Dr Shannon Harris

Dr Shannon Harris

Lecturer in Strategy

Researcher profile

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 1849
Email
sch23@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Biography

I joined the University of St Andrews in 2025 as a Lecturer in Strategy. Prior to this I was an Assistant Professor in Strategy and Enterprise at Heriot-Watt University. I recieved my PhD in Management from the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow in 2022. I have worked at the universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde, and Queen Mary University London. 

Research areas

My research focuses on understanding entrepreneurship as a contextually embedded, socially constructed, and historically situated process. I examine how entrepreneurs operate within and shape broader institutional, spatial, and moral environments. A central theme across this work is the exploration of alternative logics that influence entrepreneurial action - particularly religious, moral, historical, or community-based logics, that challenge or complement market rationality. My work explores how these logics generate legitimacy, shape strategy, and influence entrepreneurial behaviour. 

My doctoral research examined the influence of religion on entrepreneurial behaviour, theorising religion as a social institution that embeds normative expectations, communal obligations, and moral logics into the entrepreneurial process. Drawing on institutional theory and qualitative case studies of Evangelical Christian entrepreneurs, the study explored how faith-based norms and networks shaped entrepreneurial decision-making, opportunity recognition, and strategies for gaining legitimacy. This work revealed the complex negotiations entrepreneurs undertake to balance economic viablity with religious commitments. 

I am currently leading a British Academy Early Career Network Seed Fund project examining the historical development of inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems in the Scottish Highlands and Islands from 1965 to 1999. This project draws on archival material and oral histories to analyse the institutional role of the Highlands and Islands Development Board in shaping bottom-up, community-driven forms of enterprise. In a related empirical study, I am exploring entrepreneurial placemaking in the Scotch whisky industry through in-depth case studies of rural whisky distilleries. This project identifies the placemaking practices through which entrepreneurs re-narrate local histories, restore heritage infrastructure, and creatively reimagine place futures. This shows placemaking is a participatory process that intertwines spatial, social, and economic logics. 

Selected publications

 

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