Christopher Marquis

Christopher Marquis
Christopher Marquis
Nationality	American
Known for	Imprinting Theory, Social Innovation and Change, Sustainable Business, Business in China
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame, University of Pittsburgh
Academic work
Sub-discipline	Organization Theory, Sustainability, Social Innovation, China
Institutions	Cambridge University
Website	chrismarquis.com

Christopher Marquis is the Sinyi Professor of Chinese Management at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge,^[1] England, and a Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge.^[2]

Marquis is the author of the books Better Business: How the B Corp Movement is Remaking Capitalism,^[3] Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise^[4] and The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profit and Socializes Cost.^[5]

Biography

Marquis received his PhD in sociology and business administration from the University of Michigan in 2005. He has a B.A in history from Notre Dame and an M.A. in history and M.B.A. with a concentration in finance from the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to his career in academia, Marquis was a Vice President at J.P. Morgan Chase.^[1]

From 2005 to 2015, Marquis taught at Harvard Business School, and from 2017 to 2018, he was a Visiting Professor of Social Innovation and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. From 2015 to 2022, he was the Samuel C. Johnson Professor in Sustainable Global Enterprise at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He was an associate editor of Administrative Science Quarterly from 2014 to 2020.^[6]

Books

Marquis's first book Better Business: How the B Corp Movement is Remaking Capitalism, was published in 2020 by Yale University Press. The book focuses on the ways in which entrepreneurs and companies can effectively shift from a shareholder- to stakeholder- orientation by reforming their governance and accountability systems.^[3]

Better Business has won many awards and recognitions including runner-up in the Financial Times Responsible Business Education Awards and the Axiom Business Book Awards Gold Medal in Business Ethics. It was also a finalist for Porchlight Books Business Book of the Year and a winner of the Responsible Research in Management Award. The book was listed on the Financial Times Top Business Books in October and, following publication in the UK, the Spear's magazine list of four best reads out in January, which called it a "prescient book when capitalism in its current form is coming under question."^[3]

Mao and Markets was published in 2022 by Yale University Press.^[4] The Financial Times recognized it as a Best Book of 2022^[7] and it won a Gold Medal from the Axiom Business Book Awards.^[8] It was a finalist for the George R Terry Book Award from the Academy of Management.^[9] Mao and Markets was profiled in feature articles in The New York Times^[10] and The Guardian.^[11] Martin Wolf, the Financial Times chief economics commentator said about Mao and Markets that "many western observers believed that China was moving towards free market capitalism and hoped that it would become more democratic as a result. (...) This important book shows that such beliefs and hopes were always naïve."^[7] Lingling Wei, the chief China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal praised Mao and Markets as "an important book at a crucial time for China's economy."^[12]

In 2024 PublicAffairs will publish Marquis’ third book The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profit and Socializes Cost which is not only a critique of the many ways companies shift their social and environmental responsibilities to the public, but also details a number of solutions for how businesses can be more sustainable and equitable and the pioneering companies who are doing so. Publishers Weekly described the book as an “impassioned exposé…The result is a galvanizing call to rein in corporate malfeasance.”

Academic research

Marquis's research in academic journals examines the interactions between corporations, government bodies, and society, and how these interactions can lead to socially and environmentally beneficial outcomes. In recent years, he has focused on how these processes unfold in China. His earliest research developed the idea of how organizations and institutions can be imprinted by their initial context.^[6]

His work has been published in leading management and sociology journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Harvard Business Review, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal. This research has been cited well over 10,000 times according to Google Scholar.^[13]

Honors and awards

Marquis has received several honors and awards for his research and teaching.^[1]·

Academy of Management, George R. Terry Best Book Award, Finalist, 2023 (for Mao and Markets)^[9]

Financial Times Best Books of 2022 List (for Mao and Markets)^[7]

Financial Times list of Books to read in 2023 (for Mao and Markets)^[14]

Axiom Business Book Awards 2021 Gold Medal, International Business Category (for Mao and Markets)^[8]
Financial Times Responsible Business Education Awards Runner-up, 2022 (for Better Business)^[15]
Responsible Research in Management Award, Community for Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM), 2021 (for Better Business)^[16]
Axiom Business Book Awards 2021 Gold Medal, Business Ethics Category (for Better Business)^[17]
Best Business Book of 2020 Finalist, Porchlight Books (for Better Business), Runner-up in the Management & Workplace Culture category^[18]
2019 Responsible Research in Management Award Finalist, Community for Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM)^[19]
International Educator Award, from China's State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs, 2018^[20]
Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Award Finalist for his course on social entrepreneurship, 2013^[21]
Academy of Management, William H. Newman Award for the best paper based on a dissertation, 2006^[22]
American Sociological Association, James D. Thompson Award for best graduate student paper, 2003^[23]

Teaching

Marquis's teaching is in the areas of strategic management and leadership and includes topics such as social entrepreneurship and innovation, sustainability, digital transformation, and doing business in China. He has also published over 50 Harvard case studies on these topics.^[24] For PhD's he regularly offers a course in strategic processes and organization theory.^[24]