Skyler Clark-Hamel - Meet the Students - Ph.D.

Skyler Clark-Hamel (Darden MBA ’23) researches how firms compete for stakeholder relationships and how that competition shapes them. Drawing on stakeholder theory and competitive dynamics, his work examines how stakeholder relationships are shaped not only by firm–stakeholder interactions, but also by the comparisons stakeholders make among rival firms.

His research has been presented at the Academy of Management, the Society for Business Ethics, the International Association for Business and Society, and the Competitive Dynamics Conference. One of his papers, which integrates stakeholder theory with insights from music theory, was recognized as a Best Paper for the 2025 Academy of Management Annual Meeting in Copenhagen. Across projects, his work seeks to deepen our understanding of how firms navigate complex strategic and moral environments as they pursue stakeholder support.

Before entering academia, Skyler worked in the music industry as a touring and recording artist, entrepreneur, and agent at William Morris Endeavor in Nashville. He remains active in teaching and mentoring at Darden, contributing to courses such as “Leadership & Theatre: Ethics, Innovation, & Creativity,” and often draws on his background in the arts to inform his approach to ethics and strategy.

He lives in Charlottesville with his wife and their cats, Maestro and Mabel, and enjoys writing and playing music, cooking, and visiting New England and Switzerland whenever possible.

Publications:

Clark-Hamel, S. D., Bischoff, L., & Sun, Z. Forthcoming. Bittersweet Symphony: A Music Theory Approach to Stakeholder Dissonance and Value Creation. Journal of Management.

Freeman, R. E., Menghwar, P., & Clark-Hamel, S. D. 2026. A Stakeholder Perspective on Social Entrepreneurship: Toward Stakeholder Entrepreneurship. In Handbook of Social Entrepreneurship Research. De Gruyter.