Mark DesJardine
Assistant Professor
Department Management and Organization
Office Address 415 Business Building
Phone Number
814-865-2463
Email Address
desjardine@psu.edu
Mark DesJardine

Assistant Professor
Department Management and Organization
Office Address 415 Business Building
Phone Number
814-865-2463
Email Address
desjardine@psu.edu
Mark is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Sustainability at Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal College of Business. Prior to joining Smeal, Mark was an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Business Policy at HEC Paris, where he taught and oversaw Strategic Management in the MBA program.
Focusing on corporate short-termism, Mark’s research intersects strategy, sustainability, and finance. His primary focus is on understanding how investors shape the sustainability of companies and their actions toward other stakeholders. His work has been published in: 1) leading academic journals, such as the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal; 2) media outlets, such as Reuters, the New York Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, and the Financial Times; and 3) specialist outlets, such as Harvard Business Review, Principles of Responsible Investing, and Institutional Investor.
Mark has won won numerous awards for his research, including Best Paper Awards (AOM, SMS, ARCS) and People's Choice Awards (ARCS), as well as the Sumantra Ghoshal Research and Practice Award from the Academy of Management (Strategic Management Division). In 2021, Mark won two Emerging Scholar Awards, one from the Academy of Management (Organizations and the Natural Environment Division) and another from the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability, a Responsible Research in Management Award from the Academy of Management Fellows Group, and the Best Article Award from the FIR-Principles of Responsible Investment.
Mark serves on the Editorial Boards of Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, and Organization & Environment, and is a Representative-at-Large of the Stakeholder Interest Group of the Strategic Management Society.
Mark is a CFA Charterholder and holds a PhD from Western University’s Ivey Business School, where he was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal. Outside work, Mark is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys mountain biking, kayaking, and camping.
Expertise
Business sustainability / Corporate social responsibility
Shareholder activism
Corporate governance
Corporate short-termism
Education
Ph D, Strategy and Sustainability, Western University, 2016
CFA Charterholder, CFA Institute, 2013
Courses Taught
ENGR 425 – New Venture Creation (3)
Via problem-based learning, students define new business ventures to meet current market needs, develop business models, and present to various stakeholders. The goal of New Venture Creation is to better prepare undergraduate students to be leaders in adaptive, globally-minded, technology-savvy organizations. The course is structured so students develop skills that are of high value in any workplace: leadership skills, self-efficacy, creativity and the ability to deal with ambiguity. Upon course completion, students will have a working knowledge of traditional and non-traditional ways for identifying a new product or business opportunity, quantifying the potential, understanding the key competitive factors, researching the audience, and producing a convincing plan for financing and launch. Students who want to augment the skills and knowledge from their major with the ability to develop a new product/service/process, will find New Venture Creation a valuable course. This is a novel problem-based learning (PBL) course, where the learning is student-centered, with faculty acting primarily in the role of facilitators. Active/Experiential learning happens in this course because students develop ownership of their venture concepts and are fully responsible for the genesis of ideas.
IST 425 – New Venture Creation (3)
Via problem-based learning, students define new business ventures to meet current market needs, develop business models, and present to various stakeholders. The goal of New Venture Creation is to better prepare undergraduate students to be leaders in adaptive, globally-minded, technology-savvy organizations. The course is structured so students develop skills that are of high value in any workplace: leadership skills, self-efficacy, creativity and the ability to deal with ambiguity. Upon course completion, students will have a working knowledge of traditional and non-traditional ways for identifying a new product or business opportunity, quantifying the potential, understanding the key competitive factors, researching the audience, and producing a convincing plan for financing and launch. Students who want to augment the skills and knowledge from their major with the ability to develop a new product/service/process, will find New Venture Creation a valuable course. This is a novel problem-based learning (PBL) course, where the learning is student-centered, with faculty acting primarily in the role of facilitators. Active/Experiential learning happens in this course because students develop ownership of their venture concepts and are fully responsible for the genesis of ideas.
MGMT 425 – New Venture Creation (3)
Via problem-based learning, students define new business ventures to meet current market needs, develop business models, and present to various stakeholders. The goal of New Venture Creation is to better prepare undergraduate students to be leaders in adaptive, globally-minded, technology-savvy organizations. The course is structured so students develop skills that are of high value in any workplace: leadership skills, self-efficacy, creativity and the ability to deal with ambiguity. Upon course completion, students will have a working knowledge of traditional and non-traditional ways for identifying a new product or business opportunity, quantifying the potential, understanding the key competitive factors, researching the audience, and producing a convincing plan for financing and launch. Students who want to augment the skills and knowledge from their major with the ability to develop a new product/service/process, will find New Venture Creation a valuable course. This is a novel problem-based learning (PBL) course, where the learning is student-centered, with faculty acting primarily in the role of facilitators. Active/Experiential learning happens in this course because students develop ownership of their venture concepts and are fully responsible for the genesis of ideas.
MGMT 601 – Ph.D Dis Full-Time
NO DESCRIPTION.
Selected Publications
Best Paper (ARCS 2019)
Sumantra Ghoshal Research and Practice Award by STR Division (Academy of Management).
5-year SO! WHAT Award (Best Paper)