Role
Toke Bjerregaard is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Management, Nottingham Business School (NTU), and in the Centre for Responsible and Sustainable Business. His research explores the work of strategising and organising in complex contexts, with current work on grand challenges and sustainability.
Career overview
Toke’s research has revolved around the work of strategising, organising, and managing in complex contexts. The research has addressed the strategies and practices of organisations in navigating a range of complex settings. The research is often grounded in practice-based studies. He has also had a keen interest in research conversations at the intersections of institutional theory and practice-based management studies. Over the past years, this agenda has evolved into a line of studies on strategy processes and practices around grand societal challenges within and across organisations and sectors. He thus explores the practices and processes through which organisations strategise and tackle societal challenges. Toke holds a PhD in management studies from and has worked as associate professor at Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University, Denmark. He also holds a research degree in social anthropology and ethnography.
Teaching: taught topics such as global management (strategy, IHRM, global talent management, CSR in MNCs, culture etc), qualitative methodology, team management, strategy as practice, organizational change etc. Designed, led and delivered modules within such areas.
Supervision: Toke supervises students within the broad fields of strategy, organization and leadership as well as international business and management (including, but not limited to, sustainability, CSR etc). He welcomes students at all academic levels, from undergraduate to PhD students. Current Director of Studies for two PhD students and co-supervisor for two further PhD students. He has supervised 3 PhD students to completion, with doctoral research from these supervisions receiving multiple AoM awards. Supervised 80+ UG/Master's candidates to dissertation completion.
Research areas
Toke studies the strategies and practices mobilised by organisations and their actors in strategising, organising and managing in complex contexts. Recent projects explore practices and processes, within and between organizations, involved in tackling grand societal challenges. Some studies for example explore strategy practices and processes of multinational corporations in tackling grand societal challenges. These studies are examples of ‘grand challenge’ research within the field of strategy and organisation studies that deals with challenges faced by local and global communities and firms’ involvement in tackling them.
Research topics: Managing, strategising and organising in complex contexts, strategy-as-practice, grand challenges and sustainability
Indicative research projects: Strategy as practice in global business; sustainable cities; cross-sector collaborations (across firms, communities, NGOs, public organisations etc) on tackling a multitude of interacting social and ecological (e.g. biodiversity loss) challenges
Recent grants and awards: PI, SAMS (“Developing the Management Studies Community”).
Awards: BAM 2025 Best Developmental Paper Award (SAP); EMJ Best Reviewer Award 2023 (recognised again 2025 for sustained reviewer excellence). Prior funding: Danish national councils; Aarhus Research Foundation, among others.
Current projects
Co(l)laboratory PhD: Research England-funded, community embedded doctoral project, DoS, 2025-
The Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (PI, 2025-)
Selected funded projects:
CSO strategising in MNCs; Strategising for grand challenges in MNCs, funded by Danish sources (prior PI)
Selected publications
Work appears in journals such as: Organization Studies, British Journal of Management, Strategic Organization, European Management Journal, Technovation, Economic and Industrial Democracy.
External activity
Referee activity: Reviewing for journals such as Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, British Journal of Management, Human Relations, Academy of Management Review, Research Policy, European Management Journal, Strategic Organization. Consultancy/policy contributions for industry and government; collaborations with public, private and hybrid organisations. Stays abroad: Visiting Scholar/Residential Fellowship at Stanford University; Lund University.