LBS expert tops field of 2,300 studies

Market response to language will go under the microscope.

Donal Crilly, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, has been awarded a Consolidator Grant worth €801,926 (£692,000) from the European Research Council (ERC).

The three year project will investigate how managers’ use of different metaphors when describing their firms’ social and environmental initiatives engenders support, or opposition, from investors and other stakeholders.

Dr Crilly said: “This research will unveil the latent ways in which managers think about, and explain, the pressing societal challenges facing their firms as well as the mechanisms through which subtle forms of communication shape market responses. I am very grateful to the ERC for this grant and to the School for its support in the process.”

This competitive award was made under the ERC's Consolidator Grant scheme. The ERC evaluated 2,389 research proposals under this round, of which 12.2% were funded. The ERC's main aim is to stimulate scientific excellence by supporting and encouraging the very best and truly creative scientists, scholars and engineers to be adventurous and take risks in their research.

Dr Crilly’s research focuses on stakeholder theory, managerial cognition, and intertemporal choice. He is Associate Editor at the Strategic Management Journal, and an editorial board member of the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, the Journal of International Business Studies, and Strategic Organization.