Busch serves as an Associate Professor of Clinical Management and Organization at the USC Marshall School of Business. Previously, he taught at the London School of Economics (LSE) and New York University (NYU), where he directed the Center for Global Affairs’ Global Economy Program. He co-founded the organizations Leaders on Purpose and Sandbox Network, and served as co-director of LSE’s Innovation Lab.[8]
He has received multiple ‘Best Paper Awards’ from the Academy of Management,[12] as well as the Masini Award for Innovative Scholarship.[6] He serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Academy of Management Perspectives[13] and is a guest editor at the Strategic Management Journal for a special issue on ‘Serendipity, Chance, and Luck in Management and Strategy’.[14]
Busch has published several scientific papers on serendipity, conceptualizing it as “active luck”—the notion of actively making surprising and valuable discoveries. He identifies three key elements of serendipity that help distinguish it from related concepts: agency, surprise and value, and presents a multi-level model involving chance triggers, associations (creating new connections) and ‘materialization’ (realizing a specific possibility). Busch’s theory suggests that social actors have agency in creating serendipity: Like training ‘hard skills’ related to finance or engineering, it is possible to train serendipity-related skills such as alertness.[15][16]
He has delivered multiple TEDx Talks on topics such as serendipity, innovation, and purpose-driven leadership.[19]
Works (selected)
Busch, C. 2024. Towards a theory of serendipity: A systematic review and conceptualization. Journal of Management Studies, 61(3): 1110-1151.
Busch, C., & Mudida, R. 2024. Asserting and transcending ethnic homophily: How entrepreneurs develop social ties in socially contested environments to access resources and opportunities. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 18: 229-257.
Busch, C., Cattani, G., Fang, C., & Rindova, V. 2024. Call for papers: Special issue on chance, luck, and serendipity in strategy and management. Strategic Management Journal.
Busch, C., & Grimes, M. 2023. Serendipity in entrepreneurship, strategy, and innovation. In: Copeland, S., Ross, W. & Sand, M. (Eds.), Serendipity Science: 69-100. London: Springer Nature.
Busch, C., & Barkema, H.G. 2022. Planned luck: How incubators can facilitate serendipity for nascent entrepreneurs through fostering network embeddedness. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 46(4): 884-919.
Busch, C., & Hehenberger, L. 2022. How to evaluate the impact of corporate purpose. MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall Issue.
Busch, C., & Barkema, H.G. 2021. From necessity to opportunity: Scaling bricolage in resource-constrained environments. Strategic Management Journal, 42: 741-773.
Busch, C. 2020. The Serendipity Mindset. New York: Penguin Random House.
Busch, C. 2020. Toward an enlightened form of capitalism: The changing role of private organizations in the context of global affairs. In: * Ankersen, C., & Sidhu, W.P.S. (Eds.), The Future of Global Affairs: 97-122. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Busch, C. 2020. How to create your own career luck. Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (August 24, 2020).
Busch, C., & Barkema, H.G. 2019. Social entrepreneurs as network orchestrators: In: George, G., Tracey, P., Baker, T. & Havovi, J. (Eds.), Handbook of Inclusive Innovation: 464-486. London: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Author activity
He is the bestselling author of THE SERENDIPITY MINDSET, a “wise, exciting, and life-changing book” (Arianna Huffington) that “offers excellent practical guidance for all” (Paul Polman, former CEO, Unilever).[6][20] As of August 2024, it has been translated into 12 languages.[21] This book was a finalist for the 2018 Financial Times / McKinsey Bracken Bower Prize for "best business book proposal of the year by a young writer".[22]
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