UC3M Business - Professor KURT DESENDER

email:
kdesende@emp.uc3m.es

address / office:
C/ Madrid, 126 - 28903 Getafe (Madrid) Spain / 6.0.17

phone / fax:
(34) 91 624 58 44 /

Personal web site

Google Scholar

BUSINESS UC3M

@UC3M_BUSINESS

KURT DESENDER

Associate Professor of Management

Education

Kurt holds a PhD in Business Economics by the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona and a Master in Business Administration by the same university. He gained his undergraduate degree in the Catholic University of Leuven.

Research interests

His research interests focus in the area of corporate governance, strategic management, CSR and financial accounting

Selected publications

Aguilera, R. V., Desender, K., LopezPuertas-Lamy, M. (2025) "From Universal Owners to Owners of the Universe? How the Big Three Are Reshaping Corporate Governance", Corporate Governance: An International Review 33, 462-482

Desender, K., & Epure, M. (2021). "The pressure behind corporate social performance: Ownership and institutional configurations". Global Strategy Journal, 11(2), 210–244.

Surroca, J., Aguilera. R., Desender, K. & Tribó, J.A. (2020) "Is managerial entrenchment always bad and corporate social responsibility always good? A cross‐national examination of their combined influence on shareholder value”, Strategic Management Journal 41, 891-920

Desender, K., López-Puertas-Lamy, M., Pattitoni, P., Petracci, B. (2020) "Corporate Social Responsibility and Cost of Financing – the Importance of the International Corporate Governance System", Corporate Governance: An International Review 28, 207-234

Aguilera, R. V., Desender, K., LopezPuertas-Lamy, M., Lee, J.H. (2017) "The governance impact of a changing investor landscape", Journal of International Business Studies vol. 48 (2), 2017, 195–221.

Desender, K., Aguilera, R. V., LopezPuertas-Lamy, M, Crespi-Cladera, R. (2016) "A Clash of Governance Logics: Foreign Ownership and Board Monitoring", Strategic Management Journal vol. 37 (2), 2016, 349–369.

Aguilera, R., Desender, K., Bednar, M., Lee, J.: " Connecting the Dots: Bringing External Corporate Governance into the Corporate Governance Puzzle", Academy of Management Annals vol. 9 (1), 2015, 483-573.

Desender, K., Aguilera, R. V., Crespi-Cladera, R., Garcia Cestona, M.A. (2013) "When Does Ownership Matter? Board Characteristics and Behavior", Strategic Management Journal vol. 34 (7), 2013, 823–842.

+ BIO

Kurt Desender is Professor of Business Organization in the Department of Business Economics at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He joined UC3M after earning his PhD in Business Economics from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).

His research focuses on strategic management, corporate social responsibility, and corporate governance, with particular emphasis on ownership structures, institutional investors, and the institutional context shaping corporate behavior and firm performance. His work has been published in leading international academic journals in strategy and management, including Academy of Management Annals, Strategic Management Journal, and Journal of International Business Studies. He has also contributed to the academic community as an editor of Corporate Governance: An International Review.

In terms of teaching, his activity concentrates on general management and business strategy, delivering courses at the undergraduate, master’s, and MBA levels, both in Spanish and English. In addition, he regularly participates in executive education programs developed in collaboration with companies and organizations such as Deloitte, Indra, EY, and the United Nations.

In addition to his teaching and research activities, he currently serves as Deputy Director of the Master in Management and as Vice Dean for Finance and Accounting at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

+ Publications

Desender, K., & LopezPuertas-Lamy, M. (2026). "The boardroom firewall: Gender diversity and cybersecurity". Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, 60, 100750.

Aguilera, R. V., Desender, K., LopezPuertas-Lamy, M. (2021) "Bridging Accounting and Corporate Governance: New Avenues of Research", The International Journal of Accounting 56, 2180001

Desender, K., & Epure, M. (2021). "The pressure behind corporate social performance: Ownership and institutional configurations". Global Strategy Journal, 11(2), 210–244.

López-Puertas-Lamy, M., Desender, K., Epure, M. (2017) "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Assessment by Auditors of the Risk of Material Misstatement", Journal of Business Finance & Accounting vol. 44 (9-10), 2017, 1276–1314.

Aguilera, R., Desender, K., Bednar, M., Lee, J. (2015) " Connecting the Dots: Bringing External Corporate Governance into the Corporate Governance Puzzle", Academy of Management Annals vol. 9 (1), 2015, 483-573.

Aguilera R. V, Desender, K. (2015) "Gobierno Corporativo: Mapa Actual y Nuevas Tendencias", Informe Situación Social de España 2015, Capítulo 8.

Aguilera R. V, Desender, K. (2012) "Methodological challenges in comparative corporate governance and strategic issues" in Wang CL, Ketchen D, Bergh D. (ed.) Research Methodology in Strategy and Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Desender, K., Castro, E., Escamilla de León, S. (2011) "Earnings Management and Culture", The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 70 (3), 639-670.

Desender K, Lafuente E. (2011). "The Relationship Between Enterprise Risk Management and External Audit Fees: Are They Complements or Substitutes?" in Abolhassan, J. (ed.) Risk Management and Corporate Governance, Routledge.

Aguilera R. V, Desender K, Kabbach de Castro L. (2011) "A Configurational Perspective on Comparative Corporate Governance" in SAGE Handbook of Corporate Governance, Sage Publications.

Desender K. (2010) "The influence of the board composition on enterprise risk management" in Handbook of Research on Enterprise IT Governance, Business Value and Performance Measurement, IGI Global.