Professor Colin Higgins is Dean of La Trobe Business School and Professor of Management at La Trobe University. His work spans academic leadership, responsible and sustainable business, organisational change, and the future of business and management education.

As Dean, Colin leads the strategic direction of La Trobe Business School, with a particular focus on how business schools can respond to profound changes in technology, work and society. In this role, he sees important value in understanding the implications of artificial intelligence for organisations and management, the changing nature of work and professional careers, responsible AI adoption, and the role of universities and industry partnerships in preparing people and organisations for an AI-enabled economy.

Colin is an internationally recognised scholar in business and society, corporate responsibility and sustainability. His research examines how organisations respond to changing societal expectations, particularly through sustainability reporting, transparency and corporate accountability. A recurring theme in his research is the relationship between what organisations say, what they do, and the institutional and stakeholder pressures that shape organisational change. His work has examined sustainability and integrated reporting, organisational hypocrisy and transparency, stakeholder accountability, and the contribution of business to complex social challenges.

His research has been published in journals including Business & Society, Journal of Business Ethics, California Management Review, Journal of Business Research, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal and Business Strategy and the Environment. His work on integrated reporting and organisational change, for example, challenges assumptions that new reporting frameworks necessarily drive substantive organisational transformation, showing instead how organisations adapt such frameworks to their existing circumstances and strategic priorities.

Colin has also held significant international scholarly leadership roles. He served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Business & Society, having previously been an Associate Editor, and has held senior elected leadership roles in the Social Issues in Management Division of the Academy of Management and the International Association for Business & Society, including serving as President of IABS.

Prior to joining La Trobe, Colin held senior leadership positions at Deakin University, including Deputy Dean of Deakin Business School, Head of the Department of Management and Associate Dean International and Partnerships. Earlier in his career he was MBA Director at Deakin Business School and held academic and visiting appointments in the UK, the USA, China, Singapore, Malaysia, India, and China. 

Across these roles, Colin has been particularly interested in the evolution of business education: industry-engaged learning, international education, postgraduate and executive education, new educational technologies, and developing curricula that respond to major changes in business and society. His broader leadership philosophy is that business schools should not simply respond to changes in organisations and economies, but should help shape how those changes occur.