David Guttormsen

David S. A. Guttormsen is an Assistant Professor in International and Cross-Cultural Management for the Department of Communication and Culture, BI Norwegian Business School.  

David earned his PhD Politics and International Studies from The University of Warwick (UK, supervised by Prof Stuart Croft) and obtained an MPhil International Business from the Centre for International Business, University of Leeds (CIBUL) (UK, supervised by Dr Malcolm Chapman and Prof Anne Marie Francesco (Hong Kong Baptist University)). He also holds an MA in International Relations (University of New South Wales, Australia); a GradCert International Relations (Curtin University of Technology, Australia); a BCom in Public Relations and Management (Curtin Business School, Australia); and a PGCert in Higher Education Professional Practice (Coventry, UK).

Prior to joining BI in 2017, David worked as Lecturer in International Business (equivalent to Assistant Professor/Førsteamanuensis) at University of Exeter Business School (UK) and Lecturer in International Management at Coventry University Business School (UK). He has also taught and supervised MBA (corporate executives) and MSc dissertations at Warwick Business School (UK), The University of Warwick (UK), University of Birmingham Business School (UK) and University of Leicester School of Management (UK).

David remains External Associate at Warwick Business School. David has previously held visiting research positions at Seoul National University (South Korea), Waseda University (Japan), Leeds University Business School (UK), Hong Kong Baptist University (Hong Kong SAR), Helsinki Business School (Finland) and Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO, Norway). He has also been an invited speaker at Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong SAR), Newcastle University Business School (UK), BAU International Berlin – University of Applied Sciences (Germany), University of Essex Business School (UK), Chukyo University (Japan), in addition to the institutions where he has held visiting positions.

Research Areas & Activities

David’s interdisciplinary research activities and expertise are traversing the International Business, International Human Resource Management, Cross-Cultural Management and Organisational Behaviour disciplines, and are organised around four main areas:

1.     Expatriate Management and Global Mobility.

2.     Social anthropological and sociological perspectives on cross-cultural analysis in international business and management research.

3.     Global Talent Management.

4.     Qualitative research methodology and intercultural field-research.

Theoretically, across the above-mentioned research areas, David draws upon identity-construction, social constructionism, social categorisation, relationality, epistemic reflexivity and Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice. Geographically, his research interests include East-Asia, Southeast-Asia, Scandinavia, the U.S., Brazil, Bulgaria, United Arab Emirates and Egypt. A secondary area of research interest encompasses American think tanks, China-policy research expertise, identity and cross-cultural aspects in U.S. foreign policy towards China.

David’s research has appeared (or In Press) in ABS ranked journals, including: Cross Cultural & Strategic Management; Human Resource Development International; International Studies of Management & Organization; Personnel Review; Scandinavian Journal of Management; and Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal. He is regularly invited to present his work at international academic conferences, such as the European Academy of Management, Academy of International Business, European Academy of International Business and European Group for Organizational Studies. David is regularly invited to review for 3* and 2* ABS ranked journals, and others, on an ad-hoc basis.

David has conducted extensive fieldwork, interviewing international managers, expatriates and public-policy elites in Hong Kong, South-Korea, the U.S., Brazil, Bulgaria, Belgium, China, Dubai, Malaysia, Myanmar, Egypt, Taiwan and Norway. He currently collaborates with the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency (NRA) and a Norwegian Multinational Enterprise in addition to several co-authors from Denmark, Hong Kong, Australia, Bulgaria, Sweden and the UK on various research projects and co-authored papers.

David has co-supervised one PhD student to successful completion (Exeter, UK – examined by Prof Charles Harvey, Newcastle University Business School, and Prof Stefan Böhm, Exeter) and served as an External PhD Examiner (Leicester Business School, De Montfort University, UK).

Teaching (2017/2018 & 2018/2019)

§  BST 2412 International Business (autumn 2018 and 2019).

§  SPÅ 2901: Business Communication: Intercultural Communication and Ethics (autumn 2018 and 2019).

§  BTH 2412 Bachelor Thesis – International Business (spring 2018).

David is very passionate about contributing to his students’ learning and making learning-processes relevant for the increasingly competitive global job-market. Through deploying different teaching methods, he brings his international and intercultural research regarding international business practitioners and companies into the classroom. He particularly emphasises developing the student’s critical analysis and ‘out-of-the-box’ problem solving skills, in addition to self-reflexivity and intercultural appreciation – through active use of case studies. David continues to receive very high student satisfaction scores on his teaching.

David is a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (UK), and has in previous jobs developed new modules, acted as programme director and taught on a wide range of modules. He has acted as an external examiner at University of London and Oxford Brookes University (UK) and various Norwegian higher education institutions.

Leadership & External Appointments

§  Lead Editor (2017–), ‘Field Guide to Intercultural Research’ – publisher: Edward Elgar (with Prof Jakob Lauring, Aarhus University School of Business and Social Sciences (Denmark) and Dr Malcolm Chapman, Leeds University Business School (UK)).

§  Appointed member of the Editorial Board (2017-), Human Resource Developmental International.

§  Appointed member of the Editorial and Review Board (2017-), European Journal of International Management.

§  External Examiner (2017–), Oxford Brookes University, UK. Degree: MA in International Business, Culture and Languages.

§  Special Interest Group Chair (2017-2018); Track Chair (2016-2017); and Co-Plenary Organiser (2015/2016), Research Methods & Research Practice Track, European Academy of Management annual conferences.

§  Co-Plenary Organiser (2018/2019), Research Methods & Research Practice Track, 2019 European Academy of Management annual conference, Lisbon, Portugal.

§  Principal Investigator (2016–): research project/industrial partnership on global expatriate mobility, expatriate failure, expatriate Return on Investment and cross-cultural challenges (with a Norwegian MNE).

§  Co-Principal Investigator (2015–): research project on business expatriates and success-factors (with Prof Jakob Lauring, Aarhus University School of Business and Social Sciences, Denmark).

§  Co-Principal Investigator (2016–): research project on international sojourners (with Prof Lauring, Aarhus).

§  Co-Principal Investigator (2015–): research project on expatriates, flat tax, foreign investment climate and economic growth in Bulgaria (with Mr Trifon Pavkov, CIO, Bulgarian National Revenue Agency, and Dr Stanley Gyoshev (Exeter, UK)).

§  Co-Editor (2014–), Guest-Issue: ‘Silenced and Neglected Voices in Cross-Cultural Management Research?’, International Studies of Management & Organization (with Prof Lauring, Aarhus). Guest Issue to be published in 2018.

§  Symposium Chair and Organiser – ‘Silenced and Neglected Voices in Cross-Cultural Management Research?’, 14th Annual Conference of the European Academy of Management (EURAM), 4-7 June 2014, Valencia, Spain.

§  Elected Chair (and thereby serving on the Board of the Trustees) (2011-2012), Vice Chair (2010-2011) and President Ex-officio (2012-2013), Postgraduate Network Executive Committee, British International Studies Association.

David is a Norwegian citizen and native speaker. Reflecting his research and teaching interests, he loves international travel and exploring new cultures. His personal pledge is to have visited 50 countries by the age of 50 – so far, it is looking good! David also enjoys playing the piano (and has even worked as a church organist!) in addition to going to the theatre and watching world cinema (especially, British crime dramas and Korean drama television series/movies).