Sebastian Fourne

Sebastian Fourné obtained his PhD at the Department of Strategic Management at Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University, in 2014. He was a visiting PhD Candidate at INSEAD in Singapore. Sebastian currently is visiting scholar at Erasmus University Rotterdam and at Singapore Management University.

Prior to joining Wilfrid Laurier University, Sebastian was Assistant Professor at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. 2007-2010 Sebastian gained practical experience in corporate finance and global strategy projects for the world’s leading diamond company, De Beers, in London, UK.

He obtained his MSc in Strategic Management 'Cum Laude' and his BSc in International Business Administration 'Cum Laude' at RSM and completed an exchange at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sebastian is also a professional golfer, an expert skier, a modestly talented tennis player, and overall a sports fan.

Sebastian is intrigued by the notion that most organizations tend to focus on existing businesses and clients, and are not able to break away from existing routines and processes in order to explore new business models and markets.

To what extent are existing firms able to facilitate the emergence of entrepreneurship within their organization and, even more difficult, balance this desire of innovation and change with a continued focus on operational excellence?

In this quest, Sebastian is interested in the strategic leadership roles as well as relationships (brokerage) of top and middle managers, in how they conjointly facilitate organizational change.

Sebastian's second research stream focuses on family-owned firms' resource allocation and withdrawal, for instance, from international markets.

Sebastian is an award winning author (e.g., the 2017 AOM IM Division's CEIBS Best Paper Award recipient and a John Wiley & Sons high impact author) and a prized reviewer. His research has been published in the Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, California Management Review, European Management Journal, Global Strategy Journal, Human Resource Management, Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Management Studies, Research Policy, and Small Business Economics.