2026 Journal Best Paper Prizes
Each year, the SMS Journals Editorial Boards recognize exceptional scholarship published across their journals—celebrating the ideas, research, and contributions shaping the future of the field. We’re excited to announce this year’s Best Paper Prize recipients. Scroll down to meet the 2026 honorees.
The GSJ Best Paper Prize 2026 Recipient:
By Dónal O’Brien, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Ulf Andersson, Tina Ambos, and Na Fu
Dónal O’Brien is a Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management and Global Strategy in the School of Management, People and Organisation at Technological University Dublin, Ireland. He is Chair of the University’s Executive MBA programme and a Senior Fellow of Advance HE. He also represents TU Dublin on the Council of the Irish Academy of Management. His research examines strategy, organisational learning and entrepreneurship in complex international organisations, with particular interests in subsidiary strategy, microfoundations and managerial capability development. This work has been supported by national and international organisations and funding agencies. Working with collaborators in Ireland and internationally, he has published in leading journals in strategy and international business, including the Global Strategy Journal and the Journal of World Business. His scholarship has received national and international awards. Dónal’s work contributes to scholarship on how managers and organisations develop strategic capabilities and respond to complexity in international business contexts.
Pamela Sharkey Scott is a Professor of Strategy & International Business at Dublin City University, Pamela Sharkey Scott is a leading international scholar of subsidiaries of multinational enterprises. Her research concerns how subsidiaries and their leaders can contribute to their parent organization. Pamela’s research is published in the world’s premier journals in her discipline, including Global Strategy Journal, Journal of World Business, Journal of Management Studies and Journal of International Business Studies. Her work, has been nominated and awarded by leading international bodies including the Strategic Management Society. She serves on the editorial board of Global Strategy Journal. Combined with her previous corporate career, Pamela has a rich practical experience and a deep understanding of the behavioural, financial and strategic underpinnings of management and leadership within multinational enterprises. Pamela is a committed academic leader who contributes at the highest level to her staff, PhD Scholars and students, School, University, Research and Enterprise Community. She works with national institutions as an expert witness in major proceedings, and as a member of international institutional boards.
Ulf Andersson is Professor of Business Studies at Mälardalen University. He is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business and the European International Business Academy. Ulf is since 2017 Senior Editor for Journal of World Business. Before he acted as an Area Editor for Journal of International Business Studies 2011 – 2016. His research mainly focuses on subsidiary embeddedness, subsidiary strategy, HQ – subsidiary relations, and network theory. He has published over 100 articles, book sections, and books in among others Global Strategy Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, and International Business Review.
Tina Ambos is Professor of International Management and Vice-Dean for Societal Impact at the Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM) of the University of Geneva, Switzerland. She is also the Director of the Geneva Research Lab for Digital Impact, a partnership with UNICEF. Her research and teaching interests include global strategic management and innovation in the context of multinational corporations, technology start-ups and international (non-for-profit) organizations. She received a Ph.D. from WU Vienna.
Na Fu is Professor of Responsible Leadership and Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Her research focuses on the future of work, examining how people, technology, and organisations evolve together in response to technological and societal change. Professor Fu has published extensively in leading international journals and has secured over €11 million in competitive research funding. She leads and contributes to major European research initiatives on advanced digital skills, AI adoption, digital transformation, and the future of work, including LEADS, LEADSx2030, TechConnect, and WOTAM. As Founder and Director of the Trinity AI XR Hub, Professor Fu pioneers innovative approaches to developing responsible leadership, advanced digital capabilities, and human–technology skill complementarity through AI and immersive technologies. Professor Fu has established a global academic–industry network spanning Europe, North America, Australia, Asia, and the United Arab Emirates, fostering interdisciplinary research and international collaboration. Her work is driven by a deep commitment to shaping a future of work that is productive, inclusive, and socially responsible.The SEJ Best Paper Prize 2026 Recipient:
By Chuck Eesley & Edward Roberts
Chuck Eesley is a Professor of Management Science & Engineering at the Stanford University School of Engineering and Co-Director for International Entrepreneurship at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP). His research examines how institutional environments, industrial policy, and platform design shape entrepreneurial outcomes, with active work on AI-mediated entrepreneurial cognition, the algorithmic financing of online misinformation, U.S.–China export controls and venture capital, the Inflation Reduction Act and cleantech entrepreneurship, and the Stanford alumni economic impact study with William F. Miller. He is a W.M. Keck Foundation Faculty Scholar and a faculty affiliate at Stanford HAI and the Stanford Center for AI Safety. He holds a PhD from MIT Sloan and a BS in Neuroscience from Duke.
Edward Roberts was the David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology, and the founder and chair of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. He was an expert in advanced technology management and entrepreneurship, a serial high-tech entrepreneur, and a leading angel investor.
The Dan and Mary Lou Schendel Best Paper Prize 2026 Recipient:
“Science as a map in technological search”
By Lee Fleming and Olav Sorenson
Lee Fleming (Ph.D., Stanford University) is a Chancellor’s Professor and the Morris C. Chang Distinguished Professor in the Management of Technology Innovation at UC Berkeley, in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research in engineering and Management of Organizations in the Haas School of Business.
His latest work shows how technology clusters enhance exploitation at the expense of exploration, provides a causal model of science and technology knowledge spillovers, offers a longitudinal and field-wide analysis of image duplication fraud in Alzheimer’s research, illustrates the value of government investment in research, and a linked database of inventors and scientists that illustrates how Pasteur Quadrant Researchers (PQRs) provide increased novelty and impact across both technology and science. His dissertation developed theories of invention as recombinant search processes across complex spaces. Dr. Fleming earned his bachelor’s in ECE at UC Davis, Masters degrees in Engineering Management and Statistics, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior in Management Science, all at Stanford. Between 1998-2011 he served (ultimately) as the Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business at Harvard. He founded and served at UC Berkeley as the Director of the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership from 2011-2021. He has been a professional Horn player, National cycling champion, and member of a family all of whom have (or are pursuing) Stanford engineering degrees.
Olav Sorenson (Ph.D., Stanford University) is currently the Joseph Jacobs Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies, Faculty Director of the Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Chair of the Strategy Area, and Professor of Strategy and of Sociology, at the University of California Los Angeles. He previously held the Frederick Frank ’54 and Mary C. Tanner Professorship at Yale and the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair in Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto. He has also served on the faculties of London Business School and the University of Chicago. Olav grew up in South Dakota and received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University. He received an honorary doctorate from Aalborg University in 2014 and the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research in 2018.
2026 Elected Fellows
This distinction honors members whose contributions have meaningfully advanced the theory and practice of strategic management. Beyond recognition, the Fellows program fosters connection, collaboration, and thoughtful dialogue among those whose work continues to shape the field.
Phanish Puranam is the Roland Berger Chair Professor of Strategy & Organization Design at INSEAD. His research focuses on how organizations work, and how we can make them work better. His contributions have won him several honours, including the Oskar Morgenstern Medal for distinguished academic work in Business, Economics and Statistics, the Sumantra Ghoshal Award for Rigor and Relevance in Management Research and an honorary doctorate (honoris causa) from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics at the University of Zurich.
Frank T. Rothaermel is the Russell B. and Nancy H. McDonough Chair in Business at Georgia Tech University and a Regents’ Professor, the highest academic rank in the University System of Georgia, and a rare distinction reserved for faculty with exceptional impact in research, teaching, and service. He holds the Russell and Nancy McDonough Chair in the Scheller College of Business at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is an Alfred P. Sloan Industry Studies Fellow, and is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award.2027-2028 Elected Deputy Dean of Fellows
Christoph Zott is Professor and Head of the department of Entrepreneurship at IESE Business School. Professor Zott has published his research in the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Business Venturing, MIT Sloan Management Review, Organization Science, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and the Strategic Management Journal, as well as in other research outlets and books. He is the author of Business Model Innovation Strategy, published by Wiley in 2021. Professor Zott is also an editorial board member of the Strategic Management Journal and a former co-editor of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal.
