Since 2007, I have been researching development and change processes in organizations, particularly in the area of environmental sustainability (sustainability transitions). I am interested in what levers exist to initiate organizational and social change towards more sustainability: Under what circumstances are people – especially actors in the business sector – willing to throw existing assumptions overboard and change their behavior? What causes ‘transition pain’ and resistance in change processes and how can these be overcome? What role do rigid mental models and ‘logics’ play in organizations and how can they be changed? How do people in organizations become ‘blind’ to ethical conflicts and how to cure such ethical blindness?

Selected Publications

My complete list of publications can be found at Google Scholar and on my research profile at the University of Twente.

  • Kump, B., Ortlieb, R., Delmestri, G., Peeters, D., Elmi, M., Moschera, L., Castriotta, M., & Fuchs, M. (online first). Living a sea change: The role of embodiment in enacting a real utopia. Organization Studies, 01708406251357855. https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406251357855
  • Bogner, K., Kump, B., Beekman, M., & Wittmayer, J. (2024). Coping with transition pain: An emotions perspective on phase-outs in sustainability transitions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 50, 100806. doi
  • Vogler, A., & Kump, B. (2024). (Too) high hopes? How Austrian energy community actors construct their roles in the energy transition. Sustainability Science, 19, 701–714. doi
  • Kump, B., Wittmayer, J., Bogner, K., & Beekman, M. (2023). Navigating force conflicts: A case study on strategies of transformative research in the current academic system. Journal of Cleaner Production , 137374. doi
  • Kump, B. (2023). Lewin’s field theory as a lens for understanding incumbent actors’ agency in sustainability transitions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 46, 100683. doi
  • Kump, B. & Scholz, M. (2022). Organizational routines as a source of ethical blindness. Organization Theory, 3, 1-24. doi
  • Kump, B. (2022). No need to hide: Acknowledging the researcher’s intuition in empirical organizational research. Human Relations, 75(4), 635-654. doi
  • Kump, B. & Fikar, C. (2021). Challenges of maintaining and diffusing grassroots innovations in alternative food networks: A systems thinking approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 317, 128407. doi
  • Kump, B. (2021). When do threats mobilize managers for organizational change toward sustainability? An Environmental Belief Model. Business Strategy and the Environment, 30, 2713–2726. doi
  • Kump, B. (2019). Beyond Power Struggles: A Multi-level Perspective on Incongruences at the Interface of Practice, Knowledge, and Identity in Radical Organizational Change. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 55 (1), 5-26. doi
  • Schweiger, C. & Kump, B. (2018). Lerne die Regeln um sie zu verändern“ Die Rolle der Organisationslogik in Veränderungsprozessen. Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO), 49 (3), 289-294. doi
  • Kump, B., & Schweiger, C. (2014). Förderung der strategischen Veränderungskompetenz von KMU (Leitartikel). In Nachtwei, J. & von Bernstorff, C. (Eds). HR Consulting Review, Band 04. VQP: Berlin.