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Marc Stierand

Dr Marc Stierand

Dr Marc Stierand

Full Professor

Expertise

  • Creativity, aesthetics, and sensory knowing
  • Culinary arts
  • Management education & development
  • Managerial and organizational cognition
  • Creating the Future of Food Service
  • Service quality and design

Biography

Dr. Marc Stierand, born into a family business, developed customer service skills early on and pursued his passion for food by becoming a trained chef in Michelin-starred restaurants. Now a Full Professor of Service Management at EHL and the Founding Director of the Institute of Business Creativity, Marc brings two decades of international teaching experience to his work.


He is recognized as an authority on culinary and business creativity, a research field he started in 2007. His ability to transfer insights from research for teaching and practice is sought after by other top business schools like CEIBS and IMD and leading global corporations, where he teaches executives or advises them on creativity, aesthetics and innovation. His research has attracted several millions in funding, has been published in top-tier hospitality management and general management journals, and has won several awards including the ‘Tudor Rickards and Susan Moger Best Paper Award.


Moreover, Dr. Stierand serves on the editorial boards of a number of academic journals, company advisory boards, and executive board of the Swiss Food and Nutrition Valley. Professionally, he’s dedicated to fostering innovation through creativity for the business world, though privately, he admits to being less successful in coaching his Cocker Spaniel, Alfons.

Awards

2021 ‘The Tudor Rickards and Susan Moger Best Paper Award’ delivered by the CIM editorial board members, for the paper titled ‘Practices of creative leadership: A qualitative meta-analysis in haute cuisine’, “The jury, consisting of the CIM editors and editorial board, agrees that the paper offers a very innovative and creative perspective on a critical issue (creative leadership) with an interesting, relevant, and inspirational empirical context. It is exciting to read, and many voters reflected on the paper as an excellent illustration of the CIM spirit. Beyond the specific material on cuisine, the paper is a very good example of rigourous method in qualitative research. The three propositions both capture the essence of the work and provide solid guidance for discussion and future work.” (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/14678691/homepage/tudor_rickards_award.htm)
2021 ‘Best Developmental Paper Award’ delivered by the British Academy of Management’s Research Methodology Track for the paper titled ‘Conducting research after the trauma of the COVID19 pandemic Towards the development of guidance for qualitative researchers’
2020 ‘Best Developmental Paper Award’ delivered by the British Academy of Management’s Research Methodology Track for the paper titled ‘A serialisation approach to a research study’
2019 ‘Best Developmental Paper Award’ delivered by the British Academy of Management’s Research Methodology Track for the paper titled ‘Frozen in Time: Unfolding Experiences in Archival Process Data’,
2018 ‘Best Developmental Paper Award’ delivered by the British Academy of Management’s Research Methodology Track for the paper titled ‘Intellectual Quietness: Our Struggles With Researching Creativity As A Process’, https://www.bam.ac.uk/news-story/9759
2017 My journal article was re-published in a Virtual Special Issue on Sensory Knowledge in Management Learning, http://journals.sagepub.com/page/mlq/collections/virtual-special-issues/sensory_knowledge?pbEditor=true. According to the journal’s editorial board, the seven papers published in this Virtual Special Issue of Management Learning showcase “the finest work on sensory knowledge that has been published in the journal in the least ten years.”
2016 ‘Best Developmental Paper Award’ delivered by the British Academy of Management’s Research Methodology Track for the paper titled ‘Reflecting on Becoming: The Role of Savoir, Savoir-Faire, and Savoir-Être’, https://www.bam.ac.uk/news-story/9022

Education

PhD in Management Science, Creativity & Innovation, Department of Management Science, University of Strathclyde

Courses Taught

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
• Creating the Future of Food Service
• Service quality and design
MASTER IN HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
• Business research methods
• Creativity and innovation in the food and beverage sector
• Quality Excellence and Service Design

Teaching Location

EHL Campus Lausanne

Journal publications

Stierand, M., Saunders, M., & Eves, A. (2025). The Commercial Meal Experience in Context: An Exploration with Frequent Travelers. International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, 101242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgfs.2025.101242

Hinrichs, N., Stierand, M. & Glaveanu, V. (2023). Food for thought: How curiosity externalization is fostered through organizational identity. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 179, 104293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2023.104293

Miralles, M., Lee, B., Dörfler, V. and Stierand, M. (2022). Guest editorial: Investigating trauma: methodological, emotional and ethical challenges for the qualitative researcher. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, 17(4), 397-405. https://doi.org/10.1108/QROM-11-2022-999

Feuls, M., Stierand, M., Dörfler, V., Boje, D., & Haley, U. (2021). Practices of Creative Leadership: A Qualitative Meta-Analysis in Haute Cuisine. Creativity and Innovation Management, 30 (4), 783-797. https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12471

Dörfler, V., & Stierand, M. (2021). Bracketing: A phenomenological theory applied through transpersonal reflexivity. Journal of organizational change management, 34(4), 778-793. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-12-2019-0393

Stierand, M., Heelein, J., & Mainemelis, C. (2020). A Designer on Designing: A Conversation with Johannes Torpe. Journal of Management Inquiry, 29(3), 350-359. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492619882090

Stierand, M., Boje, D. M., Glaveanu, V.P., Dörfler, V., Haley, U., & Feuls, M. (2019). Paradoxes of “creativity”: Examining the creative process through an antenarrative lens. Journal of Creative Behavior, 53(2), 65-170. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.224

Josephi, S., Stierand, M., & Van Mourik, A. (2016). Hotel revenue management: Then, now and tomorrow. Journal of Revenue & Pricing Management, 15, 252-257. https://doi.org/10.1057/rpm.2016.4

Stierand, M., & Dörfer, V. (2016). The Role of Intuition in the Creative Process of Expert Chefs. Journal of Creative Behavior, Special Issue on Creativity and Food, 50(3), 178-185. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.100

Velencei, J., Baracskai, Z. , Dorfler, V., & Stierand, M. (2016). Supporting the competent practitioner: Trans-disciplinary coaching with a knowledge-based expert system. International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, 2(12), 20-27. https://doi.org/10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.212.1002

Stierand, M. (2015). Developing creativity in practice: Explorations with world-renowned chefs. Management Learning, 46(5), 598-617. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507614560302

Stierand, M., & Zizka, L. (2015). Reflecting on hospitality management education through a practice lens. Journal of Quality Assurance in Education, 23(4), 353-363. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-04-2015-0013

Stierand, M., Dörfler, V., & MacBryde, J. (2014). Creativity and Innovation in Haute Cuisine: Towards a Systemic Model. Creativity and Innovation Management, 23(1), 15-28. https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12050