Publications
Writing that connects institutions, capital, and change.
Selected scholarship, conference papers, essays, and working ideas from Dr. William W. Towns.
How the work develops
From inquiry to public argument.
Inquiry
Define the organizational or institutional question.
Evidence
Examine scholarship, data, and field context.
Framework
Make relationships and assumptions easier to examine.
Public argument
Translate the work for scholarly and public audiences.
Application and revision
Test the ideas against teaching and organizational practice.
Editorial note
This page distinguishes completed scholarship, conference papers, and selected essays. Citation details and downloadable files will be added as the underlying archive is reviewed and prepared for public access.
Featured scholarship
Institutional responsibility beyond the campus boundary.
How should universities understand their responsibility to the communities around them?
The dissertation examines corporate social responsibility in higher education through an organization-development lens, with particular attention to civic engagement and the relationship between institutions and surrounding communities.
It establishes an early foundation for Dr. Towns’s continuing inquiry into institutional legitimacy, stakeholder expectations, organizational responsibility, and the capacity of anchor institutions to create shared value.
Towns, William W. An Organizational Development Examination of Higher Education Institutions’ Corporate Social Responsibility to Civic Engagement. PhD dissertation, Benedictine University, 2018.
Research and conference papers
Ideas tested through scholarly exchange.
Corporate Social Innovation: Building a Sustainable Organization in an Unsustainable World
Examines the evolution of corporate social responsibility and the ways organizations can move from compliance-oriented activity toward shared value, innovation, and durable organizational strategy.
Culturally Anchored: The Challenge of Changing Historical Norms Within the Dominant Culture of the Police Department
Considers culture, historical norms, and organizational change within policing. Presented at the International Conference and Doctoral Consortium of the Institute of Socio-Economic Approach to Organizations and Companies.
Working frameworks
Frameworks in development for teaching and practice.
Strategic Alignment Framework
The Strategic Alignment Framework is a visual management tool for mapping the stakeholder system surrounding a consequential decision, leadership challenge, policy objective, or transformation initiative.
It integrates stakeholder orientation, influence, engagement priority, relationships, and directional influence to help leaders build coalitions, anticipate resistance, and allocate attention more deliberately.
Selected essays
Public-facing arguments grounded in institutional practice.
When Everyone Does Their Job and the Organization Still Gets It Wrong
A troubling product can begin with a designer, pass through buyers, brand teams, risk functions, and retail systems, and still reach the public. The lesson is to build organizations that know when an ordinary decision is no longer ordinary.
Public scholarship · August 2026 Read the essay →Leading in a Polarizing World
Argues that when consensus is impossible, nonprofit leaders must make tradeoffs visible, values operational, and disappointment understandable to preserve procedural trust and institutional credibility.
Public scholarship · August 2026 Read the essay →Algorithmic Monocultures and the Recalibration of Work
Examines how shared AI hiring systems can produce similar decisions across organizations, creating risks for fairness, innovation, and competitive differentiation. Argues that leaders must redesign governance and preserve distinct human judgment as AI becomes part of institutional infrastructure.
Public scholarship · August 2026 Read the essay →What Impact Investors Want from Companies with a Cause
Explains why mission-driven companies must pair a credible business case with measurable social or environmental benefit, integrate impact into strategy and operations, and address trade-offs with transparency.
Kellogg Insight · August 2026 Read at Kellogg Insight →Capital for Systems Change: Why Venture, Catalytic, and Impact Investing Share the Same DNA
Argues that venture, catalytic, and impact investing share a common discipline of due diligence, portfolio construction, governance, and performance measurement, while differing in how they define value.
Public scholarship · May 2026 Read the essay →When a Rebrand Becomes a Legitimacy Crisis
Uses Cracker Barrel’s rebrand turmoil and leadership transition to examine institutional legitimacy, stakeholder alignment, and the conditions required for durable transformation.
Public scholarship · July 2026 Read the essay →Corporate Shared Value: What Modern Business Really Needs
Explores how changing expectations from workers, customers, investors, and communities are reshaping the relationship between purpose, competitiveness, and long-term business value.
Selected writing · Business and societyOne Small Step, One Giant Leap
Examines Evanston’s reparations initiative through the linked questions of discriminatory housing policy, homeownership, capital access, and intergenerational wealth.
Selected writing · Housing and wealthEverywhere, All at Once
Argues that retail and housing strategies must be considered together when communities seek inclusive growth, neighborhood resilience, and a stronger local economic fabric.
Selected writing · Community developmentThemes across the work
A connected body of inquiry across organizations and institutions.
A growing archive.
The publications page will continue to expand as papers, essays, presentations, and supporting citation details are prepared for public access.
The aim is not simply to accumulate documents. It is to show how individual pieces contribute to a coherent research agenda—and how that agenda develops over time.
Continue the inquiry