AWARD CRITERIA

This award recognizes a portfolio of work that suggests the candidate will make fundamental contributions to the way we think about knowledge essential to achieving durable organizational success.

Contributions that complement existing strategic management theory with ideas from other fields and disciplines will be considered. Eligible to be nominated are members of the SMS. The likely winner of the award will:

  • Have completed his/her PhD no more than 10 years and no less than 5 years ago
  • Have a record of publication and professional activity that has demonstrated their work to be significant and with impact

Award Details: 

The recipient of this award is selected by a sub-committee appointed by the SMS Awards & Honors Committee.

The recipient of the SMS Emerging Scholar Award will be recognized at an appropriate, significant event at the SMS Annual Conference and receives prize money of US $5,000. In addition, the recipient is invited to participate in the SMS Awards & Honors Webinar Series and will be recognized and featured in one of the SMS journals.

Nomination Details: 

Materials for the SMS Emerging Scholar Award should include the below pieces and be submitted to the SMS Executive Office through the Submittable form. The applicant themselves should complete this submission after collecting the nomination materials from their nominators. If you are a nominator interested in nominating someone for this award, please reach out to them directly and provide them with this information and a nomination letter so that they can complete the application form.

  • A nomination letter by another SMS member, who is not a faculty member at the same university as the nominated individual
  • Two additional letters of recommendation for the nominated individual
  • A full current CV for the nominated individual

Click here to Apply!

SMS Emerging Scholar 2025 Recipient:

Henning Piezunka

Henning Piezunka was nominated for this award by Kathleen Eisenhardt (Stanford University), Michael Tushman (Harvard Business School), Linda Argote (Carnegie Mellon) and Dan Levinthal (The Wharton School) for his prolific research record, as well as for the quality, innovativeness, and importance of that research. The SMS Awards & Honors Committee evaluated many deserving candidates for this award and unanimously selected Henning as the most deserving because of his impactful and rigorous research and broad contribution to the field, positioning him among the emerging leaders in the field of strategic management.

About Henning:

Henning Piezunka is originally from Heidelberg, Germany. His research focuses on collaboration, competition and crowdsourcing. His research has been published top journal (e.g., Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Entreprneurship Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

He is an Associate Professor at Wharton. Before joining Wharton, he was a professor at INSEAD (2014-2024). He obtained a Diplom Kaufmann from the University of Mannheim, a Master of Science from the London School of Economics, and a PhD from Stanford University (US). He serves as an associate editor at Management Science and Journal of Organizational Design. Before entering academia, he co-founded a company and served as its CEO. It employed more than 30 people and served customers in more than 80 countries. It was sold in 2016.

https://www.henningpiezunka.com/

Henning Piezunka

Award Past Recipients

Mark DesJardine, 2024

Vanessa Burbano, 2023

Eric Zhao, 2022

Jon Bundy, 2021

Ryan Krause, 2020

Oliver Schilke, 2019

Exequiel Hernandez, 2018

Emilie Feldman, 2017

Guoli Chen, 2016

Aaron Chatterji, 2015

Andrew Shipilov, 2014

Gary Dushnitsky, 2013

Dovev Lavie, 2012

David Sirmon, 2011

Yan Anthea Zhang, 2010

Michael Lenox, 2009

Riitta Katila, 2008

Jeff Reuer, 2007