Current oikos PhD Fellows

Lars Stein (1979) joined oikos as a PhD Fellow in October 2006. His research focuses on discoursive practices of organizational sustainability, which he examines in several parallel field studies with corporations engaged in social and environmental sustainability. With a constructivist view and a strong inclination with social systems theory, Lars Stein analyses the development and change of organizational rationalities that enable sustainable entrepreneurship and management (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Johannes Rüegg-Stürm).

As oikos PhD Fellow he initiated the oikos Project Development Fund and supports active oikos members by means of individual and group coaching. His coaching skills and methods build on extensive experience he gained in several consulting projects during his undergraduate and the first two years of PhD studies.

Contact: stein@dont-want-spam.oikosinternational.org

Kim Poldner (1978) will start her PhD Fellowship in September 2008. With a background in fashion, management and design (BA) and organization studies (MA), Kim has always blended academics, business and the creative industries in her work. Considering herself an ecopreneur, researcher and writer, Kim is devoting her energy mainly to boosting the ethical fashion movement. Apart from this passion she loves to indulge a green lifestyle through healthy cooking, enjoying the great outdoors and practicing yoga and sports.

Her PHD research explores how the ethical fashion industry develops from 2007-2011. Right now eco-design and ethical fashion are created and adopted by a small group of cultural creatives. It is important to analyze the drivers in this movement and their strategies for creating new lifestyles moving from niche to mainstream. Kim's research focuses on ecopreneurs within this movement: individuals who take a leading role in shaping the industry. It describes how they interact with each other and with demanding consumers and suppliers in a world that is rapidly becoming a network society. These cases can be viewed as models of a new paradigm of doing business.

Martin Herrndorf (1981) started his studies as an oikos PhD Fellow in February 2008. His research focus is on sustainable business innovations in the consumption arena in developing countries, combining a strategic management perspective with an analysis of their development contribution. Within oikos he is engaged on internal and external communication projects, strengthening the impact and visibility of oikos among key stakeholders.

As a researcher at the UNEP / Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption (Germany), he worked for clients like UNEP, the European Commission, the European Parliament, various government ministries and NGOs. Martin contributed to various high-profile publications and conferences like the UN-ESCAP Green Growth Summit. He graduated from the University of Cologne (Germany) in economics and political science in May 2006. He wrote his thesis on “Greening SMEs in developing countries” in collaboration with the National Institute of Ecology (Mexico). He worked as a free-lance journalist and editor for various media and was the founding director of a web service agency, which he continues to consult as a freelancer. He is further affiliated with the emergia institute (www.emergia.de).

To find out more about Martin, read about his thoughts and projects on www.herrndorf.de.

Contact: Herrndorf@dont-want-spam.oikosinternational.org

Nina Hug (1982) started her PhD studies in February 2008. Her research focus is on organizations’ internal communication processes accompanying change processes towards coherent sustainability strategies. She is carrying out her research within the research programme “public value management” at the Centre for Social Enterprise. Nina is supervised by Prof. Miriam Meckel, director of the Institute for Media and Communications Management (mcminstitute) at the University of St.Gallen.

As oikos PhD Fellow Nina is developing the oikos Project Leadership Programme that fosters sustainability entrepreneurship among oikos students. Nina holds a Master of Arts in Political Science (major), Journalism (minor) and Nature Protection (minor) from the University of Hamburg.

In 2007 Nina was President of oikos International and co-organized the oikos Conference and the oikos Spring and Autumn Meeting. In 2006 she was the Head of the organizing committee of the Hamburg Climate Days Conference.  While studying she gained professional experience as a freelance journalist.

Contact: hug@dont-want-spam.oikosinternational.org