My research is practice and process-oriented, and frequently draws on Heideggerian-Wittgensteinian approaches to social practices to engage with cross-level management research problems. My research interests primarily focus on the intersection of strategy, organisation studies, and innovation. My current research concerns relationalism and process theory, second-order technology and innovation management, business tournament rituals, strategy-as-practice, strategic foresight and temporality, discursive practices, and the world making of European cosmopolitan marketplaces. Methodologically, much of these work is qualitative oriented and focuses on theorising organizing repertoires, performative routines, and how activities, dispositions, and choices get ordered over time to shape innovation and strategy in organizing. I also frequently employ microstoria, narratives,  ethnographic interviews, and publicly available digital datasets for my empirical inquiries.

Contact Details

Email: [email protected]

Telephone: +44 (0) 121 204 4023

I am Professor of Strategy and Organisation, and Director of the Aston MRes in Business and Management programme. Before joining Aston, I was Professor of Strategic Management at Brunel University London, where I also served as Head of the Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and International Business (SEIB) Research Group. I previously held the position of Division Lead of the Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and International Business Subject Group at Brunel, and Course Director at UWE Bristol, Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) Laboratory for Economics of Innovation, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Management, Information Technology, and Public Governance, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Externally, I am the Founding Chair of the Academy of Management Ghana (AMaG), elected UK Country Representative for the European Academy of Management (EURAM), and a Member of the International Committee of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS), where I am working with colleagues to identifying and exploring novel strategies for the academy to tackle the biggest issues facing the internationalisation of business schools, both in the UK and abroad. I am also the Chair of the Strategy Special Interest Group (SiG) of the British Academy of Management (BAM). Prior to this, I was Convenor of the annual Doctoral Symposium of the Academy, and elected Vice Chair of the Academy from 2022-2025. In terms of scholarship, I am the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Strategy and Leadership (SL), Associate Editor for Business Strategy and the Environment (BSE), Associate Editor for Technology Analysis and Strategic Management (TASM), Managing Regional Real Impact Editor – Europe for the Journal of Knowledge Management (KM), and Senior Associate Editor for the European Management Journal (EMJ). I currently enjoy a Visiting Professorship at the Bristol Business School, an Adjunct Visiting Professorship at the KNUST Business School, and Trustee and Board Membership at The Milestones Trust, a social care charity based in Bristol that supports adults with learning disabilities and mental health issues, and people with complex cases of dementia. 

Professor Sarpong's research focuses on strategy, organisation studies, innovation, relationalism, process theory and strategic foresight.