Dr. David Horan

Assistant Professor, School Office Trinity Business School

Biography

Dr. David Horan is an Assistant Professor in Business at Trinity Business School specialized in governance for sustainable development with a focus on United Nations (UN) sustainable development agendas and multi-stakeholder approaches to their implementation. His main research interests are concerned with how to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in particular, ways to enhance the effectiveness of cross-sector partnerships and business as a partner for the SDGs. At Trinity, David teaches courses in business and the SDGs to undergraduate and MSc students. His teaching and research integrates insights from multiple disciplinary areas, including management, economics/policy, and political science/international relations. As an engaged researcher and thought leader, David actively participates in SDG policy processes, including discussions of SDG implementation at events of major UN conferences on sustainable development. Prior to joining the School in Autumn 2022, David was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship by the Irish Research Council and the European Commission to undertake research and engagement for the SDGs including a two-year secondment at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network in New York. Since 2021, he is involved as a Fellow at Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, an international non profit in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that has for more than 25 years acted as a bridge between stakeholders of all kinds and the international intergovernmental forums where sustainable development, its governance, is debated and strategies mapped out. Dr. Horan is author of "A New Approach to Partnerships for SDG Transformations" and has been invited to speak on transformative partnerships and approaches to SDGs implementation at events of the Summit of the Future 2024, the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development 2024, the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Regional Development Forum 2024, the UN ECOSOC Partnership Forum 2023, the International Mayors Forum 2023 and the UN Sustainable Development Transformation Forum 2022. His most recent publications appear in International Environmental Agreements, Sustainability Science, Global Policy, and Technological Forecasting & Social Change.

Dr. Horan has a keen interest in the role that business schools and management education and research can play in charting a path to a more sustainable future. During 2022-24, he served as Associate Director of Undergraduate (UG) Teaching and Learning. In this role, he had responsibility for conducting an annual review of the UG curriculum to assess progress on the School's (embedding) sustainability strategy. Currently, David is Assistant Director for Research Development at Trinity Center for Social Innovation (CSI), where he helps to organize the weekly CSI Hour seminar. During 2023-24, he served on the School's Research Impact sub-committee and currently, he sits on its Research Committee representing Assistant Professors. David supervises two PhD students in areas of business and the SDGs and is interested in supervising Ph.D. and M.Sc. students in areas such as business SDG strategy, cross-sector partnerships, shared leadership/stakeholder engagement, engaged/action research for the SDGs, SDG impact and SDG reporting.

An economist by background, David holds a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, for a dissertation in R&D policy. David has lectured widely in Economics. Previously, he was Senior Lecturer in Economics at Oxford Brookes University Business School. He then branched out from Economics, holding a three year research position at UCD School of Politics and International Relations (Marie-Curie fellow). He has also been a visiting researcher at the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy and Columbia University's Earth Institute.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications

Horan D., A framework to harness effective partnerships for the sustainable development goals, Sustainability Science, 17, (4), 2022, p1573 - 1587, p1573-1587Journal Article, 2022, DOI
Horan D., Towards a Portfolio Approach: Partnerships for Sustainable Transformations, Global Policy, 13, (1), 2022, p160 - 170, p160-170Journal Article, 2022, DOI
Horan D., Enabling integrated policymaking with the sustainable development goals: An application to Ireland, Sustainability (Switzerland), 12, (18), 2020Journal Article, 2020, DOI
Horan D., National baselines for integrated implementation of an environmental sustainable development goal assessed in a new integrated SDG index, Sustainability (Switzerland), 12, (17), 2020Journal Article, 2020, DOI
Walsh P.P., Murphy E., Horan D., The role of science, technology and innovation in the UN 2030 agenda, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 154, 2020Journal Article, 2020, DOI
Horan D., Compensation strategies to enact new governance frameworks for sdg transformations, Public Sector Economics, 43, (4), 2019, p375 - 400, p375-400Journal Article, 2019, DOI
Horan D., A new approach to partnerships for SDG transformations, Sustainability (Switzerland), 11, (18), 2019Journal Article, 2019, DOI
Herlitz A., Horan D., A Model and Indicator of Aggregate Need Satisfaction for Capped Objectives and Weighting Schemes for Situations of Scarcity, Social Indicators Research, 133, (2), 2017, p413 - 430, p413-430Journal Article, 2017, DOI
Herlitz A., Horan D., Measuring needs for priority setting in healthcare planning and policy, Social Science and Medicine, 157, 2016, p96 - 102, p96-102Journal Article, 2016, DOI
The UN high-level political forum and parliamentary governance for sustainable development in, editor(s)Felix Dodds, Akinremi Bolaji, Yeongmoo Cho, Verena Klinger-Dering, Cristina Popescu, David Banisar, Quinn McKew , Governance for sustainable development Volume 3, Preparing for the Heads of State review of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, New Frontiers, 2019, [P Walsh, E Murphy, D Horan, A Banerjee]Book Chapter, 2019
Horan, D., Lahie, L. J., Sayer, M. J., How undergraduate students collaborate to address societal Grand Challenges: Evidence from a group assessment module on business and the Sustainable Development Goals, The International Journal of Management Education, 23, (3), 2025, p101260-Journal Article, 2025, DOI
Wang, E., and Horan, D., Review of Principles of sustainable business: Frameworks for corporate action on the SDGs, by Rob van Tulder and Eveline van Mil , Journal of International Business Studies, 57, (1), 2026, p120-123Review, 2026, DOI
Sayer, M. J., Horan, D., Lahie, L. J., Preparing Faculty to Teach Grand Challenges: The Intersection of Pedagogical Experience and Reflexivity, a Public Narrative Theory Approach, Journal of Management Education, 50, (4), 2026, p658 - 683Journal Article, 2026, DOI
Horan, D., Multistakeholder Partnerships Potential to Govern Climate-SDG Interactions: Evidence from the SIDS Action Platform, International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 2026Journal Article, 2026, DOI
Horan, D., Sayer, M.J., Integrating sustainability in higher education: Tracking progress, drivers and orientations in a business school intiative, Sustainability, 18, (9), 2026Journal Article, 2026, DOI
Horan, D, (2022), 'Research project on enabling integrated policy making with the SDGs' [pdf], Ireland SDG National Implementation Plan 2022-24, Government of IrelandImpact Case Study, 2022, URL

Horan, D., Assessing baselines and coordinating actions for the SDGs Decade of Action, Institute for Sustainable Development, SDG Knowledge Hub, 2020Journal Article, URL
Herlitz, A, Horan, D, Prioritizing the worse off under attainability constraints: An indeterminacy problem for distributive fairness, 2016Working Paper, URL
Horan, D., Herlitz, A., Evaluating Partial Satisfaction of Multiple SDGs, 2016Working Paper
Walsh P, Murphy E, Horan D, Banerjee A, UN High-Level Political Forum and parliamentary governance for sustainable development, 2019Working Paper, URL

I specialize in governance for sustainable development with a focus on United Nations (UN) sustainable development agendas and multistakeholder approaches to their implementation.

My overarching research interest is concerned with how to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in particular, ways to enhance the effectiveness of cross-sector/multi-stakeholder partnerships and business as a partner for the SDGs.

Over my career, I have a developed a research programme of significance on the role that cross-sector/multi-stakeholder partnerships can play in delivering systems transformations for sustainable development. Specifically, I have a track record of publications on enhancing partnership effectives in international peer reviewed journals with clear evidence of sustained output and impact (my h-index and h-10 indices are 10 with 722 citations). My publications have appeared in high-quality management journals (ABS 4, 3, 2, 1 journals) and high-impact field, multidisciplinary, and policy journals (Q1 political science journals, sustainability-related Nature Springer and global policy journals).

I have also developed a significant research programme on the role that business schools and management education can play in charting a more sustainable future, focused on curriculum development, sustainability integration, and preparing students for collaborative approaches to sustainability, with several publications (published and forthcoming) in leading management education journals (ABS1, 2).

Overall, my research combines a wide range of quantitative, qualitative, and engaged research methodologies, integrating insights from multiple disciplinary areas, including management, economics/policy, and political science/international relations. Publications range from large-N case study analyses of partnerships using documentary techniques, descriptive statistics, and network analysis to single N exploratory studies of organizational change and sustainability integration using participant observation, interviews, and documents, to perspective articles, indicator-based assessments, and game-theoretic mathematical modelling.

Currently, I am engaging with the post-2030 process on the future sustainable development beyond 2030, developing a series of research outputs and perspective articles co-authored with leading management scholars and political scientists concerned with the SDGs, developing recommendations on how to strengthen specific aspects of the SDG framework for the post-2030 agenda, including proposals on how to strengthen the role and contribution of business, systems thinking with the SDGs, and strategic partnership frameworks.

Long-term, my research plan focused on conducting engaged scholarship with international agencies, processes, and private companies focused on their partnership activities to study and enhance partnership orchestration and the effectiveness partnership portfolios for sustainability. I am eager to develop this work as a research cluster at Trinity Center for Social Innovation, supported by grant funding, and to contribute to developing the next generation of partnership researchers and initiatives.

Keywords: Global Governance for Sustainable Development, UN's 2030 Agenda/Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation, cross-sector/multi-stakeholder partnerships, SDGs indicators, business and the SDGs, education for sustainable development (ESD), sustainable transformations, engaged research, post-2030 sustainable development agenda.

Politics, Economics and Business Administration,

Recognition

Young Scholars Award, Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Trinity Business School Research Impact Excellence Award 2025
Trinity Sustainability Leadership Award 2025
Marie-Curie Fellowship, European Commission 2018

Earth System Governance
Cross Sector Social Interactions
Earth System Governance
Academy of International Business
Political Studies Association of Ireland
Academy of Management
European Consortium for Political Research

Representative to the UN, University College Dublin 2018
Journal reviewer for International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law, and Economics; Business Strategy and the Environment; npj Environmental Social Sciences 2025-26
Visiting Researcher, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network 2018
Academy of Management Annual Conference 2026, Management Education Division, Reviewer 2026
Contributing Author for the International Panel on Earth System Governance (IPESG) for the first global assessment of research on earth system governance in the assessment domain Governance through Sustainable Development Goals. July 2026 - June 2027
Research Fellow, Earth System Governance
Associate, Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future 2021-2023
Fellow, Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future 2023-
Member, UN Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development 2018