Carl-Joachim Kock

Whether it is how to encourage managers to act on climate change in their industry or the extent to which the financial markets drive companies to implement strategic change, Carl Joachim Kock is fascinated by cause and effect.

After spending many years in a multinational company, Prof. Kock realised that day to day work was hampering his ability to take a deeper look at the business issues that interested him and so decided to pursue a doctoral programme. Armed with this new academic experience, his work focuses on identifying the fundamental drivers of value in companies as a whole.

In the case of the financial markets, Prof. Kock believes that the impact of stock prices on companies and industries is a field of management that few have studied. He has found that stock prices play an important role in affecting companies’ behaviour, particularly when it comes to their investment strategies.

“And this influence may not necessarily be beneficial”, he says. “Financial markets give a value to companies’ strategies, but it’s just a belief they hold, and they may be wrong, whereas a customer buying something is real feedback”.

Furthermore, Prof. Kock is also combining a traditional research stream on the governance of large firms with a focus on Corporate Environmental Management. Protecting the environment is clearly an important goal in today’s society, and firm performance increasingly depends on their ability to protect our nature and to sell to environmentally conscious consumers. Prof. Kock’s research shows that while firms may indeed perform better financially when they take care of the environment, shareholders may not always be aware of that and it is then up to managers to implement the necessary strategies – this, however, requires the implementation of rather specific types of governance mechanisms.

Overall, it is his ability to question accepted economic and business norms that has led numerous leading journals and books to publish his work. And when it comes to teaching, Prof. Kock encourages students, too, to look at what they’re being taught with fresh eyes. “It’s crucial to understand a few things about the game that’s being played”, he says. “And to do that you need to look at causal processes, the evolution of the what and the why”.

Academic Background

• PhD in Management. Wharton, University of Pennsylvania (USA)
• MSc in Management. Wharton, University of Pennsylvania (USA)
• Diploma in Business Administration. Philipps Universität Marburg (Germany)

Academic Experience

• 2003 – Present: Professor of Strategy, IE
• 1996 – 2003: Research Assistant. Wharton, USA
• 1997 – 1999: Recitation Teacher. Wharton, USA
• Member of the Academy of Management and the Strategic Management Society

Corporate Experience

• 1995 – 1996: Project Manager. Langnese-Iglo GmbH, Unilever (Germany)
• 1994 – 1995: Sales Group Manager. Langnese (Germany)
• 1993 – 1994: Management Trainee Sales and Marketing. Langnese (Germany)

Latest Publications

• Gözübüyük R., Kock C.J., Ünal M. (2020). “Who appropriates centrality rents? The role of institutions in regulating social networks in the global Islamic finance industry”. Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 51: 764-787
• Kock, C.J. (2020). “International Public Policy on Environmental Regulation”. In Michael Boylan (Eds.). Environmental Ethics. Wiley-Blackwell
• Kock C.J., Min B.S. (2016). “Legal Origins, Corporate Governance, and Environmental Outcomes”. Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 138: 507–524
• Graf, T., Kock, C. J. (2015). “Environmental performance and nonmarket strategy: the impact of inter-organizational ties”. In Thomas Lawton, Tazeeb Rajwani (Eds.). Routledge Companion to Non-market Strategy. Routledge