Sheila M. Puffer - D'Amore-McKim School of Business

Education

PhD Business Administration, University of California-Berkeley
Diploma in Management, Plekhanov Institute of the National Economy, Russia
MBA, University of Ottawa, Canada
BA Slavic Studies, University of Ottawa

Selected Publications

Zadeh, Adel A., Peng, Yunxin, and Puffer, Sheila M. 2023. Sustainability in a sand-depleted world: Identifying barriers to adoption of sand substitutes. European Journal of Sustainable Development, 12(3), 91-105. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14207/ejsd.2023.v12n3p91
Zadeh, Adel A., Puffer, Sheila M., and Peng, Yunxin. 2023. A survey study on barriers and incentives to adoption of sand substitutes. Proceedings of the Northeastern University Global Symposium on Leadership and Project Management. https://www.proceedings.com/global-symposium-on-leadership-and-project-management-2023/ https://www.proceedings.com/070182-0001.html
Si, Yutong, Desai, Dipa, Bozhilova, Diana, Puffer, Sheila M., and Stephens, Jennie. 2023. Fossil fuel companies' communication strategy: Industry messaging on renewables and natural gas. Energy Research & Social Science, 98, 103028, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.103028 Open Access.
Wilczewski, Michal, Wang, Rong, Du, Juana, Soderberg, Anne-Marie, Giuri, Paola, Mughan, Terence, Puffer, Sheila M., and Jacob, Mark J. 2022. Cultural novelty and international students' experience: A five-country study. Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00964-z Open Access.
Puffer, Sheila M., Zadeh, Adel A., and Peng, Yunxin. 2022. Awareness of the global sand crisis and sand substitutes in the construction industry in the United States and Canada: A stakeholder analysis. International Journal of Construction Management. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2146277
Zadeh, Adel A., Peng, Yunxin, Puffer, Sheila M., and Garvey, Myles D. 2022. Sustainable sand substitutes in the construction industry in the United States and Canada: Assessing stakeholder awareness. Sustainability, 14, 7674, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14137674 Open Access.
McCarthy, Daniel J., and Puffer, Sheila M. 2022. The co-evolution of informal networks, institutions, and corruption in Russia: From an economy of favors to an economy of greed. European Journal of International Management. http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/EJIM.2022.10044812
Puffer, Sheila M., Wesley, David, Dau, Luis Alfonso, and Moore, Elizabeth M. 2021. The 4 Cs of MNE strategic responses to global governance. In Joyce Osland, Mark Mendenhall, B. Sebastien Reiche, and Betina Szkudlarek (eds.), Advances in Global Leadership, Vol 13. Bingley, UK: Emerald, pp. 85-104.
McCarthy, Daniel J., Puffer, Sheila M., and Satinsky, Daniel M. 2019. Does Russia have a role in the evolving global economy? Cross Cultural and Strategic Management, 26(2), 265-289.
Wesley, David, and Puffer, Sheila M. 2018. The end of sand: Confronting one of the greatest environmental challenges of the new millennium. In Gülşah Koç and Bryan Christiansen (eds.), Reusable and Sustainable Materials in Modern Architecture, Hershey, PA: IGI Global Press, pp. 1-27. Selected by the editors as the lead chapter in the volume.
Puffer, Sheila M., McCarthy, Daniel J., and Satinsky, Daniel M. 2018. Hammer & Silicon: The Soviet Diaspora in the US Innovation Economy – Immigration, Innovation, Institutions, Imprinting, and Identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 411 pp. Recipient of the Responsible Research in Management Award in August 2019 presented at the Academy of Management Meetings.
Puffer, Sheila M., McCarthy, Daniel J., and Naumov, Alexander I. 2000. The Russian Capitalist Experiment: From State-owned Organizations to Entrepreneurships. Cheltenham, UK, and Northampton, US: Edward Elgar, 296 pp.

Selected Presentations

Fossil fuel industry messaging on renewables and natural gas. American Political Science Association annual meeting, Los Angeles, August 31-September 3, 2023 (with Y. Si, D. Desai, D. Bozhilova, and J. Stephens).
Sustainability in a sand-depleted world: Identifying barriers to adoption of sand substitutes. 11th International Conference on Sustainable Development, European Center of Sustainable Development, Rome, Italy, September 4-7, 2023 (with A.A. Zadeh and Y. Peng).
Addressing the global sand crisis: Incentives for adopting sustainable sand substitutes in the construction industry. British Academy of Management, Brighton, UK, August 31-September 2, 2023 (with A.A. Zadeh and Y. Peng).
Shifting sands, shaping tomorrow: A survey study on barriers and incentives to adoption of sand substitutes. Global Symposium on Leadership and Project Management. Northeastern University online conference, August 24, 2023 (with A.A. Zadeh and Y. Peng).
Informal institutions vs informal networks: Construct variety and dynamics of institutional evolution. Academy of Management, Boston, August 4-8, 2023 (with S. Horak, D. Minbaeva, P.P. Li, Y. Paik, and Y. Abosag). Symposium moderator.
Responsible leadership in strategic responses to global governance: Evidence from the international construction industry. International Institute of Social and Economics Sciences, 18th Economics and Finance Conference, University of London, London, UK, June 5-7, 2023 (with D. Wesley, A. Roth, E. Moore, and J. Cordero). Also session chair.
Fossil fuel and renewable energy messaging: Oil and gas multinationals' climate communication on Twitter. Association for Public Policy and Management, Washington, DC, November 17-19, 2022 (with Y. Si, D. Desai, D. Bozhilova, and J. Stephens).
Fossil fuel companies' sustainability strategies and messaging: A case study on Shell. Earth Systems Governance Conference, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, October 20-24, 2022 (with Dipa Desai, Yutong Si, Diana Bozhilova, and Jennie C. Stephens)
Awareness of the global sand crisis and sand substitutes in the construction industry in the United States and Canada: A stakeholder analysis. Academy of International Business annual meetings, Miami, Florida, July 3-10, 2022 (With A.A. Zadeh, Y., Peng, and M.D. Garvey).
Sustainability strategies of multinational energy companies: A comparative analysis. Energy and Climate Transformations: 3rd International Conference on Energy Research & Social Science, Manchester, UK, June 20-23, 2022 (with D. Desai, Y. Si, D. Bozhilova, and J. Stephens).
Cultural adjustment and social support as key determinants of international student satisfaction – A comparative study of six countries in Europe and the USA. EURAM conference, ZHAW School of Management and Law, Winterthur, Switzerland, June 15-17, 2022 (with W. Lu, K. Tamayo, A.M. Soderberg, and S. Meschke)
Lives and livelihood—How will economic sanctions on Russia affect war in Ukraine and commerce in the world? A roundtable discussion on crisis in Ukraine, China Business Studies Initiative, University of San Francisco, online, March 7, 2022. Opening speaker.

Research & Teaching Interests

Dr. Puffer's research and teaching focus on international business and sustainability. Her publications on Russia, the former Soviet Union, and other emerging markets have addressed many topics including leadership, strategy, entrepreneurship, corporate governance, informal networks, ethics, and migration. Her work on sustainability focuses on the global sand crisis and the international construction and mining sectors. She also publishes on international students, and in 2021 she designed and hosted The International Student Experience conference, a hybrid event that included participants from the entire Northeastern global campus network.

Industry & Academic Experience

Dr. Puffer is an Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. She has served as program director of the Gorbachev Foundation of North America at Northeastern. She is active with a number of sustainability organizations.

Services to the Profession

Dr. Puffer has been the editor of The Academy of Management Executive and a member of the Academy's Board of Governors (1999-2002). She serves on several editorial boards, and has been a keynote speaker at numerous international conferences.

Awards & Recognition

University Distinguished Professor, 2011- present (the highest rank awarded to faculty, for having achieved international recognition and distinction for contributions to education and research that cross disciplinary boundaries).
Ranked in the top 2% of scholars in Stanford University's database of 100,000 scientists. J. Ioannidis, (2023), Elsevier Data Repository, V6, doi: 10.17632/btchxktzyw.6
•Recognized as the #1 scholar internationally in academic publications on business and management in Russia, the former Soviet Union, and Central and Eastern Europe, in an 18-year study of 13 leading journals. (K.E. Meyer and M.W. Peng, Journal of International Business Studies, 2005)
Visiting Scholar, Northeastern University's New College of the Humanities campus, London, UK (2021-2022).
Visiting Scholar, Stanford Graduate School of Business (January-September 2015).
Klein Lecturer, Northeastern University. Selected by a university-wide committee to present the annual research lecture (2003).