Christian Busch (*

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

Bergisch Gladbach Bergisch Gladbach () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in the Cologne/Bonn Region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and capital of the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis (district). Geography Bergisch Gladbach is east of the Rhine and abo ...

) is a

management scientist Management science (or managerial science) is a wide and interdisciplinary study of solving complex problems and making strategic decisions as it pertains to institutions, corporations, governments and other types of organizational entities. It is ...

, author and public speaker recognized for his work on serendipity, innovation, and purpose-driven leadership. He is a business

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the University of Southern California (USC)

Marshall School of Business The USC Marshall School of Business is the business school of the University of Southern California. It is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. In 1997 the school was renamed following a $35 million donation fr ...

and an affiliate researcher at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

Education

Busch earned a

Bachelor of Business Administration A Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is an undergraduate degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of four years and typically 120 credits of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of busine ...

(B.B.A.) from Furtwangen University, and a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(B.A.) in Politics and Organization at the

University of Hagen The University of Hagen (, informally often referred to as FU Hagen) is a Public university, public research university that is primarily focused on distance education, distance teaching. While its main campus is located in Hagen, North Rhine- ...

. He received his

M.Sc. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degrees in management at the

. Curriculum Vitae Christian Busch
on uscmarshallweb

Career and awards

Busch serves as an Associate Professor of Clinical Management and Organization at the

USC Marshall School of Business The USC Marshall School of Business is the business school of the University of Southern California. It is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. In 1997 the school was renamed following a $35 million donation fr ...

. Previously, he taught at the London School of Economics (LSE) and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

(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. He is a member of the Expert Forum of the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

, a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

, among CAPITAL's ‘Top 40 under 40’ and on the Thinkers50 Radar list of management thinkers ‘most likely to shape the future’. Busch is also a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ of the

Academy of Management An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the g ...

Research

Busch’s research interests include: *

Serendipity Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery. The term was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. The concept is often associated with scientific and technological breakthroughs, where accidental discoveries led to new insights or inventions. Ma ...

Leadership Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

and strategy-making under uncertainty * Social

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

and social

innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or service (economics), services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a n ...

* High-growth entrepreneurship and innovation *

Emerging markets An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or we ...

He has received multiple ‘Best Paper Awards’ from the

, as well as the Masini Award for Innovative Scholarship. He serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Academy of Management Perspectives and is a guest editor at the

Strategic Management Journal The Strategic Management Society (SMS) is a professional society for the advancement of strategic management. The society consists of nearly 3,000 members representing various backgrounds and perspectives from more than eighty different countries ...

for a special issue on ‘Serendipity, Chance, and Luck in Management and Strategy’. 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. Busch’s research is widely used in educational and professional development programs, including by the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

and Harvard Business Review's Harvard ManageMentor. He has delivered multiple TEDx Talks on topics such as serendipity, innovation, and purpose-driven leadership.

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 Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (; , ; born July 15, 1950) is a Greek American author, syndicated columnist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of ''HuffPost'', the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, and the author of fifteen books. She ha ...

) that “offers excellent practical guidance for all” (

Paul Polman Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman, (born 11 July 1956) is a Dutch people, Dutch businessman and author. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the British/Dutch consumer goods company Unilever. Polman is also the co-author (with Andrew ...

, former CEO, Unilever). As of August 2024, it has been translated into 12 languages. 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". He contributes columns to

Psychology Today ''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. The publication began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The print magazine's reported circulation is 275,000 as of 2023. ...

as well as Wirtschaftswoche.

Private

Busch is German, married to an

US-American People from the United States of America are known as and refer to themselves as Americans. Different languages use different terms for citizens of the United States. All forms of English refer to US citizens as Americans, a term deriving fro ...

woman and has one daughter.

References

External links

Cathy Caprino: A Science-Based Framework Helps Individuals And Organizations Experience More Good Luck
Interview with C. Busch Jul 22, 2021 Forbes
Official website The Serendipity Mindset

Psychology Today blog
Christian Busch
TEDxUCLA talk: The Only Certainty Is Uncertainty Christian Busch and Lexi Montée

Christian Busch: Connect the Dots: The Art & Science of Creating Good Luck
TEDxConnecticutCollege
Connect the Dots Book Review: Robert J. Pidduck: Connect the Dots: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck
Book review LSE Review of Books {{DEFAULTSORT:Busch, Christian management scientists 1984 births University of Southern California faculty Living people Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts