Professor of Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Futures
Director of the MPhil in Innovation, Strategy & Organisation Programme
Co-Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre
BBA (College of William and Mary), MSc (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford), PhD (Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University)
Research interests
Entrepreneurship; business and society; organisational identity and identification; creativity; the governance of unintended consequences.
Professor Matthew Grimes’s research examines how individuals and organisations create, introduce, and sustain positive social change by way of entrepreneurship. To this end he studies both the contextual factors (e.g. regional and institutional differences) that enable innovation and social change as well as the individual factors (e.g. demographic and identity differences) that motivate and sustain individuals’ commitment to such change. He studies these factors primarily in contexts such as social entrepreneurship and business incubators/accelerators, where attempts to create, introduce, and sustain social change and innovation are particularly important and challenging.
Subject group: Organisational Theory & Information Systems
Professional experience
Professor Matthew Grimes currently serves as Associate Editor of the Academy of Management Journal. He also serves on the editorial review boards of Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Business Venturing. He previously served on the editorial review boards for Entrepreneurship, Theory, & Practice and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal.
Prior to obtaining his PhD, Professor Grimes was an Associate Director for Research at CEB (now Gartner) in Washington DC, London and New Delhi.
Previous appointments
Matthew Grimes was previously Assistant Professor at the University of Indiana’s Kelley School of Business (2015-2018) and also at the University of Alberta School of Business (2012-2015). Dr Grimes was appointed a Visiting Scholar in the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney Business School (2015) as well as an International Research Fellow at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University (2015-2018).
Awards & honours
- Responsible Research in Management Finalist, co-sponsored by the Community for Responsible Research in Business and Management and The International Association for Chinese Management Research, 2020
- Developmental Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Review, 2020
- Emerging Scholar Award, ENT Division of the Academy of Management, 2018
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Journal, 2018
- Presidential Responsible Research in Management Award, co-sponsored by the Community for Responsible Research in Business and Management and The International Association for Chinese Management Research, 2017 (inaugural year)
- Best Paper Award, 13th Annual Social Entrepreneurship Conference, 2016
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Journal, 2016
- Best Paper Award, SAP Division, Academy of Management, 2016
- People’s Choice Award from the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability, 2015
- Research Fellow, Canadian Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, 2012-2015
- Nova Faculty Fellow, 2014-2015
- Southam Edmonton Journal Faculty Fellow, 2013-2014
Selected publications
Here are a selection of Matthew Grimes’s publications. Please see the “Selected publications” tab above for a more comprehensive list.
Logue, D. and Grimes, M. (2022) “Living up to the hype: how new ventures manage the resource and liability of future-oriented visions within the nascent market of impact investing.” Academy of Management Journal, 65(3): 1055-1082 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2020.1583)
Lucas, D.S., Grimes, M.G. and Gehman, J. (2022) “Remaking capitalism: the strength of weak legislation in mobilizing B Corporation certification.” Academy of Management Journal, 65(3): 958-987(DOI: 10.5465/amj.2020.1688)
Logue, D. and Grimes, M. (2022) “Platforms for the people: enabling civic crowdfunding through the cultivation of institutional infrastructure.” Strategic Management Journal, 43(3): 663–693 (DOI: 10.1002/smj.3110)
Grimes, M.G. (2018) “The pivot: how founders respond to feedback through idea and identity work.” Academy of Management Journal, 61(5): 1692-1717 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2015.0823)
Grimes, M.G., Williams, T.A. and Zhao, E.Y. (2018) “Anchors aweigh: the sources, variety, and challenges of mission drift.” Academy of Management Review, 61(5): 1692-1717 (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2017.0254)
Gehman, J. and Grimes, M. (2017) “Hidden badge of honor: how contextual distinctiveness affects category promotion among Certified B Corporations.” Academy of Management Journal, 60(6): 2294-2320 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2015.0416)
Journal articles
Grimes, M. (2010) “Strategic sensemaking within funding relationships: the effects of performance measurement on organizational identity in the social sector.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34(4): 763-783 (DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00398.x)
Miller, T.L., Grimes, M.G., McMullen, J.S. and Vogus, T.J. (2012) “Venturing for others with heart and head: how compassion encourages social entrepreneurship.” Academy of Management Review, 37(4): 616-640 (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2010.0456)
Amezcua, A.S., Grimes, M.G., Bradley, S.W. and Wiklund, J. (2013) “Organizational sponsorship and founding environments: a contingency view on the survival of business incubated firms, 1994-2007.” Academy of Management Journal, 56(6): 1628-1654 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2011.0652)
Grimes, M.G., McMullen, J.S., Vogus, T.J. and Miller, T.L. (2013) “Studying the origins of social entrepreneurship: compassion and the role of embedded agency.” Academy of Management Review, 38(3): 460-463 (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2012.0429)
Gehman, J. and Grimes, M. (2017) “Hidden badge of honor: how contextual distinctiveness affects category promotion among Certified B Corporations.” Academy of Management Journal, 60(6): 2294-2320 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2015.0416)
Grimes, M.G. (2018) “The pivot: how founders respond to feedback through idea and identity work.” Academy of Management Journal, 61(5): 1692-1717 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2015.0823)
Grimes, M.G., Gehman, J. and Cao, K. (2018) “Positively deviant: identity work through B Corporation certification.” Journal of Business Venturing, 33(2): 130-148 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2017.12.001)
Gehman, J., Grimes, M. and Cao, K. (2019) “Why we care about Certified B Corporations: from valuing growth to certifying values.” Academy of Management Discoveries, 5(1): 97-101 (DOI: 10.5465/amd.2018.0074)
Grimes, M.G., Williams, T.A. and Zhao, E.Y. (2019) “Anchors aweigh: the sources, variety, and challenges of mission drift.” Academy of Management Review, 44(4): 819-845 (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2017.0254)
Grimes, M.G., Williams, T.A. and Zhao, E.Y. (2020) “Beyond hybridity: accounting for the values complexity of all organizations in the study of mission and mission drift.” Academy of Management Review, 45(1): 234-238 (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2019.0209)
Grimes, M.G. and Vogus, T.J. (2021) “Inconceivable! Possibilisitic thinking and the sociocognitive underpinnings of entrepreneurial responses to grand challenges.” Organization Theory, 2(2) (DOI: 10.1177/26317877211005780)
Wagenschwanz, A. and Grimes, M. (2021) “Navigating compromise: how founder authenticity affects venture identification amidst organizational hybridity.” Journal of Business Venturing, 36(2): 106085 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2020.106085)
Allison, T.H., Grimes, M., McKenny, A.F. and Short, J.C. (2021) “Occupy Wall Street ten years on: how its disruptive institutional entrepreneurship spread and why it fizzled.” Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 16: e00285 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2021.e00285)
Logue, D. and Grimes, M. (2022) “Living up to the hype: how new ventures manage the resource and liability of future-oriented visions within the nascent market of impact investing.” Academy of Management Journal, 65(3): 1055-1082 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2020.1583)
Logue, D. and Grimes, M. (2022) “Platforms for the people: enabling civic crowdfunding through the cultivation of institutional infrastructure.” Strategic Management Journal, 43(3): 663–693 (DOI: 10.1002/smj.3110)
Lucas, D.S., Grimes, M.G. and Gehman, J. (2022) “Remaking capitalism: the strength of weak legislation in mobilizing B Corporation certification.” Academy of Management Journal, 65(3): 958-987(DOI: 10.5465/amj.2020.1688)
Book chapters
Victor, B. and Grimes, M. (2013) “Why accountability in social entrepreneurship is crucial.” In Lyons, T.S. (ed.) Social entrepreneurship: how businesses can transform society: vol.3: accountability, performance measurement, and performance management in social entrepreneurship. Santa Barbara, CN: Praeger, pp.223-233
Victor, B. and Grimes, M. (2014) “Making moral markets: a professional responsibility ethic for business and poverty.” In Fischer, E.F. (ed.) Cash on the table: markets, values, and moral economies. Santa Fe, AZ: School for Advanced Research Press, pp.171-186
Cao, K., Gehman, J. and Grimes, M.G. (2018) “Standing out and fitting in: charting the emergence of Certified B Corporations by industry and region.” In Corbett, A.C. and Katz, J.A. (eds.) Hybrid ventures (Advances in entrepreneurship, firm emergence, and growth, vol.19). Bingley: Emerald Publishing, pp.1-38
Park, K., Grimes, M.G. and Gehman, J. (2022) “Becoming a generalized specialist: a strategic model for increasing your organization’s SDG impact while minimizing externalities.” In George, G., Haas, M.R., Joshi, H., McGahan, A. and Tracey, P. (eds.) Handbook on the business of sustainability: the organization, implementation, and practice of sustainable growth. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp.439-458
