Joshua K. Ault is an assistant professor in the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. He holds a Ph.D. in international business from the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business. Prior to joining the Thunderbird faculty, he taught at the University of Victoria in Canada, where he was the research co-chair for the Centre for Social and Sustainable Innovation.
His areas of specialization include international strategy, international entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and emerging and developing countries. More specifically, he studies how national differences in state fragility influence managers’ ability to transfer promising business models across the developing world to reach global scale. He also explores specific strategies that managers can adopt to deal with fragile states in order to improve the likelihood of a successful transfer. Ault has published articles on these topics in some of the world’s top business journals, including Strategic Management Journal, the Journal of International Business Studies, and the Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings.
Ault has taught international business, global strategy, social issues in management, and international entrepreneurship at the undergraduate, master, and doctoral levels. He has also taught in numerous executive programs, including the University of Victoria’s International Summer Institute for Business Managers, the University of Victoria’s Summer Graduate Business Studies, and the National Sun Yat-Sen University’s Summer Management Program.
His research, teaching, and service have won numerous awards, including the “Academy of International Business (Southeast Chapter) Best Non-Thematic Paper Award;” the “Academy of International Business Best Reviewer Award;” the “University of Victoria Award for Highest Performing Faculty Members;” the “University of Victoria’s Student Choice Award for Best Instructor;” the “Moore School of Business Promising Researcher Award;” the “Moore School of Business Outstanding PhD Student Fellowship;” and the “Ivey PhD Sustainability Academy Best Paper Prize.”