Every year, the SMS Awards & Honors Committee recognizes individuals and research that have made significant contributions to the field of strategic management and advance its study and practice. With these awards, SMS honors emerging scholars in the field, scholars who have demonstrated leadership and innovation, articles that have notable impacts in the field, authors of outstanding academic work, and more.
We are delighted to present the 2025 SMS Award recipients!
SMS Strategy Leadership Impact Award
This award honors the highest level of achievement in strategic management by a business leader.
Steve Blank, Stanford University
CK Prahalad Award for Scholarly Impact on Practice
This award recognizes excellence in the application of theory and research in practice.
Julian Birkinshaw, Ivey Business School, Western University & London Business School
SMS Educational Impact Award
This award recognizes excellence in contributing to the teaching mission in strategic management.
Frank T. Rothaermel, Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology
SMS Emerging Scholar Award
This award recognizes a relatively young or new scholar, who displays exemplary scholarship that promises to have an impact on future strategic management practice.
Henning Piezunka, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
SMS Service Award
This award is conferred in recognition of significant and enduring service that made an outstanding and distinguished contribution to the Strategic Management Society and its members.
Constance Helfat, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College
Video Abstract Award
This award recognizes excellence in the content and quality of a video abstract for research published in SMS journals in the preceding year.
Russ Browder, University of Oklahoma, Sean Dwyer, University of Oklahoma, & Hope Koch, Baylor University
“How Digital Transformation Promotes Organizational Resilience”
Browder, R. E., Dwyer, S. M., & Koch, H. (2023). Upgrading adaptation: How digital transformation promotes organizational resilience. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 18(1), 128–164. https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1483
SMS New Fellows
Willie Ocasio, University of Illinois & Lori Rosenkoph, University of Pennsylvania have been elected to join the SMS Fellows, an honorary society that recognizes and honors members of the Strategic Management Society who have made significant contributions to the theory and practice of strategic management.
Global Strategy Journal Best Paper Prize
Maria Andrea De Villa, EAFIT University & University of Michigan-Flint, Tazeeb Rajwani, University of Surrey, Thomas C. Lawton, University College Cork & Brunel University of London, and Kamel Mellahi, University of Nottingham Ningbo, China
“To engage or not to engage with host governments: Corporate political activity and host country political risk”
De Villa, M. A., Rajwani, T., Lawton, T. C., & Mellahi, K. (2018). To engage or not to engage with host governments: Corporate political activity and host country political risk. Global Strategy Journal, 9(2), 208–242. https://doi.org/10.1002/gsj.1205
Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal Best Paper Prize
Henry Sauermann, European School of Management and Technology
“Fire in the belly? Employee motives and innovative performance in start-ups versus established firms”
Sauermann, H. (2017). Fire in the belly? employee motives and innovative performance in start‐ups versus established firms. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 12(4), 423–454. https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1267
The Dan and Mary Lou Schendel Best Paper Prize
Ron Sanchez, Copenhagen Business School and Joseph T. Mahoney, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
“Modularity, flexibility, and knowledge management in product and organization design”
Sanchez, R., & Mahoney, J. T. (1996). Modularity, flexibility, and knowledge management in product and organization design. Strategic Management Journal, 17(S2), 63–76. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250171107
