Dear Faculty, Students and Friends,
On behalf of Professor Ed Freeman, the Institute for Business in Society, and Tampere University we are pleased to invite applications for the 2025 Summer Seminar on Stakeholder Theory, which will be held from 30 July-5 August 2025 in Tampere, Finland, at Tampere University.
We encourage junior faculty at business schools and advanced PhD students from all business disciplines to apply.
Re-launched in 2022, the Summer Seminar is an opportunity to join the best junior faculty and PhD students in the world in learning and sharing how to integrate the stakeholder perspective into their research. Through the Seminar's week of structured dialogs, lectures by leading stakeholder experts, participant paper presentations, individual and team feedback sessions, and structured opportunities to collaborate on papers across disciplines, past seminars have served to create an active, interdisciplinary network of young scholars who's research leverages stakeholder theory. We hope the activities of the Seminar fully integrate participants into that network of young scholars working in this field, and into the Darden scholarly community, and also give participants connections to leaders in stakeholder theoretical research.
Each successful applicant will bring to the seminar at least one paper-in-progress, wherein they have developed a stakeholder idea within the parameters of their discipline. They will also have the opportunity to develop at least one additional paper while at the Seminar, with input and assistance from Darden faculty and other leaders in stakeholder theoretical approaches.
While travel expenses to and from Tampere are the responsibility of each attendee, participation in the Summer Seminar including tuition, 6 nights' lodging, and most meals (breakfast, lunch, and some dinners) will be funded by Tampere University's Faculty of Management and Business School and the Darden School's Institute for Business and Society.
To apply, please reply to Karen Musselman (MusselmanK@darden.virginia.edu) by 31 March 2025 attaching each of the following as a separate PDF document (total of 3):
1. A one-page Statement of Purpose, outlining your interest in stakeholder theory, past work or courses in the area, and how you believe additional training in stakeholder theory might impact your work.
2. A current CV.
3. A one-paragraph abstract of an unpublished paper that you are writing, or that you would like to write, that leverages some aspect of stakeholder theory. Past participants have shared abstracts from working papers, papers in very preliminary stages, unpublished work they are trying to polish and submit to a journal, or even simply a brief description of a set of research questions they aspire to pursue, and with which they feel the seminar will help them.
We encourage you to share this invitation with any junior faculty, PhD students, and research scholars whom you believe might have interest in applying for this fantastic, scholarship-funded opportunity. We are looking forward to seeing many of you Tampere this summer!
Warmly,
R. Edward Freeman Joey Burton Johanna Kujala
University Professor Executive Director Vice Dean for Research
Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration Institute for Business in Society Professor of Management & Organization
Stephen E. Bachand University Professor of Business Admin BurtonJ@darden.virginia.edu Director, RESPMAN
Business Administration Distinguished Chair johanna.kujala@tuni.fi
Senior Fellow, Olsson Center for Applied Ethics
Academic Director, Institute for Business in Society
FreemanE@darden.virginia.edu
