Universities with an Outstanding Strategy & Strategic Management Faculty
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A degree in strategic management trains students to set goals for their company and lead their team effectively. Businesses value professionals with a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) with a focus on strategy and strategic management. Since many universities now offer this type of program online, working professionals can complete the degree at their convenience to advance their career.
An online MBA in strategy and strategic management has the same curriculum as its on-campus counterpart, along with opportunities for face-to-face interaction with faculty and peers through in-person immersions. Several strategic management programs even offer study abroad opportunities. Above all, students become well-versed in employee management, psychology, business strategy, and international markets, among other foundational areas.
The following guide profiles exceptional faculty members in the field of strategy and strategic management. These professors are globally recognized for their expertise on strategy, business, and leadership. They also have won many awards and published their work in top-notch journals.
Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
The Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business is located on the university’s main campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The MBA program at Tepper is the school’s main program; however, the school offers undergraduate programs in business and economics, multiple specialized master’s programs, and a doctorate degree. For those interested in strategy, CMU offers a master of science in product management and the MBA. MBA students can specialize in operations management, organizational behavior, and strategy, among other concentrations.
The MBA can be completed on-campus in two years of full-time study with one summer internship; students may waive the internship and take summer classes instead, condensing the program to 16 months. The school offers alternative options for those who wish to continue working while enrolled, including a part-time flexible program with night classes, an online program, and one that combines both online and on-campus work. Notably, this MBA has been consistently ranked one of the best in the nation by Poets & Quants and the U.S. News and World Report.
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Timothy P. Derdenger, PhD
Carnegie Mellon UniversityDr. Timothy P. Derdenger is an associate professor of marketing and strategy at the Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business. He teaches courses in marketing management and technology strategy and is responsible for coordinating the technology leadership track for students pursuing the Tepper MBA.
His current research explores quantitative marketing in the areas of sports and high-technology. He has written articles in prominent journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, and Management Science. Dr. Derdenger also serves as an associate editor for Management Science (Marketing) and sits on the editorial review board.
He completed his doctorate and master’s in economics at the University of Southern California, and his bachelor’s degree in business administration at George Washington University.
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Robert A. Miller, PhD
Carnegie Mellon UniversityDr. Robert A. Miller is the distinguished Richard M. Cyert and Morris DeGroot professor of economics and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University within the Tepper School of Business. He is also a professor of economics and strategy and teaches classes on strategic corporate management. Before joining the Tepper Business School, he taught at the University of Essex, Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern University.
Dr. Miller’s research examines applied microeconomics and strategy and has been published in prominent journals such as the Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, and the Journal of Political Economy. He is the recipient of the Carnegie Mellon Department of Economics Teaching Award, the Australian Public Service Scholarship, and the Commonwealth Scholarship.
Dr. Miller completed his doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago and his bachelor’s in the same subject from Australian National University.
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George Washington University
George Washington University is considered one of the best research universities in the country and its School of Business is ranked as one of the top schools of its kind. The university counts politicians, CEOs, scientists, Nobel laureates, and MacArthur fellows among its alumni and faculty. The business school’s alumni include the chairman of the Samsung Group, the President of Togo, a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the owners of the Washington Nationals, the Chicago Bulls, and the Chicago White Sox.
The GW School of Business consists of many departments including, finance, information systems, marketing, and management. The Department of Management supports research and teaching activities as they relate to organizational behavior and development, entrepreneurship and leadership, executive behavior and teams, and the management of human resources.
The department offers five graduate certificates, three graduate degrees, two undergraduate concentrations, one university-wide undergraduate minor, a joint doctoral program with public policy, and a management and strategy doctoral program. The master’s programs that most closely correlate with those interested in strategy and strategic management include the general MBA, the master’s in human resource management, the master’s in project management, and the master’s in sports management. The MBA program can be customized according to each student’s interests with 27 credits of electives, which are completed in the second year.
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Jennifer Merluzzi, PhD
George Washington UniversityDr. Jennifer Merluzzi is a professor of strategic management and public policy at the GW School of Business. She teaches courses on strategy formulation and implementation, strategic management, strategic leadership and social capital, and network structures of effective strategic management.
Her research efforts center around labor markets, professional careers, inequality, social capital, identity, networks and economic sociology. She has published her work in respected journals such as the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Organization Science, and the Industrial and Labor Relations Review.
Dr. Merluzzi earned her doctorate in organizations and markets from the University of Chicago, her MBA from Washington University of St. Louis, and her BA in English and sociology from Tulane University.
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James B. Wade, PhD
George Washington UniversityDr. James Wade is a professor of strategy and leadership at the GW School of Business. He teaches courses in strategic management, advanced competitive strategy, business strategy, strategic management of technology, strategic change, business survival, and business policy and strategy. He was previously chair of the Technology and Innovation Management Division within the Academy of Management at the school.
Dr. Wade’s research focuses on corporate governance, industry evolution, the effects of race on career mobility, strategic management, and status dynamics among corporate CEOs. His research has appeared in prominent journals such as the Journal of Management, the European Management Journal, and the Journal of Business Research. He has won several awards, such as the Faculty Merit Award and the National Science Foundation KDI Grant.
Dr. Wade completed his doctorate in organizational behavior and industrial relations at the University of California, Berkeley, his MBA at the University of Texas, and his bachelor of science in mechanical engineering at Rice University.
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University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
The University of Chicago is world-renowned for its business school: the Booth School of Business. The school has produced more Nobel laureates in economics than any other in the U.S. and is second in the world after the University of Cambridge. Booth is the second-oldest business school in the country and also has the third-largest endowment. U.S. News & World Report ranked Booth’s full-time on-campus program as the best in the country—tied in first place with Harvard University.
While the main campus is in Chicago, the school also counts campuses in London and Hong Kong. The school offers many options for business students according to their schedules, needs, and interests. The programs include a full- or part-time MBA and an executive MBA—the first in the country—as well as other specialized master’s and doctoral programs. The MBA is exceptionally flexible, and students can choose to specialize in one of 13 concentrations, including entrepreneurship, general management, managerial and organizational behavior, marketing management, operations management, and strategic management. A unique offering of this program includes the Leadership Effectiveness and Development (LEAD) program, which is an experiential course designed to teach students how to be effective leaders and gain self-awareness of what makes them great leaders.
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Robert H Gertner, PhD
University of ChicagoDr. Robert H. Gertner serves as the distinguished Joel F. Gemunder professor of strategy and finance and the distinguished John Edwardson faculty director of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at Booth. He teaches courses in entrepreneurial strategy, strategic decision-making, and social entrepreneurship.
His research efforts focus on strategic decision-making, organization structure, strategic pricing, corporate finance, social enterprises, and theory of the firm. He has published his work in the Journal of Legal Studies, the Journal of Industrial Economics, and the Journal of Finance. Dr. Gertner is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Research Grant and the Olin Fellowship in Law and Economics.
He holds his doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his bachelor’s in economics from Princeton University.
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James E. Schrager, PhD, JD
University of ChicagoDr. James Schrager is a clinical professor of entrepreneurship and strategic management at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he teaches new venture strategy. He is also an active strategic advisor to boards and CEOs of startups and large corporations.
His research explores behavioral strategy, equity markets, and corporate restructuring. He has published his work in top publications such as the Journal of Strategy and Management as well as prominent news publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, CEO Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune. Dr. Schrager has received many awards, such as multiple Emory Williams Awards for Excellence in Teaching and the Faculty Excellence Teaching Award. He was also named one of the top entrepreneurship professors in the country by Bloomberg Businessweek.
He has a doctorate in organizational behavior and policy from the University of Chicago, a JD from DePaul University, an MBA from the University of Colorado–Boulder, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Oakland University.
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University of Delaware, Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics
The University of Delaware is the state’s largest university. The public research institution offers more than 135 undergraduate, 67 doctoral, and 142 master’s degree programs and was the first American university to offer a study abroad program in 1923.
The first undergraduate business major at UD was created in 1917, and the university established its MBA program two decades later. The Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics houses these two programs, among others, across its five departments in accounting and management information systems, business administration, economics, finance, and hotel, restaurant, and institutional management.
The school’s MBA program is offered through full- or part-time study, either online, on-campus, or as a hybrid format. There are 12 concentrations available, including strategic leadership, and students can pursue a dual specialization if desired. According to the school, the average starting salary of a Lerner MBA graduate is more than $90,000.
Furthermore, Lerner offers students the opportunity to obtain a dual degree so that they can combine their business skills with another discipline. Popular dual degrees combine an MBA with a master’s in finance, economics, accounting, engineering, hospitality, international business, or biology.
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Katalin Takacs Haynes, PhD
University of DelawareDr. Katalin Takacs Haynes is a professor of strategy and international management and the associate faculty director for MBA programs at the University of Delaware. She teaches strategic management, corporate strategy, international marketing strategy, and managing the global enterprise.
Presently, her research concentrates on corporate governance, board composition, and executive compensation. Her work has been published in prominent journals such as the Journal of Management, the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, and the Strategic Management Journal. Dr. Haynes is the recipient of the Outstanding Junior Faculty Research Award and the MBA Outstanding Teaching Award.
She completed her doctorate in management and dual MBA and master of international management from Arizona State University. She also has a bachelor’s and master’s in English and French from Eotvos Lorand University of Sciences in Budapest, Hungary.
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Sharon Watson, PhD
University of DelawareDr. Sharon Watson is a professor of management at the University of Delaware. She teaches courses in international business and strategic management in the MBA and undergraduate programs as well as the honors program.
Her research efforts center around the strategy of multinational corporations, including mergers and acquisitions across the border and the management of foreign subsidiaries. She has published her findings in many journals, such as the Strategic Management Journal, the Academy of Management Journal, and the Journal of Management Studies, which has won her several awards, including the Academy of Management’s Best International Paper Award. Dr. Watson also has won teaching awards, including the UD Online Innovative Teaching Award.
She completed her doctorate in international business and strategic management at the University of South Carolina, an MBA at the University of Buffalo, and her bachelor’s in psychology and art history at Dartmouth College.
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University of Houston–Victoria
The University of Houston system comprises four different universities. The University of Houston–Victoria, founded in 1971, is based in Victoria, which is located 30 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. The university has three schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education and Human Development, and the School of Business Administration.
The University of Houston–Victoria’s School of Business offers several graduate and undergraduate degree programs that can be completed either on-campus or online (with no required campus visits). UHV’s MBA offerings include two programs. The first is called the Strategic MBA, which is designed for students who want and need in-person interaction with faculty and peers. While it is considered a more traditional brick-and-mortar program, it also incorporates online work and the on-campus requirement is only once a week.
The second program is the Global MBA, which can be completed entirely online. Students can specialize in economic development, management, marketing, entrepreneurship, human resources management, and finance. Graduates of this program hold management and leadership positions at renowned institutions, such as International Energy Services Ltd., Schlumberger, BP America, United Airlines, Siemens, Halliburton, DHL, and WorleyParsons.
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Jifu Wang, PhD
University of Houston–VictoriaDr. Jifu Wang is a professor of management and the associate dean for external affairs and international programs at the University of Houston–Victoria. He teaches courses on strategic management, topics in management, international business strategy, international management, organizational change, and leadership and organizational change.
His research work explores global strategy, organizational change, and firm capabilities. He has published his articles in the Journal of Applied Finance, the Asia Pacific Journal of Management, and the Journal of Business and Economics Research. He has received numerous awards and scholarships for his research excellence such as the International Applied Business Research Conference Best Paper Award, the Presidential Graduate Fellowship, and the Harvard University HPAIR 2000 Scholarship.
Dr. Wang completed his doctorate in management and master’s in human resource management from Auburn University. He also has an MBA from Emporia State University.
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Kaveh Moghaddam, PhD
University of Houston–VictoriaDr. Kaveh Moghaddam is an assistant professor of management at the University of Houston–Victoria. He teaches courses on strategic management, international business strategy, strategy and the business environment, and principles of management. Before joining the University of Houston, he taught at his alma mater, Old Dominion University, as well as Texas A&M International University and Sharif University.
Dr. Moghaddam’s research focuses on the internationalization processes of multinational corporations and startup businesses. He has published his research in the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business and the New England Journal of Entrepreneurship. He also has won multiple awards such as a Research and Scholarly Activity Excellence Award and a Bloomberg Businessweek Teaching Award.
Dr. Moghaddam earned his doctorate in strategic management and international business from Old Dominion University, his MBA from the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, and his bachelor of computer science in industrial engineering from the same school.
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The University of Texas at Dallas, Naveen Jindal School of Management
The University of Texas at Dallas (or UT Dallas) is a public research university in the University of Texas System. The university, based in Richardson, Texas, was originally founded in 1961 as the research arm of technology company Texas Instruments. Eight years later, the school was bequeathed to the state of Texas, which is when it officially became the University of Texas at Dallas.
UT Dallas is renowned for its research output—it has the highest research activity classification—and competitive admissions. The school’s alumni include four Nobel laureates, an astronaut, a member of India’s Parliament, and the founder of the world’s first molecular nanotechnology company, among other notable people.
The Naveen Jindal School of Management is the largest of UT Dallas’s eight schools. The school offers many undergraduate, doctoral, and specialized master’s programs in various areas of business: accounting, finance and managerial economics, information systems, marketing, operations management, and organizations, strategy, and international management.
The U.S. News & World Report ranked the school’s full-time MBA among the top 50 in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Bloomberg Businessweek have also listed the school’s executive MBA program as one of the best in the country. The MBA program can be fully customizable according to students’ schedules and interests either in a full-time on-campus, hybrid, part-time on-campus (evening classes), or 100 percent online format. Students can specialize in more than a dozen concentrations, including healthcare leadership and management, innovation and entrepreneurship, international management, leadership in organizations, and strategic management.
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Zhiang “John” Lin, PhD
University of Texas at DallasDr. Zhiang Lin is a professor of international management, organizations, and strategy at the University of Texas at Dallas. He teaches courses in strategic management, social networks of organizations, organizational decision making, organizational design and theory, and organizational modeling.
Dr. Lin’s research efforts are focused on corporate governance, strategic networks, strategic decision making, and computational organization theory. He is an editorial board member for the Strategic Management Journal and the Journal of Organization Design, among others, and he has written for various other journals such as the Journal of Management. Dr. Lin is the recipient of a Distinguished Paper Award and an Achievement Award for Excellence in Research.
He completed his doctorate in organization and policy analysis and master’s in public policy and management at Carnegie Mellon University and his master’s in human and quantitative geography and bachelor’s in computer science at East China Normal University in Shanghai, China.
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University of San Francisco, Masagung Graduate School of Management
The University of San Francisco is a private Jesuit Catholic university in San Francisco, California. The university was first founded in 1855 and changed its name multiple times until it became the University of San Francisco in 1930 in celebration of its 60th anniversary. While the school began accepting women in evening business and law programs as early as 1927, it was not until 1964 that the school became fully co-educational. The school offers more than 230 programs across undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as professional and certificate programs.
USF’s Masagung Graduate School of Management is located in the heart of San Francisco and provides students with unique access to the tech industry. Programs within this school include a traditional MBA, an executive MBA, several dual MBA and masters, as well as specialized master’s programs in entrepreneurship and innovation, financial analysis, global entrepreneurial management, nonprofit administration, organization development, and public administration. Some of these programs are available online, in a hybrid format, and part-time.
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Roger Chen, PhD
University of San FranciscoDr. Roger Chen teaches strategy and corporate innovation at the USF’s School of Business and Professional Studies and is chair of the School of Management graduate curriculum committee. He teaches strategic management, strategic management in the global environment, corporate entrepreneurship and innovation, management in the global environment, organizational entrepreneurship and innovation and innovation project.
Dr. Chen’s research work is largely focused on corporate innovation and growth, global strategy, and competition, which has been published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Management International Review, and the Academy of Management Journal. He co-founded the “Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists Confidence Analysis and Index” and the Journal of Asia Business Studies. Additionally, he received a Faculty Research Award and the Abramson Award for Outstanding Article.
Dr. Chen has a doctorate in strategy and international management from the University of Texas at Dallas, a master’s in industrial engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and a bachelor’s in operations management from Shanghai Engineering and Science University.
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Villanova University
Founded in 1842 in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania, Villanova University is the state’s oldest Catholic university. It is among the U.S. News and World Report top 50 schools in the country and counts notable alumni. Prominent alumni include the CFO of Johnson & Johnson, a former Second Lady of the U.S., a former U.S. Senator, the current director of the U.S. Secret Service, several Academy Award-nominated actors, the current CEOs of Sunoco, Wawa, and the Philadelphia 76ers, and the former CEOs of American Eagle Outfitters and Chase Manhattan Bank.
The Villanova School of Business was founded in 1922 and is well-known for its undergraduate and graduate programs. Bloomberg Businessweek ranked it the top undergraduate business school in the nation. The school comprises six undergraduate degrees, six specialized master’s degrees, an MBA, and a joint JD/MBA program. The Villanova MBA degree can be completed online, in a hybrid format, or at an accelerated pace, depending on students’ interests and schedules.
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Jonathan Doh, PhD
Villanova UniversityDr. Jonathan Doh is the associate dean of research, faculty director of the Center for Global Leadership, and the distinguished Herbert G. Rammrath endowed chair in international business at Villanova University. He teaches management and operations courses such as global strategy, global pharmaceutical, business policy and strategy, and global corporate responsibility.
Dr. Doh’s research centers on multinational strategy, nongovernmental organizations, and global corporate responsibility. He has been published in well-respected journals such as Journal of International Business Studies, the Strategic Management Journal, and the Journal of Management. He is the recipient of several teaching and research awards, including the Dr. Alfred N. and Lynn Manos Page Prize for Sustainability Issues in Business Curricula, the Richard Beckhard Prize for an Outstanding Paper in the Sloan Management Review, and the Gold Medal Award from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Dr. Doh has a doctoral degree in strategic management and international business from George Washington University.
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Methodology
BSchools used the following criteria to select professors for inclusion in this list:
- University affiliation: Professors must be actively teaching at an accredited university in the U.S.
- Publication: They have published their research in influential peer-reviewed journals and presented it at industry conferences.
- Institutional and peer recognition: They have received awards, distinguished titles, notable grants, and prestigious research funding.
- Professional commitment: They have built curricula and programs, become leaders in professional organizations, volunteered extensively in their communities, and/or consulted for companies in the field.