Dr Alex Nicholls is University Lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship within the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. His research interests range across several key areas within social entrepreneurship and social innovation, including: the nexus of relationships between accounting, accountability and governance; public and social policy contexts; impact investing; and Fair Trade.

As the first staff member of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in 2004, Nicholls has helped the Centre develop a global profile in researching and teaching social entrepreneurship.

Nicholls is the editor of Social Entrepreneurship: New Models of Sustainable Social Change (Oxford University Press, 2006), the first book to present a wide-ranging, internationally-focused collection of key social entrepreneurship work from leading academics, policy makers and practitioners.  His latest book is Social Innovation: Blurring Boundaries to Reconfigure Markets (Palgrave MacMIllan, 2011), a co-edited collection which explores solutions to many of the current ‘wicked problems’ confronting the world. The collection argues that social innovation offers potential solutions to climate change, the crisis of the welfare state, health pandemics and failures, social dislocation and inequality, and educational failure.

Nicholls is currently conducting research in Australia, Japan and India comparing political processes of social entrepreneurship at multiple socio-structural levels within each country and by fields, and across different country settings. This research will be presented in a new book Changing the Game: The Politics of Social Entrepreneurship, scheduled to be published in 2013.

Nicholls has worked extensively on Fair Trade and is one of the foremost scholars in this field, having co-authored a major research book, Fair Trade: Market-Driven Ethical Consumption (Sage, 2005), which is the most cited and best-selling academic book on the subject globally.  He is about to embark on a new research project that examines Fair Trade certification and explores whether such mechanisms empower producers. He also serves as a non-Executive Director for a major Fair Trade clothing company.

Nicholls is a member of the Advisory Group for the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Social Enterprise Capacity Building Cluster and has served on the regional Social Enterprise Expert Group for the South East of England. He currently holds a visiting Fellowship at the University of New South Wales’ Centre for Social Impact, is an Honorary Fellow of the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham, and has also held a Fellowship at the Academy of Marketing Science.

Before his appointment at the Saïd Business School in 2004, Nicholls served as a Lecturer in Marketing at Aston University.  He has also held positions at the University of Surrey and Leeds Metropolitan University. Prior to academic life, Nicholls held senior management positions at the John Lewis Partnership, the largest mutual retailer in Europe.

Nicholls earned a BA (Hons), MA and PhD in English Language and Literature from King’s College, London and an MBA from Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. 

Areas of expertise include:
- The nexus of relationships between social accounting, accountability and governance
- Public and social policy contexts of social entrepreneurship
- Impact investing
- Fair Trade

Dr Alex Nicholls’ research focuses on several key areas within social entrepreneurship and social innovation, including: the nexus of relationships between accounting, accountability and governance; public and social policy contexts of social entrepreneurship; impact investing; and Fair Trade.

The nexus of relationships between accounting, accountability and governance
Nicholls is the first researcher to provide a theoretical and empirical analysis of social impact reporting in social entrepreneurship. His research in this area suggests that social entrepreneurs use social impact reporting in a number of strategic ways to enhance their performance, access resources, and build organizational legitimacy. This work led to Nicholls’ development of a new conceptual model of social impact reporting– ‘Blended Value Accounting’ – that constitutes a spectrum of disclosure logics used by social entrepreneurs to access resources and realize organizational mission objectives with key stakeholders.

Related publications:
Nicholls, A., Somers, A., and Nicholls, J. (2012) Measuring Social Impact, Sage (forthcoming)

Nicholls A. (2010) ‘Institutionalizing Social Entrepreneurship in Regulatory Space: Reporting And Disclosure By Community Interest Companies’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 35.4, pp. 394-415

Nicholls, A. (2010) ‘The Legitimacy of Social Entrepreneurship: Reflexive Isomorphism in a Pre-Paradigmatic Field’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34.4, pp. 611-633

Nicholls A. (2009) ‘“We Do Good Things Don’t We?”: Blended Value Accounting In Social Entrepreneurship’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 34.6-7, pp. 755-769
(Most downloaded paper whilst the volume was in press.)

Nicholls A. (2010) ‘The Functions of Measurement in Social Entrepreneurship’, in Hockerts, K., Robinson, J., and Mair, J. (eds), Values and Opportunities in Social Entrepreneurship, Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 241-272

Nicholls, A. (2008) ‘Capturing the Performance of the Socially Entrepreneurial Organization (SEO): An Organizational Legitimacy Approach’, in Robinson, J., Mair, J., and Hockerts, K. (eds), International Perspectives on Social Entrepreneurship Research, Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 27-74

Public and social policy contexts of social entrepreneurship
Nicholls is currently conducting field research in Australia, Japan and India comparing political processes of social entrepreneurship at multiple socio-structural levels within each country and by fields and across different country settings.

Related publications:
Nicholls, A. (2012) ‘The Social Entrepreneurship-Social Policy Nexus in Developing Countries’, in Walker, D., and Surrender, R. (eds), Social Policy in a Developing World: A Comparative Analysis, Oxford University Press (forthcoming)

Nicholls, A., ‘Change and Persistence in Policy Formation: Ideational Dynamics in Historical Institutionalism’ (To be submitted to the Journal of Public Administration, Research and Theory)

Nicholls, A., Changing The Game: The Politics of Social Entrepreneurship, Edward Elgar (Book proposal under review)

Curtis, T., Minto, I., and Nicholls, A. (2007) Cultural Shift South East Report, SEEDA: Final Report

Impact Investing
Nicholls is currently investigating the financial flows that capitalise social enterprises.  His work in this area seeks to: clarify the issues surrounding impact investing and delineate its boundaries; map out the disparate traditions and professional communities engaged in impact investing; evaluate the scale of activity; and highlight issues within this rapidly developing market.

Related publications:
Nicholls, A. (2012) ‘Filling the Capital Gap: Institutionalizing Social Finance‘, in Denny, S., and Seddon, F. (eds), Evaluating Social Enterprise, Palgrave MacMillan (forthcoming)

Nicholls, A., and Schwartz, R. (2012) ‘The Demandside of the Social Investment Marketplace’, in Salamon, L.(ed), New Frontiers of Philanthropy, Jossey Bass (forthcoming)

Nicholls, A., Paton, R., and Emerson, J. (eds) (2012) Social Investment, Oxford University Press (forthcoming)

Nicholls, A. (2011) ‘Impacts of the Social Enterprise Investment Fund on the Landscape of Social Investment’, in Alcock, P., Hall, K., and Millar, R. (eds),  Evaluation of the Social Enterprise Investment Fund, Department of Health

Nicholls, A. (2011) The Social Enterprise Investment Fund (SEIF) Evaluation: The Landscape of Social Investment in the UK, Third Sector Research Centre: Working Paper

Nicholls, (2010) ‘The Institutionalization of Social Investment: The Interplay of Investment Logics and Investor Rationalities’, Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 1.1, pp. 70-100
(Awarded Best Paper in Entrepreneurship by the British Academy of Management 2009)

Nicholls, A., and Pharoah, C. (2007) The Landscape of Social Finance, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship: Working Paper

Nicholls, A. (2005) Measuring Impact in Social Entrepreneurship: New Accountabilities to Stakeholders and Investors?, Local Government Research Centre: Working Paper

Fair Trade
For the past decade, Nicholls has researched and written extensively on all aspects of Fair Trade.  He is an internationally renowned scholar in the field and his work has furthered the industry’s understanding of the history, operational challenges and impacts of Fair Trade. Nicholls is the co-author of Fair Trade: Market Driven Ethical Consumption, the most cited and best-selling academic book on the subject globally. 

Related publications:
Nicholls A. (2012) ‘Fair and Ethical Trade’, in Farrell, A. (ed), Encyclopaedia of Management: Marketing, Wiley (forthcoming)

Nicholls, A. (2011) ‘Fair Trade: Towards an Economics of Virtue’, Journal of Business Ethics, 92, pp.241-255

Nicholls, A. (2010) ‘What Gives Fair Trade It’s Right to Operate? Organizational Legitimacy and Strategic Management’, in Macdonald, K., and Marshall, S., Fair Trade, Corporate Accountability and Beyond: Experiments in Global Justice Governance Mechanisms, Ashgate, pp. 95-121

Nicholls, A., and Alexander, A. (2006) ‘Rediscovering Consumer-Producer Involvement: A Network Perspective on Fair Trade Marketing in the UK ', European Journal of Marketing, 40.11-12, pp.1236-1253

Nicholls, A., and Lee N. (2006) ‘Purchase Decision-Making in Fair Trade and the “Ethical Gap”', Journal of Strategic Marketing, 14, pp. 369-386

Nicholls, A., and Islam, A., ‘Certification Mechanisms as Communicative Action: Ethical Audit and Social Innovation’, to be submitted to Accounting, Organizations and Society

Nicholls, A., and Opal, C. (2005) Fair Trade: Market-Driven Ethical Consumption, Sage   
(Best-selling and most cited academic book on Fair Trade; Published in Japanese, March 2010. Published in Korean, October 2010)

Nicholls, A. (2005) Thriving in a Hostile Environment: Fair Trade's Role as a Positive Market Mechanism for Disadvantaged Producers, Fairtrade Foundation: Working Paper

Nicholls, A. (2005) ‘Fair Trade: Can It Really Change the World?’, Alliance Magazine, 10.3, September, pp. 37-39

Nicholls, A. (2007) What is the Future of Social Enterprise in Ethical Markets?, Office of The Third Sector: Working Paper

For a full listing of Nicholls’ publications, please see his curriculum vitae

Dr Alex Nicholls teaches a variety of courses on social entrepreneurship, social innovation, management and marketing to undergraduates, MBA students, doctoral students and senior business executives.  He has developed numerous courses for the MBA and Executive MBA programmes including – ‘Designing for Innovation and Change’ for the MBA programme and an Executive Education programme on ‘Impact Investing’. 

‘Designing for Innovation and Change’ – a course Nicholls developed with Pamela Hartigan – explores the area of Design Thinking and how students can use this style of thinking to address social challenges, create business models for change, and design systems and interfaces in public services and corporations.

Nicholls and his colleague John Hoffmire created the ‘Oxford Impact Investing Programme’ for executives interested in developing a deep and broad understanding of the impact investing sector.  The one-week executive education programme, being offered for the first time in April 2013, provides the practical skills necessary to implement effective impact investment projects.

In his courses, Nicholls encourages students to ‘learn and not just do’ and to engage with theory and research. His interactive teaching style is well-received by his students and he mixes practice and scholarship to impart a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

Dr Alex Nicholls teaches:
- Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation
- Designing for Innovation and Change
- Rethinking Business
- Impact Investing
- Social Finance
- Valuing Performance and Impact
- Social Enterprise Design
- Introduction to Management
- Marketing
- Brand Management
- Retail Management
- Operations Management
- Supply Chain Ethics
- Entrepreneurship

Dr Alex Nicholls’ research on social entrepreneurship and social innovation informs government decisions and policy. As an advisor to the Office of the Third Sector (now the Office for Civil Society), Nicholls helped shape the UK‘s social enterprise policies. In 2006, Nicholls worked with the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to research three social enterprise pilots as part of a ‘cultural shift’ programme within regional welfare services. In 2007, the Office commissioned Nicholls to develop a paper on the future of social enterprise in ethical markets, which explored a range of new opportunities for social enterprises to create and enlarge ethical market activity in the UK and beyond. From 2009-11, Nicholls evaluated the wider impacts of the Social Enterprise Investment Fund for the Department of Health. From 2010, Nicholls has served on the Technical Advisory Panel of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies within the DTI.

Nicholls has strong links with industry.  He has conducted a range of commercial consultancy in the social sector, including work on Fair Trade new product development, and he serves as a non-Executive Director for a major Fair Trade clothing company. He is set to embark on a new research project that examines Fair Trade certification and explores whether such mechanisms empower producers.

In 2004, Nicholls became the first staff member of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School, and helped grow the Centre to become the leading academic entity for the advancement of social entrepreneurship worldwide.

Nicholls is currently developing an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) seminar series on critical approaches to social enterprise and previously developed an ESRC seminar series with the Open University on social investment.  He has also served as a co-organiser for the International Social Innovation Research Conference, the Research Colloquium on Social Entrepreneurship, the Social Enterprise Research Conference and the Oxford Fair Trade Research Conference. In addition, Nicholls frequently presents peer-reviewed papers at leading academic conferences.

Nicholls is a member of the Advisory Group for the ESRC’s Social Enterprise Capacity Building Cluster and has served on the regional Social Enterprise Expert Group for the South East of England. He currently holds a visiting Fellowship at the University of New South Wales’ Centre for Social Impact and is an Honorary Fellow of the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham. In addition, Nicholls serves on the editorial boards of the Social Enterprise Journal and Education, Knowledge, and Economy and is the General Editor of the Skoll Working Paper Series. In 2010, Nicholls launched the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship (Routledge) and currently serves as its Editor in Chief.