prof.dr. P.P.M.A.R. (Pursey) Heugens

Pursey Heugens
Full Professor
Rotterdam School of Management (RSM)
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Fellow ERIM
Field: Strategy & Entrepreneurship
Affiliated since 1997

Pursey Heugens is a professor of organisation theory, development, and change at the Department of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).

His research interests include comparative corporate governance, business ethics, and bureaucracy, institutional, and demographic theories of organisation.

Professor Heugens has won numerous awards for his research and teaching. He currently serves on the editorial boards of six scholarly journals. His research has been published in academic journals including the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, Organization Studies, and the Journal of Management Studies.

His most recent works argues that the field of organisation theory is locked into a state of permanent failure due to powerful centrifugal forces which prevent it from producing a unified theory of organisational effectiveness – while equally strong centripetal forces keep university administrators and policy makers from cashing in their chips.

He offers three research strategies that might end the stalemate by increasing the integration, relevance and realism of current theories of organisation.

He obtained his PhD from RSM in 2001.

Publications (81)

Key Publications (15)

Articles (60)

Books (2)

  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens, J. van Oosterhout & J.J. Vromen (2004). The Social Institutions of Capitalism: Evolution and Design of Social Contracts. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens (Ed.). (2001). Strategic issues management: Implications for corporate performance (ERIM Ph.D series research in management, ISSN 1568-1726 ; 7). Rotterdam: ERIM

Book Contributions (10)

  • J.J. Kroezen & P.P.M.A.R. Heugens (2012). Organizational Identity Formation: Processes of Identity Imprinting and Enactment in the Dutch Microbrewing Landscape. In M. Schultz, S. Maguire, A. Langley & H. Tsoukas (Eds.), Perspectives on Process Organization Studies Volume 2 (pp. 89-127). Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens (2011). Social institutions of capitalism. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), Blackwell Concise Encyclopedia of Sociology (pp. 48-49). Oxford: Blackwell
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens (2010). Social institutions of capitalism. In G. Ritzer & J.M. Ryan (Eds.), Concise Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology . Oxford: Blackwell
  • S. Osadchiy, I. Bogenrieder & P.P.M.A.R. Heugens (2010). Organizational learning through problem absorption: A processual view. In T. Hernes & S. Maitlis (Eds.), Perspectives on Process Organization Studies . Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens & J. van Oosterhout (2008). Much ado about nothing: A conceptual critique of corporate social responsibility. In D.S. Siegel, D. Matten, A. McWilliams & A. Crane (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility (pp. 197-223). Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens (2007). Organizations and the theory of the firm. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), The Blackwell encyclopedia of Sociology (pp. 3326-3331). Oxford: Blackwell
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens (2007). Social institutions of capitalism. In G Ritzer (Ed.), The Blackwell encyclopedia of Sociology (pp. 395-398). Oxford: Blackwell
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens (2005). Issues management: Core understandings and scholarly development. In P. Harris & C. Fleisher (Eds.), The Handbook of Public Affairs (pp. 481-500). London: Sage
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens, J. van Oosterhout & J.J. Vromen (2004). Social Contract Theories: E Pluribus Unum? In P.P.M.A.R Heugens & J. Van Oosterhout (Eds.), The Social Institutions of capitalism: Evolution and Design of Social Contracts (pp. 1-19). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens, S.P. Kaptein, J. van Oosterhout & J.F.D.B. Wempe (2002). Ethical Criteria for Corporations. In S.P. Kaptein & J. Wempe (Eds.), The Balanced Company: a Theory of Corporate Integrity (pp. 227-262). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press

Doctoral Thesis

Inaugural Speech

Professional Publications (7)

  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens (2017). Why can't China clean up its act? RSM Discovery - Management Knowledge, 30 (2), 17-19.
  • J. van Oosterhout, P.P.M.A.R. Heugens & M. van Essen (2013). The effect of blockholders in corporate governance. RSM Insight, 13 (1), 18-19.
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens (2009). Een mooie toekomst voor een chronisch tekortschietend vakgebied. Holland Management Review, 125 (-), 2-8.
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens, S.P. Kaptein & N.A. den Nieuwenboer (2007, december 20). Liever high-trust toezicht. Het Financiële Dagblad
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens, Frans, A.J. Van Den Bosch & C.B.M. van Riel (2001). Stakeholder integratie: werken aan wederzijds versterkende relaties. M en O, 55 (4), 5-26.
  • P.P.M.A.R. Heugens (1998). Naar een nieuwe definitie van crisismanagement: plaatsbepaling. Tijdschrift voor Strategische Bedrijfscommunicatie, 4 (2), 16-17.
  • Frans, A.J. Van Den Bosch, P.P.M.A.R. Heugens & C.B.M. van Riel (1998). De introductie van GMO-soja in Nederland. Beschrijving en analyse van de communicatie en de strategie van het margarine-, vetten- en oliën-cluster in de periode 1992-1998. (Extern rapport). Rotterdam: Corporate Communication Centre

PhD Tracks (38)

The Information-Based View on Business Network Performance
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Sarita Koendjbiharie
  • Time frame: 2007 - 2014
Transition Process and Performance in IT Outsourcing: Evidence from a Field Study and Laboratory Experiments
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Vinay Tiwari
  • Time frame: 2006 - 2010
Configurations of Inter-Firm Relations in Management Innovation: A Study in China's Biopharmaceutical Industry
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Johannes Meuer
  • Time frame: 2006 - 2011
Innovation in an Uncertain Institutional Environment: Private Software Entrepreneurs in Hangzhou, China
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Mark Greeven
  • Time frame: 2004 - 2009
Behind Networks: Knowledge Transfer, Favor Exchange and Performance
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: René van der Eijk
  • Time frame: 2003 - 2009
Typical Atypicality: Formal and Informal Institutional Conformity, Deviance, and Dynamics
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Nathan Betancourt
  • Time frame: 2008 - 2012
Idea Management: Perspectives from Leadership, Learning, and Network Theory
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Dirk Deichmann
  • Time frame: 2007 - 2012
Profits or Professionalism? On designing professional service firms
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Michel Lander
  • Time frame: 2007 - 2012
The Dynamics of Formal Organization: Essays on Bureaucracy and Formal Rules
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Sergey Osadchiy
  • Time frame: 2007 - 2011
On getting along and getting ahead: How personality contributes to social network dynamics
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Evgenia Dolgova
  • Time frame: 2007 -
Corporate Reputation Management: Reaching Out to Financial Stakeholders
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Yijing Wang
  • Time frame: 2008 - 2013
Steering Through: How Organizations Negotiate Permanent Uncertainty and Unresolvable Choices
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Prabhir Vishnu
  • Time frame: 2007 - 2011
People, Politics, and Innovation: A Process Perspective
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Lameez Alexander
  • Time frame: 2008 - 2014
Unlocking Business Model Innovation
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Jaco Smit
  • Time frame: 2009 - 2016
No Team is an Island: an Integrative View of Strategic Consensus between Groups
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Jeanine Porck
  • Time frame: 2009 - 2013
An Organizational Perspective on Auditor Conduct
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Jorien Pruijssers
  • Time frame: 2010 - 2015
Managing Organizational Tensions: A Multi-level Perspective on Exploration, Exploitation, and Ambidexterity
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Sebastian Fourné
  • Time frame: 2010 - 2014
Socially Situated Financial Markets:a Neo-Behavioral Perspective on Firms, Investors and Practices
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Ivana Naumovska
  • Time frame: 2010 - 2014
Why ‘Doing Good’ is Not Good Enough. Essays on Social Impact Measurement
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Kellie Liket
  • Time frame: 2010 - 2014
Connecting Minds: On the Role of Metaknowledge in Knowledge Coordination
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Julija Mell
  • Time frame: 2011 - 2015
The Renewal of Mature Industries: An Examination of the Revival of the Dutch Beer Brewing Industry
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Jochem Kroezen
  • Time frame: 2010 - 2014
Overcoming Resource Constraints: The Role of Creative Resourcing and Equity Crowdfunding in Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Roxana Turturea
  • Time frame: 2012 - 2018
We are (all) the champions: The effect of status in the implementation of innovations
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Balazs Szatmari
  • Time frame: 2012 - 2016
Praise the Lord! Infusing Values and Emotions into Neo-Institutional Theory
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Hendra Wijaya
  • Time frame: 2012 - 2019
Corporate Environmentalism in China
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Ruxi Wang
  • Time frame: 2012 - 2017
Multinational Enterprises and Limits to International Growth: Links between Domestic and Foreign Activities in a Firm’s Portfolio
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Guus Hendriks
  • Time frame: 2013 - 2019
Organizations and their External Context: Impressions across time and space
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Ron Maas
  • Time frame: 2014 - 2019
Will Directorhsip Get You There: How Joining a Board Directly (and Indirectly) Affects Directors’ Career Prospects
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Ilaria Orlandi
  • Time frame: 2015 -
Capturing the Strategic Value of Corporate Venturing
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Jitse Duijsters
  • Time frame: 2016 -
A Multi-Method Exploration of Sensemaking in Context
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Sai Kalvapalle
  • Time frame: 2017 -
Institutions for Sustainable Business in China
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Wenjie Liu
  • Time frame: 2018 -
Firms and the State: An Examination of Corporate Political Activity and the Business-Government Interface
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Omar El Nayal
  • Time frame: 2014 - 2019
Corporate Leadership, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Firm Performance
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Shara Darr
  • Time frame: 2017 -
The Effectiveness of Organizational Controls: A meta-analytic review and an investigation in NPD outsourcing
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Vikrant Sihag
  • Time frame: 2013 - 2019
Life in Limbo: Institutions, Identity and Entrepreneurship in a Refugee Camp
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: S M Musa
  • Time frame: 2018 -
PhD in Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Hanisha --
  • Time frame: 2019 -
Human Resource Analytics
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Jiawei Fu
  • Time frame: 2019 -
Inclusivity Through Menstrual Health: Social Enterprises and the Challenge of Collaborative Governance for Societal Change
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Maria Carmen Punzi
  • Time frame: 2019 -

Recognitions (6)

Editorial positions (6)

  • Journal of Business Ethics

    Editorial Board

  • Corporate Reputation Review

    Editorial Board

  • Business and Society

    Editorial Board

  • Business Ethics Quarterly

    Editorial Board

  • Journal of Public Affairs

    Editorial Board

  • Strategic Organization

    Editorial Board

Courses (2)

Past
  • Advanced Topics in Organisation Theory (2017/2018)

PhD Vacancy (1)

PhD in Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship

To develop world-class academics pursuing high-impact research in Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship, we have developed a doctoral programme that combines deep-level understanding in core topics and thorough grounding in methodological design and analytical skills. Joining the PhD programme means joining a Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship group with a highly collaborative and cutting-edge research culture. The group harbors expertise in a broad range of topics: faculty members and PhD students work across nearly all relevant areas of the strategic management and entrepreneurship fields.

Throughout the programme, PhD students work closely with faculty on joint and supervised research. Teamwork offers candidates the opportunity to learn diverse research skills and become familiar with a range of debates in the field before selecting the focus of subsequent doctoral work. 

Excellent job opportunities: Alumni of the PhD programme hold academic positions in renowned academic institutes around the world, including Cambridge, ETH Zurich, HEC Paris, INSEAD, McGill University, the University of South Carolina, Renmin University, and Warwick Business School.

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Events (54)

2019
November
28
ERIM Awards Ceremony 2019
Other
As: Speaker
2018
December
12
ERIM Awards Ceremony 2018
Other
As: Speaker
2017
December
13
ERIM Awards Ceremony 2017
Other
As: Speaker
2017
June
01
Good Deeds Done in Silence: Legitimacy Management, Stakeholder Saliency, and Silent Giving by Chinese Firms
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2015
May
26
Next Generation Diner
Research Seminar
As: Speaker
2015
May
26
Family Businesses Invited to ECFB Dinner Discussion
Conference
As: Speaker
2014
December
09
The Institutional Accommodation of Open Access in Higher Education Publishing
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2014
December
05
The Division of Labour in Service Industries: Evidence from the Residential Real Estate Industry
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2014
November
26
Demand Heterogeneity and the Adoption of Platform Complements
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2014
November
13
Disentangling Discontinuous Environmental Change
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2013
December
16
Should Birds of a Feather Flock Together? Agglomeration by Nationality as a Constraint in International Expansion
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2013
December
10
Learning to Learn or Learning to Coordinate? The Influence of Alliance Experience on Acquisition Performance
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2013
December
09
The Effect of CEO Compensation on their Responses to Institutional Pressures: Evidence from the Choice between Cross-Border Alliances and Acquisitions
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2013
December
04
Varieties in State Capitalism: Outward FDI Strategies of Central and Local State Owned Enterprises from Emerging Economy Countries
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2013
December
03
Behind the Scenes: The Inside Story of the IWC 1982 Whaling Moratorium and its Impact on Greenpeace's International Strategies
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2013
June
20
R&D Investment in Family and Non-Family Sart-ups: A Behavioral Perspective
Research Seminar
As: Contact, Coordinator
2013
June
13
Understanding the Environments of Emerging Markets: The Social Costs of Institutional Voids
ERIM Farewell Address
As: Coordinator
2013
June
13
The Politics of Institutions and Firms: Implications for Organization and Strategy
Valedictory symposium
As: Coordinator
2012
December
12
Opening Up but Staying Local: Insights from Partnership Formations between Established and Startup Firms
Research Seminar
As: Contact, Coordinator
2012
December
04
Two Presentations on Entrepreneurial Action: Disinhibition and Nascent Entrepreneurial Behavior, & Heterogeneity in Entrepreneurial Spinoff Performance
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2012
December
03
Lets (Not?) Hang Out! Examining the Exit of Prestigious Directors from Newly Public Firms
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2012
November
30
Academic Symposium on Family Business
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2012
November
29
A Behavioral Perspective on Inventors’ Mobility: The Case of Pharmaceutical Industry
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2012
November
22
Organizations and Ethics: The Adoption and Implementation of the Ethics and Compliance Officer
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2012
November
08
Configurations for Effective Entrepreneurial Judgment: A Cognitive Structural Perspective on the Process of Early-Stage Investing
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator, Contact
2012
September
27
The Impact of Organizational Prototypes and Industry Clusters on the Fates of Northern Bavarian (Franconian) Breweries
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2012
June
07
The Dissolution of Categories: Process, Organizational Behavior and Consequences
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2012
May
16
Chance events in entrepreneurial opportunity development
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2012
January
30
The Co-Evolution of Industries, Social Movements and Institutions: A Study of Wind Power
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2012
January
24
Categorical Cleaning: Divestitures as a Strategic Response to Sustainability Concerns
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2012
January
19
The Market that Never was: Turf Wars and Failed Alliances in Mobile Payments
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2012
January
10
Industry-Level Variability of Learning Outcomes from the Accumulation of Implementation: Experience with an Administrative Innovation
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2012
January
04
Connecting the Dots: A Study of Managerial Network Cognition and Contract Wins Among Firms Tendering for the 2014 Olympic Games in Russia
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2011
October
19
Symposium on the Economic Value of Corporate Reputation
Research Seminar
As: Speaker
2011
June
21
Rule-Based Learning: Problem Absorption and Knowledge Integration into Clinical Practice Guidelines
Research Seminar
As: Speaker
2011
May
30
to be announced
ERIM Research Clinic
As: Speaker
2011
May
23
How Do Family Firms Differ? A Meta-analysis
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2011
February
24
The Choice Between Joint Ventures and Acquisitions: Insights from Signaling Theory
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2010
November
25
Stigmatized Categories and Public Disapproval of Organizations: Theory and Evidence from the Global Arms Industry (1996-2007)
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2010
November
10
Institutional Work and the Transformation of an Organizational Field: Exploring the Interplay of Boundary Work and Practice Work
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2010
June
30
Advances in Organizational Attention Studies
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2010
May
03
ERIM Research Clinic: Organizations and Institutions
ERIM Research Clinic
As: Speaker
2008
November
05
ERIM Grant Workshop
Institute Event
As: Speaker
2008
September
12
Organization theory: bright prospects for a permanently failing field
Inaugural Address
As: Speaker
2008
June
23
Workshop International Developments in Management and Organization of Temporary Agency Work
Research Workshop
As: Coordinator
2008
June
09
Uses and Abuses of Governance Indicators
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2008
May
28
Bureaucracy and Technology: The Consequences of Information
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2008
February
19
Take your responsibility and let you inform about EU grants!
ERIM Grant Workshop
As: Coordinator
2008
January
30
Conformity and Defiance of High- and Middle-Conforming Actors: The Case of Share Repurchase by U.S. Specialized and Diversified Firms in the 1997-2005 Period
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2007
December
05
Taking Happiness Seriously: A Neo-Utilitarian Moral Foundation for Managerial Decision Making
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2007
October
17
The Role of Professionals in Deinstitutionalization: A Comparative Study of the Danish and French Construction Industry
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2007
October
10
Workshop on Meta-analytic Methods
Research Workshop
As: Coordinator
2007
September
26
Imagined Worlds: the Role of Metaphors and Metaphorical Scenes in Sensemaking Accounts
Research Seminar
As: Coordinator
2001
October
19
Strategic Issues Management: Implications for Corporate Performance
PhD Defence
As: Speaker

Awards (3)

Address

Visiting address

Office: Mandeville Building T07-57 (Dept) or T06-01 (ERIM)
Burgemeester Oudlaan 50
3062 PA Rotterdam

Postal address

Postbus 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

Research Initiatives

Latest publication

A.J.J. Maas, P.P.M.A.R. Heugens & T.H. Reus (2019). Viceroys or emperors? An institution-based perspective on merger and acquisition prevalence and shareholder value. Journal of Management Studies, 56 (1), 234-269. doi: 10.1111/joms.123351