SMS Emerging Scholar LogoSMS Emerging Scholar Award Recipients

The prize is awarded annually to a relatively young or new scholar, who displays exemplary scholarship as demonstrated in research, education, and related academic activities that seek to improve current strategic management practice.


2009 Emerging Scholar Winner

Michael Lenox

Michael Lenox holds a Ph.D. from MIT and is currently the director of the Batten Institute and Samuel L. Stover Professor of Business at the Darden School, University of Virginia. Michael Lenox was selected from a field of excellent candidates because of his research productivity, contributions to the field and future potential. He has 22 journal articles with publications in top scholarly journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Management Science and Organization Science, among others. His research has focused in and made contributions to two primary streams of work (1) Strategy, Environment and Nonmarket Strategies (stakeholder engagement, operational efficiencies and the environment and industry self regulation) and (2) Technology, Strategy and Innovation (transformation in R&D foci and programs, open innovation).

He has served or serves on the editorial review board for several scholarly journals including the Strategic Management Journal and Organization Science. In addition, he was appointed as an Associate Editor for Management Science in 2009. His future research integrates theoretical notions from his two major streams of research with the intent of giving voice to strategic management research into public policies. In summary, he is a bright young scholar with much promise to make important contributions to the field of strategic management and in other arenas.

Interview with Michael Lenox



2008 Emerging Scholar Winner

Riitta Katila

Riitta Katila is an Assistant Professor of Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University. Since receiving her Ph.D. in 2000, her research has influenced two research directions in strategic management. The first focuses on boundary-spanning activities such as acquisitions and collaborations, and the second on how firms re-deploy their existing technologies to create durable competitive advantage. She studies these questions longitudinally in technology-based industries such as robotics using a combination of quantitative, qualitative, and computational methods. Her work on these two key questions in technology strategy has appeared in the Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Research Policy, Administrative Science Quarterly and other outlets, and is frequently cited by scholars in the strategy field.

The SMS Emerging Scholar Award recognizes Riitta Katila's contributions as one of the leading young strategy scholars in the field, as well as her contributions to the professional community and to undergraduate and graduate student education.

Interview with Riitta Katila


2007 Emerging Scholar Winner

Jeffrey J. Reuer

Professor Reuer is the Boyd W. Harris, Jr. Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Strategic Management at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina. Since he received his Ph.D. in 1997, he has been a prolific scholar with a number of articles in top scholarly journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and Journal of International Business Studies, among others. His research has made important contributions to our knowledge of the governance of strategic alliances (largely using theory in information economics) and to corporate investment decisions (applying real options theory). Although young in the field (10 years since his Ph.D.), his work is highly cited by scholars and recognized in practice evidenced by such prominent business press media as The Financial Times. Professor Reuer is one of the top young scholars in the Strategic Management field and is positioned to make additional major contributions to the field in years to come.

The 2007 award was presented to Jeff Reuer during the SMS 27th Annual International Conference in San Diego on Oct 16, 2007. The conference also featured a special session where Jeff Reuer presented his research.



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