Role
Dr Jacqueline Kirk is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Business in the Centre for Responsible and Sustainable Business (RSB). She specialises in narratives of value in decision making, net zero behavioural science, CSR and ESG and is particularly interested in these theories relate to a just transition. Jacqueline is also interested in deliberative methods of engagement, practices of impact, and how arts-based mediums can bridge the academic-public-policy divide.
Current projects include:
Widening inclusion spaces for participation in the evolution of research in sustainability (WISPERS): creating communication pathways through art-science collaboration. Funded by Trent Institute for Learning and Teaching (TILT) and Research Opportunity Fund (ROF).
Nottingham Climate Assemblies (NCA)
Practices if impact: Funded by ESRC/DESNZ Policy Fellowship
Jacqueline has held academic positions at Loughborough University, The University of Nottingham and The University of Leicester and she is an alumnus of The University of Leeds.
Career overview
Jacqueline began her academic career researching the barriers to development of alternatively fuelled vehicles at Loughborough University. She went on to gain her PhD from the University of Nottingham’s International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ICCSR) where she also undertook a Research Associate role working with ICCSR colleagues to explore the political contestation surrounding shale gas fracturing (fracking). Prior to joining NTU, Jacqueline worked as a Lecturer in International Business at the University of Leicester where she taught corporate social responsibility, international business and an experiential module on management in practice. Working collaboratively outside academia, Jacqueline has undertaken an ESRC/DESNZ Policy Fellowship, working with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to advise on how behavioural science approaches could be applied to net zero. Jacqueline is a member of the Centre for Responsible and Sustainable Business and was Acting Director of the Centre between May-November 2024.
Research areas
Jacqueline’s research focuses on narratives of value in organizations and society. She is particularly interested in how these narratives translate (or not) into responsible behaviours and practice. Previously, Jacqueline has explored this in the context of organisational responses to corporate social responsibility ratings, climate change, fracking, alternative fuelled vehicles and net zero behaviour science. However, her most recent focus widens the lens beyond narratives to explore arts-based engagement methods. Her recent project WISPERS (in collaboration with colleagues in Art and Design) explores how arts-based interpretations of academic research can create pathways to communication and impact whilst her work on Nottingham Climate Assemblies explores the role of artistic mediums in enhancing engagement in sustainability governance.
Jacqueline has published in journals and edited books including Organization Studies, British Journal of Management, Environmental Politics, Research in the Sociology of Organisations and Transportation Research D.
External activity
The Centre for RSB's Dr Jacqueline Kirk led an 18 month ESRC Policy Fellowship, working directly with The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on Net Zero Behavioural Science. The objective of this work was to enable academic knowledge exchange with central government whilst also facilitating the professional development of the academic in gaining insight into evidence-based policy making. Whilst embedded within the department, Dr Kirk worked on a range of projects at the intersection between individual and organisational behaviour science in the transition to net zero and was successful in securing additional funding to facilitate fieldwork within the fellowship.
Jacqueline’s research outputs from previous projects have been presented at numerous academic and professional conferences including The Academy of Management, The British Academy of Management, The European Group for Organization Studies and The International Association for Business and Society.
Jacqueline is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Publications
Kirk, J. Nyberg, D and Wright C. (2021) Divided yet united: Balancing convergence and divergence in environmental movement mobilization. Environmental Politics. [online]
Nyberg D, Wright C and Kirk J (2020) ‘Fracking the future: the temporal portability of frames in political contests’, Organization Studies. 41, 175-196.
Nyberg D, Wright C and Kirk J (2018) ‘Dash for gas: climate change, hegemony and the scalar politics of fracking in the UK’, British Journal of Management, 29, 235-251.
Kirk, J. (2017) ‘Participant value perceptions of CR Index measurement: A lifecycle of diminishing value’. Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society, 28, 118-131.
Nyberg D, Wright C and Kirk J (2017) 'Re-producing a neoliberal political regime: Competing justifications and dominance in disputing fracking', In: Justification, Evaluation and Critique in the Study of Organizations: Contributions from French Pragmatist Sociology. Research in the Sociology of Organisations. Emerald Publishing, Bingley, UK, 143-171.
Kirk, J. (2014). ‘The organisational dynamics of a corporate responsibility index’. In Social Responsibility, Ethics and Sustainable Business Theory and Practice (1st ed., pp. 175–196). Bucureşti: Editura ASE.
Kirk, J. L., Bristow, A. L., and Zanni, A. M. (2014). ‘Exploring the market for compressed natural gas light commercial vehicles in the United Kingdom’. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 29, 22–31.