizational environment (e.g., climate change, digitalization, and the growing importance of ESG factors) impact sustainable strategies and business models? (2) Which internal factors facilitate or hinder the sustainable transformation of businesses? (3) How can sustainability reporting contribute to the internal and external steering of businesses toward sustainability? In his empirical work, Dr. Oll uses both quantitative and qualitative methods, with a particular focus on the financial, energy, and IT sectors.

Dr. Oll’s research has been published in leading journals, such as Business & Society, Organization & Environment, and Organizational Research Methods. His doctoral dissertation on Socially Responsible Investment was awarded the Dr. Walter Kapaun Study Prize in 2020. At the Academy of Management (AoM) Annual Meetings in 2020 and 2023, his submissions were judged among the best papers in the program by the Organizations and the Natural Environment (ONE) and the Strategic Management (STR) Divisions, respectively. At the AoM Annual Meetings in 2020 and 2024, he was also selected as one of the ONE Division’s best reviewers. Dr. Oll is co-author of the teaching case study “The Case for Divestment: Rockefeller’s Fortune?”, which won the oikos Case Writing Competition (Sustainable Finance Track) in 2016.

As part of his research projects, Dr. Oll undertook research stays at the Markets, Organization, and Behavior Research Group at the University of Southern Denmark and the Group for Sustainability and Technology at ETH Zurich. He was a research associate at the Chair of Capital Markets and Management at the University of Hamburg, where he completed his PhD in Business Administration with honors in 2019. Prior to his PhD, he earned an MA in Sustainability Management and Economics from the University of Kassel, an MSc in Sustainable Development from the University of St Andrews, and a BSc in Economics from Maastricht University. Dr. Oll also gained practical experience at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy, as well as at Commerzbank’s Corporate Responsibility department.