ProfessorSteven Maguire

BSc (Honours), Queen's University; MBA, UBC; PhD, HEC-Montréal

Professor Steven Maguire is Deputy Dean (Research) at the University of Sydney Business School since January 2024, where he is leading implementation of the research enterprise component of the Business School’s 2023-27 strategy: engagement with industry, government, civil society, and academia to produce excellent research with clear, significant local and global impact.

He is also a Professor of Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Business School’s first Fellow of Multidisciplinary Innovation, collaborating with other faculties and multidisciplinary institutes to develop impactful, multidisciplinary research and teaching programs. In 2020, he spearheaded the development of a new, highly multidisciplinary (engaging six faculties/schools) Major in Innovation & Entrepreneurship for undergraduate students across the University of Sydney; and during 2019 – 2023 he led the inaugural Innovation Catalyst project at the University of Sydney Nano Institute, “Engaged Innovation Scholarship for Impact”, in which social scientists are embedded into teams of engineers, natural scientists and biomedical researchers to study innovation ‘in the making’ while actively contributing to it. Prior to 2019, he worked for 20 years at McGill University (Canada).

He publishes regularly in leading journals (e.g. Academy of Management Annals; Academy of Management Journal; Academy of Management Review; Journal of Management Studies; Organization Studies; Strategic Management Journal); is well cited (> 15,000 times according to Google scholar); and has earned substantial research funding with co-investigators (> $27 million) as well as numerous awards.

His research focuses on technological innovation and institutional entrepreneurship driven by the emergence of novel risks to human health and the environment, theorizing the role of non-market actors (e.g. NGOs, scientists, government agencies) in shaping the adoption or abandonment of particular technologies. Empirically, he has studied controversial products at the intersection of commercial, scientific, and political struggles, such as pharmaceutical products for treating HIV/AIDS as well as polluting industrial chemicals and greener chemistries. He has particular expertise on risk and its management, serving in an advisory role to the Government of Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan during 2007 – 2011, and working currently on research projects with scientists from Health Canada and Environment & Climate Change Canada. An advocate for engaged, multidisciplinary scholarship, he works closely with researchers from multiple faculties and publishes beyond traditional business school outlets (e.g. ACS Nano; Ambio; Environmental Health Perspectives; Environmental Science & Policy; Environmental Science & Tehnology; Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry; Global Governance; Integrated Environmental Assessment & Management).

In addition to the University of Sydney, he also had success in multidisciplinary leadership roles at McGill University. In 2013 he was a founding member of McGill University’s Innovation Steering Committee, and he served as its Co-Chair during 2015 – 2017. There, he initiated change projects aimed at instilling a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship at McGill, including: new Minors in Entrepreneurship for non-Management undergraduate students; revisions to McGill’s intellectual property policy; formalized recognition of innovation and entrepreneurship as important and valid forms of impact when assessing promotion and tenure; and facilitation of access to laboratories for start-ups.

During 2011 – 2017, he served as Founding Director of the Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management at McGill University which, under his leadership, became an important hub of multidisciplinary programming by focusing on sustainability, social innovation, and entrepreneurship. He oversaw the conception, championing, and implementation of a range of novel programming that connects Management to other faculties, including:

• A new Major in Managing for Sustainability for Management students, in collaboration with the McGill School of Environment and Department of Geography
• A new four-day, intensive module on The Sustainability Challenge for EMBA students
• A new formalized “Environment Option” for PhD students in Management interested in sustainability, in collaboration with the McGill School of Environment
• A unique series of five new Minors in Entrepreneurship, each with a common core but customized to the needs of undergraduate students from five partner faculties (Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Arts, Engineering, Music and Science)
• Two new introductory service courses on Management for non-Management students (Integrated Management Essentials 1 and 2)
• A Social Economy Initiative, which launched a Social Innovators’ Integration Lab in partnership with local community organizations as well as an Impact Internship program that places students in NGOs