Portrait of Professor Itziar Castello-Molina

Professor Itziar Castello-Molina

Professor in Sustainability and Digital Economy

Bayes Business School , Faculty of Management

Contact

About

Overview

Itziar Castelló is Professor of Sustainability and Digital Economy at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), City St George's, University of London. She is also Head of the Social Purpose Group and Program Director for a new MSc in Sustainable Management and Finance program.

Itziar’s research explores the ways the discourses of sustainability and technology are framed and constructed, notably in social media but also in other public spheres such as social movements and International Organisations. She is also interested in governance models specially those of platforms and how they impact Democracy. She uses deliberation, identity, legitimacy and emotions theories to explain how to mobilise for social change. Amongst others, her research appears in the Academy of Management Journal, Research Policy, Journal of Business Venturing, Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Management Studies, Business & Society and the Journal of Business Ethics. Itziar’s research was nominated at the Financial Times as 47th out of 100 for significant societal contribution in management from 2015 to 2019. 

Itziar is experienced in grant development and funding. She has led or co-led grants worth more than £1,5m.

Itziar has extensive experience as advisor and consultant. She has worked with leading organisations such as Lafarge, Suez, Telefonica, GE, IBM, 3M, Manpower, Cemex, FedEx in developing sustainability and ESG strategies and stakeholder engagement processes. Before becoming an academic she worked as project manager developing the The Global Leadership Network at AccountAbility (UK), Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Project Manager and Master Black Belt in Six Sigma at General Electric (GE).

Itziar is also an outstanding teacher having received awards at her previous appointments in Surrey Business School and University Carlos III de Madrid. She teaches Sustainability, Responsible Digitalization, Corporate Social Responsibility, Critical Thinking and Change Management.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Management, ESADE, Ramon Llull University, Spain, September 2006 - June 2010
  • MScR in Management, ESADE, University Ramon Llull, Spain, September 2006 - June 2009
  • Executive MBA, ESADE, University Ramon Llull, Spain, September 2002 - February 2004
  • MSc in Economics, College of Europe, Belgium, September 1998 - June 1999
  • Bachelor Degree in Economics, Universitat de Valencia, Spain, September 1992 - June 1997
  • Bachelor (Maîtrise) in Economics, University of Nantes, France, September 1993 - June 1996

Employment

  • Professor, Bayes Business School, United Kingdom, August 2025 - present
  • Reader, Bayes Business School, United Kingdom, November 2022 - July 2025
  • Senior Lecturer, University of Surrey, United Kingdom, September 2017 - November 2022
  • Assistant Professor, Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, September 2012 - August 2017
  • Assistant Professor, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, June 2010 - August 2012
  • Researcher and Lecturer, Ramon Llull University, Spain, September 2006 - May 2010
  • Senior Advisor, AccountAbility, United Kingdom, May 2005 - May 2006
  • Manager, PricewaterhoseCoopers (Spain), Spain, September 2002 - April 2005
  • Project Manager and Six Sigma Master Black Belt, General Electric (Spain), Spain, June 1998 - August 2002

Memberships of committees

  • Board Member, SUPER Certification, January 2019 - present

Memberships of professional organisations

  • Sustainability Centers Community (SCC) and the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS), September 2022 - present
  • Researcher, Centre for Decentralized Digital Economy, January 2021 - present
  • Alan Turing Institute – Social Data Interest Group & Behavioural Data Science Group, January 2021 - present

Languages

Catalan; Valencian (can read, write, speak, understand spoken, peer review), English (can read, write, speak, understand spoken), French (can read, write, speak, understand spoken) and Spanish; Castilian (can read, write, speak, understand spoken, peer review)

Expertise

Primary topics

  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Change Management
  • Organization Theory
  • Business Ethics
  • Strategic Management
  • Environmental Business
  • Social Media
  • Digital Economy
  • Technology Management
  • Corporate Governance

Industries

  • non-profit & voluntary sector
  • professional services
  • media
  • communications
  • information technology

Geographic Areas

  • Europe
  • Americas - North
  • Americas - Latin
  • Americas - Central
  • Americas - South

Publications

Chapters (7)

  1. In Espedal, G., Ruebottom, T., Struminska-Kutra, M., Bento da Silva, J. and Creed, D. (Eds.), (2026). The Palgrave Handbook of Emotions and Values in Organizational Institutionalism. In Springer Nature Switzerland. ISBN 9783032126696.
  2. Castelló, I., Barberá-Tomás, D. and de Bakker, F.G.A. (2021). Images, Text, and Emotions. Research Methods for Digital Work and Organization (pp. 229-245). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198860679.
  3. Castello, I. (2021). Challenges and Opportunities in Using Social Media to Promote Corporate Social Responsibility. (pp. 319-328). Routledge. ISBN 1003152651.
  4. Castello-Molina, I. and Lozano, J.M. (2017). The Rhetoric of Power: CSR to Debate. Corporate Communication and the Management of Intangibles in Spain and Latin America Prentice Hall.
  5. Castello-Molina, I. and Barberá-Tomás, D. (2016). Social Movement and the use of visual images in social networks” “The culture of the common. Colective practices at the XXI. In García Puchades, W. and Miquel, M. (Eds.), The culture of the common. Colective practices at the XXI (pp. 107-116). Valencia, Spain: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.
  6. Castello-Molina, I. and Barberá-Tomás, D. (2015). Why some Political Opportunities Succeed and others Fail?: Bridging Organizational Levels in the Case of Spanish Occupy. In Uldam, J. and Vestergaard, A. (Eds.), Civic Engagement and Social Media: Political Participation Beyond the Protest Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
  7. Castello-Molina, I. (2010). CSR as meeting point. In Gomez de Enterria, J. and Rodriguez del Bosque, I. (Eds.), Spanish as Communication in Business Organizations Thomson Reuters.

Conference papers and proceedings (26)

  1. Castelló, I. and White, L. AI-Duction for Organizational Theory Building: (How) can we Overcome Ontological Neglect with AI? .doi:10.5465/amproc.2023.18589abstract
  2. Harraca, M., Castelló, I. and Gawer, A. How do Digital Platforms Organize Immaturity: Towards an Integrative Framework for Platform Power. .doi:10.5465/ambpp.2022.11518abstract
  3. Castelló, I., Joachim, M. and Parry, G. Emotional Regulation and Institutional Maintenance: Debunking Fake News with Emotions. .
  4. Castelló, I., Lopez, D., Surroca, J. and Tribo, J.A. Tough Love: A Story of Stigmatization in Crowdfunding Communities. .
  5. Castello, I., Fieseler, C. and Uribe, S. Moral legitimisation in science, technology and innovation policies. .
  6. Pankov, S., Castelló, I., Schneckenberg, D. and Velamuri, K.V. Labels as Moral Markers: Organizational Identity Formation in Contested Fields. .
  7. Castello, I., Etter, M. and Winkler, P. When Digital Becomes the Grand Vision: Digitalization through Accommodative Engagements. .
  8. Illia, L., Ludovico, N., Caserta, M., Etter, M. and Castello, I. The Formation of lasting Stigma in the fleeting Context of Twitter. .
  9. Scarlata, M.R.G., Castello, I. and Vaccaro, A. Bridging Diverse Stakeholders' Interests: The Creation of A Common Identity to Foster Hybridization. .
  10. Winkler, P., Etter, M.A. and Castelló, I. From Ambiguous Aspirations to Emergent Strategies: A Strategized View on Corporate Responsibility. .
  11. Castello, I., Barbera, D. and Vaara, E. Legitimizing entrepreneurship identities through failure narratives. .
  12. Castello, I., Barbera, D. and Zietsma, C.E. Collective Identification in Framing Contests: An Interaction Perspective. .
  13. Castelló, I. and Barberá, D. Why Some Political Opportunities Succeed and Others Fail: Bridging Organizational Levels in the Case of Spanish Occupy. .
  14. Castello, I. and Barbera, D. Cultural entrepreneurship and the role of visuals in interactive frame alignment process. .
  15. Castello, I. and Etter, M.A. Stakeholder Engagement through Social Media: Logics and Control Conflicts. .
  16. Castello, I., Barbera, D. and de Bakker, F.G.A. Structuring Through Dissent: Field Emergence and the Strategic Role of Organizational Agency. .
  17. Castello, I., Barbera, D. and Zietsma, C.E. Intentional Field Creation: The Case of an Anti-Plastic Pollution Social Movement. .
  18. Castelló, I., Morsing, M. and Schultz, F. Responsible Business in Social Media: Towards New Forms of Interaction? .
  19. Castelló, I. and Barberá, J.D. Spanish Occupy and the boundary political opportunities that mobilize. .
  20. Castello, I. and Galang, R.N. Revisiting Civil Regulation: The Role of the State and SME's in Advancing the Sustainability Agenda in Asia. .
  21. Castello, I. and Etter, M. Why Stakeholder Engagement will not be Tweeted: Logics and the Power Corset. .
  22. Castello, I., Etter, M. and Morsing, M. Why Stakeholder Engagement will not be Tweeted: Logic and the Conditions of Authority Corset. .
  23. Galang, R.M. and Castello, I. Reconceptualizing Civil Regulation: Advancing the Sustainability Agenda in Asia. .
  24. Etter, M., Morsing, M. and Castello, I. Barriers to Dialogue-Organizational challenges for CSR communication in social media. .
  25. Etter, M., Morsing, M. and Castello, I. Barriers to Dialogue: On the use of social media for csr communication in the pharmaceutical industry. .
  26. Castelló, I. and GALANG, R. THE RHETORIC OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: STRATEGIES OF LEGITIMIZATION AMONG ASIAN FIRMS. .

Internet publication

  1. Morsing, M. and Castello, I.(2011).I sync med Twitter: Virksomheders engagement i sociale medier.

Journal articles (20)

  1. Bucher, E., Castelló, I. and Fieseler, C. (2026). Normative entrainment through affect in national artificial intelligence strategies. Government Information Quarterly, 43(3), pp. 102164-102164. doi:10.1016/j.giq.2026.102164

    [publisher’s website]

  2. Joachim, M., Castelló, I. and Parry, G. (2026). Moving Beyond “Facts Are Facts”: Managing Emotions and Legitimacy After a Fake News Attack. Business & Society, 65(2), pp. 389-429. doi:10.1177/00076503241281632

    [publisher’s website]

  3. Castelló, I., Colleoni, E., Scherer, A.G. and Trittin‐Ulbrich, H. (2025). Social Media Is a Threat for Democracy! A Political Perspective for Analysing and Diminishing Harm. Journal of Management Studies. doi:10.1111/joms.70053

    [publisher’s website]

  4. Wenzel, M., Trittin-Ulbrich, H., Edinger-Schons, L.M., Castelló, I. and de Bakker, F.G.A. (2025). Toward Holistic Stakeholder Engagement: Integrating Participation, Inclusion, and Democracy. Business & Society, 64(6), pp. 1055-1076. doi:10.1177/00076503251341209

    [publisher’s website]

  5. Castelló, I., Barberá-Tomás, D. and Vaara, E. (2023). Moving on: Narrative identity reconstruction after entrepreneurial failure. Journal of Business Venturing, 38(4), pp. 106302-106302. doi:10.1016/j.jbusvent.2023.106302

    [publisher’s website]

  6. Harracá, M., Castelló, I. and Gawer, A. (2023). How Digital Platforms Organize Immaturity: A Sociosymbolic Framework of Platform Power. Business Ethics Quarterly, 33(3), pp. 440-472. doi:10.1017/beq.2022.40

    [publisher’s website]

  7. Castello-Molina, I. (2023). Los retos de comunicar el ESG: ‘greenwashing’ y ‘woke capitalism’. Harvard Deusto Business Review, 333

    [publisher’s website]

  8. Castelló, I. and Lopez-Berzosa, D. (2023). Affects in Online Stakeholder Engagement: A Dissensus Perspective. Business Ethics Quarterly, 33(1), pp. 180-215. doi:10.1017/beq.2021.35

    [publisher’s website]

  9. Winkler, P., Etter, M. and Castelló, I. (2020). Vicious and virtuous circles of aspirational talk: From self-persuasive to agonistic CSR rhetoric. Business & Society, 59(1), pp. 98-128
  10. Barberá-Tomás, D., Castelló, I., De Bakker, F.G.A. and Zietsma, C. (2019). Energizing through visuals: How social entrepreneurs use emotion-symbolic work for social change. Academy of Management Journal, 62(6), pp. 1789-1817
  11. Castello-Molina, I. (2017). Visionary but concrete plans. Harvard Deusto Business Review, 271
  12. Castelló, I., Etter, M. and Årup Nielsen, F. (2016). Strategies of legitimacy through social media: The networked strategy. Journal of management studies, 53(3), pp. 402-432
  13. Castello-Molina, I. (2016). Managing relationships in a digitalized world. Harvard Deusto Business Review, 260
  14. Castelló, I. and Galang, R.M.N. (2014). Looking for new forms of legitimacy in Asia. Business & Society, 53(2), pp. 187-225
  15. Schultz, F., Castelló, I. and Morsing, M. (2013). The construction of corporate social responsibility in network societies: A communication view. Journal of business ethics, 115, pp. 681-692
  16. Castelló, I., Morsing, M. and Schultz, F. (2013). Communicative dynamics and the polyphony of corporate social responsibility in the network society. Journal of Business Ethics, 118, pp. 683-694
  17. Castelló, I. and Lozano, J.M. (2011). Searching for new forms of legitimacy through corporate responsibility rhetoric. Journal of Business Ethics, 100, pp. 11-29
  18. Barberá-Tomás, D., Jiménez-Sáez, F. and Castelló-Molina, I. (2011). Mapping the importance of the real world: The validity of connectivity analysis of patent citations networks. Research policy, 40(3), pp. 473-486
  19. Arevalo, J.A., Castelló, I., de Colle, S., Lenssen, G., Neumann, K. and Zollo, M. (2011). Introduction to the special issue: integrating sustainability in business models. Journal of Management Development, 30(10), pp. 941-954
  20. Castelló, I. and Lozano, J. (2009). From risk management to citizenship corporate social responsibility: analysis of strategic drivers of change. Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society

Reports (3)

  1. Castello-Molina, I. (2018). Sustainable Consumption in the Mediterranean Institutions..
  2. Castelló, I., Lozano, J. and Torreblanca, A. (2009). De la gestión del riesgo a la empresa ciudadana: los estadios de evolución de la RSE..
  3. Castello-Molina, I. and Oyarbide, M.A. (2008). Corporate Responsibility and Commercial Television: an Industry Approach. Universidad de Alcala.

Professional activities

Editorial activity

  1. Business & Society, Associate Editor, January 2019 - September 2025.