Liudmila Chambers

Dr. Chambers is a Manager for Sustainable Supply Chains at KPMG UK.

She holds a PhD in Management from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, where her research on mission drift in social entrepreneurial ventures was awarded several prestigious grants and the Peter Werhahn Prize for the best PhD dissertation in business studies. She has conducted research at the UNEP/Wuppertal Institute’s Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP), and worked as a Senior Teaching Fellow in Corporate Social Responsibility at the University of Bath.

Her research focused primarily on growth strategies of sustainability entrepreneurs. Sustainability entrepreneurs often pursue a range of growth strategies, including organic and acquisitive growth, strategic alliances, franchising, and equity sales to strategic investors. However, some of these strategies, such as equity sales, are often perceived by organisational stakeholders as a sell-out on sustainability values. Liudmila investigated the inconsistency demonstrated by many entrepreneurs in choosing growth strategies that make business sense but are incompatible with stakeholder expectations for a business with a sustainability-driven identity. Her research aimed to provide recommendations on the most sustainable ways of growing an entrepreneurial firm in the sustainable lifestyle industry.