Nastaran Alimardaninaghani of The Ohio State University was a recipient of the 2025 Will D. Mitchell Dissertation Research Grant program. Learn more about their work:
What is your research question/topic?
My dissertation explores how firms gain competitive advantage in strategic factor markets when managers interpret uncertainty through behavioral rather than purely rational lenses. I examine how competitive outcomes shift when we account for the cognitive biases and learning patterns.
What are you hoping to accomplish through your research?
Through this research, I aim to develop a more behaviorally grounded understanding of strategic factor markets. Specifically, I hope to show how differences in managerial cognition translate to competitive outcomes above and beyond informational and resource positions.
What impact could this research have more broadly on the field of strategic management?
By embedding behavioral mechanisms within strategic factor market theory, my dissertation explores boundary conditions of competitive advantage. More specifically, my work seeks to understand when the canonical explanations hold and when cognitive processes systematically alter predicted outcomes. It could also establish a template for incorporating behavioral realism into core theories of strategic management, including RBV, TCE, and Property Rights.
What SMS resources (members, workshops, events, etc.) were helpful to you during the application process?
The SMS community has been instrumental in shaping this project. Conference sessions and doctoral workshops helped me refine the theoretical framing and position my work within broader conversations about competitive advantage and behavioral strategy. Conversations with SMS members pushed me to think more carefully about how different approaches can speak to one another and contribute to a unified theoretical account.
Who inspires you the most to do this work? (whether that is professionally or personally).
The deepest inspiration for my work comes from multiple sources. My advisor, Michael Leiblein, inspires me through his ability to ask fundamental questions about competitive advantage while remaining open to new theoretical perspectives. His work demonstrates that the strongest research takes established theories seriously while questioning their underlying assumptions. More broadly, I am inspired by scholars who established the canonical questions defining our field and those willing to revisit foundational assumptions when they no longer fully capture organizational reality. Their work shows that theory evolves through both analytical rigor and careful attention to realities that shape strategic phenomena.