Denver Conference > Session Details

Session 9

Whatever Happened to Theory in Strategic Management?

Track Q	Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Track X	Time: 09:45 – 10:45
Plenary Panel	Room: Plaza Ballroom

Session Chair:

Sharon Alvarez, University of Denver

Sharon Alvarez is the Walter Koch Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver. She previously served as an Associate Professor of entrepreneurship and management, and the Academic Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Max M. Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University. Sharon Alvarez is the Past Chair of the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management and has been a Representative at Large for the SMS Entrepreneurship Interest Group. She was a Max Planck Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Entrepreneurship and Economic Systems Research, a visiting professor at Sun Yet-sen University in China, and is currently a visiting professor at University of Alberta. Her current research includes entrepreneurship theory of opportunities, firm, and market emergence. Sharon Alvarez is an Associate Editor for Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and she has published in Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Academy of Management Executive, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management, and Human Resource Management Journal.

Panelists:

Jay Barney, University of Utah

Jay B. Barney is a Presidential Professor of Strategic Management and Pierre Lassonde Chair of Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Utah. He previously served as the Professor of Management and held the Chase Chair for Excellence in Corporate Strategy at the Max M. Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University. His research focuses on how firms can gain and sustain competitive advantages. He has been an associate editor for the Journal of Management, a senior editor for Organization Science, a co-editor at the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and has been published in numerous leading publications. In addition to his teaching and research, he presents executive training programs throughout the US and Europe. Jay Barney is an SMS Fellow as well as a Fellow of the Academy of Management. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Lund, the Copenhagen Business School, and Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Madrid), and has had honorary visiting professor positions in New Zealand and China.
Richard Bettis, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Rich Bettis is the Ellison Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the Kenan-Flagler School of Business of the University of North Carolina. He has won the SMJ Dan and Mary Lou Schendel Best Paper prize and been elected to the Fellows of SMS. He has served on the Academy of Management Board and on the Strategic Management Society Board, where he also served a 3-year term as President. He has been a Consulting Editor of the Academy of Management Review, and an Associate Editor of Management Science. In 1995 he became an SMJ Associate Editor and in 2007 became an SMJ Co-Editor where his term will expire at the end of 2015.
Constance Helfat, Dartmouth College

Constance E. Helfat is the J. Brian Quinn Professor in Technology and Strategy at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Constance Helfat’s research focuses on firm capabilities, including capabilities for technological innovation and firm adaptation and change. She also has conducted research on corporate executives, including women executives. Constance Helfat has published widely in leading academic journals, and has written and edited three academic books. She is a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society, received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Technology and Innovation Management Division of the Academy of Management, serves as Co-Editor of the Strategic Management Journal and Associate Editor of the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management, and is on the editorial board of other academic journals. Constance Helfat received her undergraduate degree from the University of California-Berkeley and her Ph.D. from Yale University.
Daniel Levinthal, University of Pennsylvania

Daniel Levinthal is the Reginald H. Jones Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. he has published extensively on questions of organizational adaptation and industry evolution, particularly in the context of technological change. He is a past winner of the Strategic Management Society’s Best Paper prize and, in addition to being a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society, he is a Fellow of the Academy of Management and has received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy. Daniel Levinthal currently services as Editor-in-Chief of Organization Science and has previously served as Editor for Business Strategy at Management Science. He has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Southern Denmark and has held visiting professorships at the Harvard Business School and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies.

Theory development, often of an interdisciplinary nature, has played a key role in the development of strategic management. Examples include RBV, evolutionary theory, “fit” theories, behavioral theories, and dynamic capabilities. However, as strategic management has continued to evolve and grow as a field, its research and knowledge bases have become overwhelmingly empirical. Quantitative and qualitative studies, which typically include deductive or inductive hypotheses, have grown in absolute and relative terms when compared with purely theoretical contributions. Often the hypotheses in empirical studies are derived from theories that were developed some time ago. These hypotheses may sometimes be new theory, but instead they often represent predictions based on established theory. Within the strategic management field broadly, a disturbing trend in recent years has been the decline in the development and publication of new theory. This trend toward empirical research without renewed and significant theory development efforts could seriously imperil the future of our field.

All Sessions in Track Q...

Sun: 13:45 – 14:30
Session 307: Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Sun: 14:45 – 15:45
Session 7: New Frontiers in Technologies, Fields, and Business Models: Implications for Academic and Practice Knowledge Creation: Mon: 09:45 – 11:00
Session 8: Elevating our Understanding of Organizational Performance: Bridging the Frontiers of Business and Corporate Strategies: Mon: 15:15 – 16:15
Session 227: Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures: Reconfiguring Resource Bases for Value Creation and Growth
Session 308: Strategy Beyond the Firm: Creating and Capturing Value from External Resources
Session 310: When the Smoke Clears: The Emergence of the Cannabis Industry
Session 311: Theory Fragmentation in Strategic Management?
Session 312: Climate Change: Why and How Should Strategic Management Care?: Tue: 09:45 – 10:45
Session 9: Whatever Happened to Theory in Strategic Management?

Session 9

Whatever Happened to Theory in Strategic Management?

Session Chair:

Panelists:

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