MARC J. EPSTEIN is Distinguished Research Professor of Management at Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He was also recently Visiting Professor and Hansjoerg Wyss Visiting Scholar at Harvard Business School. Prior to joining Rice, Dr. Epstein was a professor at Stanford Business School, Harvard Business School, and INSEAD (European Institute of Business Administration). Dr. Epstein has completed extensive academic research and has extensive practical experience in the implementation of corporate strategies and the development of performance metrics for use in these implementations. In several recent articles and books Epstein shows how the use of new strategic management systems can help companies focus strategy, link to performance metrics, and drive improved performance in organizations. In a recent book, he applies these approaches to driving increased innovation in large organizations and developing appropriate measures of success. Making Innovation Work: How to Manage It, Measure It, and Profit from It is now available from Wharton School Publishing.
He has also focused extensively on sustainability, environmental, and corporate social responsibility and the measurement of corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts for most of his career. He has worked extensively on microfinance, entrepreneurship in developing countries, and non profit performance measurement and governance. In both academic research and managerial practice, Dr. Epstein is considered one of the global luminaries in the areas of corporate sustainability, governance, and accountability. In January 2008, his newest book, Making Sustainability Work: Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts was published to provide guidance to managers and academics on the implementation of corporate social responsibility.
Another recent book, Counting What Counts: Turning Corporate Accountability to Competitive Advantage, integrates his work into a model of corporate accountability based on improving 1) corporate governance 2) management systems 3) internal and external reporting and 4) financial, operational, and social measures of performance. This broader and more integrative approach includes the use of non-financial performance measures to better serve customers, communities, and employees while driving improved shareholder value. It was awarded one of seven 1999 Choice Awards for Outstanding Academic Books in business and labor out of 6500 books reviewed. This and related works have focused on how companies can measure and improve the performance of boards of directors and CEOs. He has also recently edited The Accountable Corporation (with Kirk Hanson) with four volumes including Corporate Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Ethics, and Business-Government Relations. He has recently written extensively on corporate governance, the role of boards of directors, organizational trust, the business case for sustainability, and corporate accountability. A previous book, Measuring Corporate Environmental Performance: Best Practices for Costing and Managing an Effective Environmental Strategy, won numerous top academic, professional, and business awards, (including, the prestigious AAA/AICPA Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award, and the Siegal Award for Applied Research, in recognition of it having the greatest sustained impact on management accounting of all FAR-funded research).
He is the author of eighteen books and over 100 professional papers and is currently Editor-in-Chief of a top academic journal, Advances in Management Accounting. He is also Series Editor of the research book series, Studies in Managerial and Financial Accounting. Dr. Epstein also provides seminars, executive courses, and lectures to senior managerial audiences throughout the world. He has extensive industry experience and has been a senior consultant to leading corporations and governments for over 25 years.