The Society for Business Ethics is pleased to share the names of this year’s Emerging Scholars. Special thanks to our Reviewers Laura Spence and Helet Botha. Learn more about the Emerging Scholars Program here.
Iwan Alijew
University of St.Gallen
Iwan Alijew is a PhD student in philosophy at the University of St.Gallen. He received a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of St.Gallen, as part of which he was a visiting student at Warwick Business School, a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Zurich and a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of St Andrews. He is interested in business ethics, business studies, and moral and political philosophy.
Keywords: business realism, business ethics, business theory, practical philosophy, realism
Chau Bui Friedrich
Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg
Ms. Chau Bui earned her bachelor’s degree in International Relations at the Vietnam National University. In 2014, she obtained her master’s degree in Development Management at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. In 2020, she co-founded a German nonprofit organisation called Visible Impact aiming promoting social cohesion and sustainable development. Since 2021, she is also a PhD Candidate of the International Doctorate Programme – Business and Human Rights: Governance Challenges in a Complex World at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany. Her doctoral research focuses on cross-sector partnerships for sustainability between the business and civil-society sectors in Global South, Vietnam and China as case studies.
David Eisenberg
New Jersey Institute of Technology
David Eisenberg is an Information Systems doctoral candidate at New Jersey Institute of Technology, with master’s degrees from Rutgers and Virginia Tech. David has been published twice in MDPI’s Sensors, in addition to conferences including HICSS, AMCIS, SBE, MPPC, AMA, and IEEE, where he received the best paper award. He is a 2024 AMCIS Future of Work track co-chair, GMU Mercatus Fellow, GTRI Focus Fellow, and American Marketing Association Public Policy Junior Scholar, with research interests in
AI Ethics, Economic Equality, Smart Sensors, Data Privacy, Consumer Protection, Digital Accessibility, Smart and Neural Sensors, and Surveillance.
Cassandra Grützner
Martin Luther University
With a background in economic psychology and philosophy, Cassandra is currently pursuing a PhD in business ethics at the MLU in Germany, where she works on topics related to ethical decision making and human-machine interaction. She has a great interest in interdisciplinary topics and methods, and especially areas in which behavioural studies and philosophy meet. Currently, she is working on the impact of explainable AI on decision makers as well as counterfactual fairness.
Keywords: Experimental philosophy, Counterfactuals, AI Ethics, Explainable AI, Decision Making
Benedikt Kapteina
Dresden University of Technology
Benedikt D. S. Kapteina joined the Technical University Dresden’s Chair of Business Administration, especially Responsible Management, in April 2024. He is nearing completion of his dissertation at ESCP Business School Berlin, focusing on companies’ political role. He holds degrees in Economics and Political Science from universities including Duesseldorf, Duisburg-Essen, and Bonn, with academic experience at the Universities of Zurich, Florida, Delaware, and Utrecht. His research delves into the domain of business ethics, with a particular emphasis on the nexus between business and democracy, corporate political activities, and political CSR. He is presently analyzing companies’ promotion of democratic values in society.
Artur Klingbeil
Martin Luther University
As an industrial engineer, Artur is conducting his dissertation at the interface between business, ethics and technology. He conducts behavioral experiments in the field of human-computer interaction, in order to investigate trust dynamics between humans and artificial intelligence. He is particularly interested in conditions promoting disproportionately high trust in AI, leading to AI-induced immoral behavior, such as when unwarranted reliance on AI advice fosters unethical decision-making (e.g. discrimination against others).
Keywords: Human-computer interaction, Behavioral experiments, Trust in AI, AI ethics, Algorithmic discrimination
Catherine McDonald
University of St. Gallen
Catherine McDonald is a PhD candidate at the University of St. Gallen and a research assistant at the Institute for Business Ethics. Her dissertation explores how multinational enterprises engage in corporate diplomacy in conflict affected settings in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 16, and their human rights related responsibilities when doing so. Through four case studies in Ethiopia, she explores questions of corporate responsibility both theoretically and empirically. Previously, Catherine was a visiting fellow at Harvard University (Spring 2023) and worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross and agencies of the United Nations.
Keywords: Business and Human Rights; Corporate Responsibility; UN SDG 16; Conflict Affected Settings.
Till Micke
University of Halle
Till Marvin Micke, based in Berlin, is a PhD Scholar in Business Ethics at the Foundation of German Business (sdw) and part of the doctoral program at the Wittenberg Centre for Global Ethics – a German think tank focused on Business Ethics. He holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy & Economics from the University of Bayreuth, an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Kuehne Logistics University in Hamburg.
In his PhD Till seeks to combine insights from his interdisciplinary academic background with applied discussions in organisations and business ethics. Next to his research, he has held positions in organisational development departments and management consulting.
Alexander Nitschke
University of Münster
Alexander Nitschke began his PhD in 2021 at the Chair of Banking at the University of Münster, Germany. His research interests primarily include credit securitization, sustainable finance, systemic risk, and textual analysis. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration (B.Sc.) from the University of Munich, Germany, and a master’s degree in business administration (M.Sc.) with a major in Finance from the University of Münster. He has also worked for audit and consulting firms and has gained international experience during stays abroad in Sydney, Australia and Lisbon, Portugal.
Rhea Riemke
University of St.Gallen
Rhea Riemke is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Management & Strategy at the University of St.Gallen, holding a master’s in Energy Science and Technology and a bachelor’s in Environmental Engineering from ETH Zurich. In her research, she explores topics at the nexus of collaborative strategies, organizing, and values in the context of grand challenges, climate tech, and low-carbon solutions. Prior to rejoining academia, she worked in the energy and transportation industries in various customer-facing roles and countries. Apart from that, she enjoys running, playing music, and exploring the outdoors, especially the Swiss Alps.
Keywords: Inter-organizational collaboration, multistakeholder partnerships, grand societal challenges, carbon removal, process research
Katharina Scheer
Technische Universität Kaiserslautern
Katharina Scheer is a PhD candidate and teaching assistant at the Chair of Human Resource Management, Leadership, and Organization at the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau. Before her doctoral studies, she completed her Masters in Business Administration at Trier University in Germany and spent one academic year at Dublin City University in Dublin, Ireland. Her research focuses on the overarching question of how the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a promising anti-corruption tool impacts (un)ethical behavior of employees in organizations. Thus, she is especially interested in research on (un)ethical employee behavior like corruption and whistleblowing and on digital technologies such as AI.
Keywords Artificial intelligence; anti-corruption; whistleblowing; dishonesty; behavioral ethics
Julian Schönauer
RWTH Aachen University
Julian Schönauer is a PhD candidate at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group of RWTH Aachen University. He studied International Business Administration at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Prior to joining the PhD program, he worked as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company in Berlin. Julian’s doctoral research focuses on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, and queer (LGBTQ+) employees with a particular focus on authenticity and social support. Outside of academia, Julian is passionate about unlocking the value of data for better health.
Keywords: authenticity, social support, identity, LGBTQ+ diversity, entrepreneurship
Milena Störner
Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nürnberg
Milena Störmer obtained a Master’s degree in Development Economics and International Studies from Friedrich-Alexander University. This was inspired by her journey abroad where she had the opportunity to work in Hanoi, Vietnam as well as in Kampala, Uganda for a longer period. During this time, she worked in local NGOs and dedicated her time to social causes, including volunteering for projects on empowering women and fundraising for WHO events. She currently assumes the role of a Research Associate and doctoral student at the Chair for Strategic and Value-oriented Management and is part of an International Doctorate Program of Business and Human Rights at her University. Her research endeavors delve into the complex intersection of business operations and socio-political contexts, with a specific emphasis on corporations operating in conflict regions. Her research projects include an in-depth examination of businesses navigating high-risk environments amidst cartel conflicts in Mexico. She aims to explore how corporate managers perceive and engage in peacebuilding efforts within such challenging contexts. Additionally, her research investigates the effect of corporate legitimacy in the aftermath of corporations withdrawing from the Russian market following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Kyle van Oosterum
University of Oxford
Kyle van Oosterum is a third-year PhD candidate in Philosophy at the University of Oxford with affiliations at the Institute for Ethics in AI (Oxford) and the Machine Intelligence Normative Theory Lab (Australian National University). He broadly works on ethics and political philosophy. His doctoral research aims to provide a politically liberal response to the problem of social media echo chambers. Recently, he has become interested in the moral justifiability of attributing obligations to social media corporations to modify their platform’s design. He is also generally interested in work in business ethics and looks forward to learning about everyone’s research.
Keywords: social media; political philosophy; public reason; self-respect; algorithms
Zhaoyi Yan
IE Business School
Zhaoyi Yan is a Ph.D. candidate at IE Business School in the Department of Human Resources and Organizational Behavior. He received his MSc in Economics and Business Administration at NHH Norwegian School of Economics. His dissertation investigates when and how formal and informal institutions shape demographic minority CEOs’ (i.e., female CEO, racial minority CEO, and immigrant CEO) behaviors and influence the social performance of firms headed by those demographic minority CEOs. Zhaoyi also conducts research on gender and career success. Keywords: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Corporate Social Responsibility; Strategic Leadership; Institutional Theory
