Kupers has written on complexity,resilience,energy transition,and climate change,examining their interdependencies to address challenges and develop policy approaches. His scholarly contributions include journal articles,book chapters,and books including The Essence of Scenarios:Learning from the Shell Experience and Complexity and the Art of Public Policy:Solving Society's Problems from the Bottom Up. Additionally,his work has appeared in publications including the Harvard Business Review and Project Syndicate.[2] He contributed to a report commissioned by the German government on a new growth path for Europe.[3]
For a year,Kupers held the position of Research Director at the THNK School of Leadership from 2012 to 2013. In 2013,he was appointed as a visiting professor at Singapore Management University and as Global Methane Policy Advisor at the Environmental Defense Fund,positions he held until 2018 and 2020,respectively. Additionally,between 2018 and 2022,he was a Visiting Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study,University of Amsterdam,and since 2020,he has been a professor of Practice at the Thunderbird School of Global Management,Arizona State University.[1]
Works
Kupers' research spans areas of theoretical physics,including complexity,resilience,and energy transition. In 2013,he examined how plausibility-based scenario practices grapple with 21st-century challenges,emphasizing their role in strategic renewal,systemic risk anticipation,and large-scale transitions—particularly in navigating complex,uncertain environments.[9] In the following year,he edited Turbulence:A Corporate Perspective on Collaborating for Resilience,which explored how multinational corporations leveraged resources and collaboration to enhance global resilience in food,water,and energy amid climate change. Alongside Colander,he co-authored Complexity and the Art of Public Policy:Solving Society's Problems from the Bottom Up,exploring complexity science's impact on policy,critiqued traditional economics,and promoted 'activist laissez-faire' strategies for innovation,social entrepreneurship,and adaptive governance. David Sloan Wilson,in his review of Complexity and the Art of Public Policy,described it as a milestone in applying scientific knowledge to real-world problem-solving. He further asserted that if widely read and implemented,the book could drive a long-overdue paradigm shift,ultimately making the world a better place.[10]
In 2020,Kupers authored A Climate Policy Revolution:What the Science of Complexity Reveals About Saving Our Planet,examining how complexity science can drive responses to climate challenges. In a discussion about his book with Martin Reeves,he stated,"the main thesis is that the longer we wait to deal with climate,the faster we need to act." He further emphasized that "specifically,our insight into complex systems will be helpful and certainly more helpful than economics."[11] Joel Terwilliger,in his review of this book,stated that "Roland Kupers' book is an important contribution to understanding the limitations of current top-down and market-based approaches." Moreover,he further added that,"Kupers injects a healthy dose of optimism into the debate."[12]
Bibliography
Books
Turbulence:A Corporate Perspective on Collaborating for Resilience (Amsterdam University Press,2014) ISBN 9789089647122
The Essence of Scenarios:Learning from the Shell Experience (Amsterdam University Press,2014) ISBN 9789048522101
Complexity and the Art of Public Policy:Solving Society's Problems from the Bottom Up (Princeton University Press,2016) ISBN 9780691169132
A Climate Policy Revolution:What the Science of Complexity Reveals about Saving Our Planet (Harvard University Press,2020) ISBN 9780674246812
Hester van Eeghen:A World of Bags (NAI010,2024) ISBN 9462088918
Falling in Love while Stuffing a Zebra - a Philosophical Tale (Greenleaf,2025) ISBN 979-8886453577
Selected articles
Jaeger,C. C.,Paroussos,L.,Mangalagiu,D.,Kupers,R.,Mandel,A.,Tàbara,J. D.,... &Wolf,S. (2011). A new growth path for Europe. Generating Prosperity and Jobs in the Low-Carbon Economy. Synthesis Report PIK,University of Oxford,ICCS,UniversitéParis,1.
Wilkinson,A.,&Kupers,R. (2013). Living in the future. Harvard Business Review,91(5),118–127.
Zeppini,P.,Frenken,K.,&Kupers,R. (2014). Thresholds models of technological transitions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions,11,54–70.
Zaccaria,A.,Cristelli,M.,Kupers,R.,Tacchella,A.,&Pietronero,L. (2016). A case study for a new metrics for economic complexity:The Netherlands. Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination,11,151–169.
Heinrich,S.,&Kupers,R. (2018). Complexity as a big idea for secondary education:Evaluating a complex systems curriculum. Systems Research and Behavioral Science,36(1),100–110.
Sun,T.,Shrestha,E.,Hamburg,S. P.,Kupers,R.,&Ocko,I. B. (2024). Climate impacts of hydrogen and methane emissions can considerably reduce the climate benefits across key hydrogen use cases and time scales. Environmental Science &Technology,58(12),5299–5309.
↑ Wilkinson, Angela; Kupers, Roland; Mangalagiu, Diana (May 2013). "How plausibility-based scenario practices are grappling with complexity to appreciate and address 21st century challenges". Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 80 (4): 699–710. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2012.10.031.[non-primary source needed]
↑ Terwilliger, Joel (19 September 2022). "A climate policy revolution: what the science of complexity reveals about saving our planet: by Roland Kupers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020. $29.95/£23.95/€27.00 (hardback). ISBN 9780674972124". Environmental Politics. 31 (6): 1102–1104. doi:10.1080/09644016.2022.2079213.
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