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Gautam Ahuja

Gautam Ahuja

  • Eleanora and George Landew Professor of Management

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Faculty Area

Interdisciplinary Theme

Faculty Expertise

  • Strategy
  • Innovation
  • Management
  • Global Business
  • Emerging Markets
  • Technology Strategy

Contact

Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management

ga337@cornell.edu

Cornell Directory Entry

Biography

Gautam Ahuja serves as Eleanora and George Landew Professor of Management and Professor of Management and Organizations at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He has also served at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan (2001-2017), at The University of Texas at Austin (1996-2001), and as Visiting Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (2014-2015).

Ahuja's research interests include competitive analysis, technology and innovation, globalization, and the use of inter-organizational arrangements such as mergers, acquisitions, and alliances in these contexts. His research on these issues has received several global awards and honors, including Fellow of the Strategic Management Society (2023), Fellow of the Academy of Management (2021), TIM Distinguished Scholar for lifetime achievement in research (2019), the highest award given by the Technology and Innovation Management Division of the Academy of Management (2019), the Schendel Best Paper Award from the Strategic Management Society (2016) based on subsequent impact, SMS Knowledge & Innovation Best Paper Award (2015),and the SIEE-EBS Best Paper Award for the best paper on innovation management (2013). He was also felicitated as an SMS Foundations Scholar (2016) for his contributions in the field of strategy and innovation by the Innovation and Knowledge group of the Strategic Management Society. At the invitation of the Indian Government, he delivered the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Oration (2011), the formal speech on the occasion of Pravasi Divas, the festival to celebrate the achievements of the global Indian diaspora (non-resident Indians). Other honors include Lectio Magistralis, Luiss University, Rome; the Il Sigillum Magnum Medal from the University of Bologna in Italy, the world's oldest continuously functioning university; the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2008 from the Ross School; and the Senior Faculty Research Award for sustained "path-breaking research as a thought-leader in the field of strategy" in 2010, also from the Ross School. Other global research awards include the TIM Best Paper Award for Technology and Innovation Management (2003), the Sage-Pondy and West Publishing Awards for outstanding research in Organization Theory (1998), the Free Press Award for Best Dissertation in Strategic Management (1997), all from the Academy of Management; and the College on Organization Science Best Dissertation Award (1995) from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).

Ahuja's research has received more than 30,000 citations from other scholars and various federal and international bodies. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of Organization Science, one of the premier journals in the field, and has also served as Associate Editor for Management Science and as a Senior Editor for Organization Science and Strategy Science. He served as the Co-chairperson (2001-04) and Chairperson (2004-2013) of the Strategy group at Ross. For several years through this period, the Strategy group was ranked in the top three departments (including number one) globally by The Financial Times. He has also served as the Division Chair for the Technology and Innovation Management Division of the Academy of Management. As a doctoral advisor, he has trained many students who are now faculty at some of the best institutions across the world.

Ahuja teaches strategy and competitive analysis. He has been selected as the Best Professor by student vote 20 times across the MBA, EMBA, and PhD programs. At Cornell, he has received the Cornell-Tech Best Professor Award as well as the Johnson Graduate School of Management's Apple Award given by the graduating class at Johnson each year to the faculty member who has had the most impact on them in the classroom. In 2016, Ahuja received the BPS Wiley Outstanding Educator Award for his lifetime teaching contributions. This award is given to one faculty member across the world every year by the Strategy Division of the Academy of Management. In 2011, Bloomberg BusinessWeek ranked Ahuja number two in its listing of the Most Popular Professors in the United States in its Popularity Issue naming the market leaders in various business, product and cultural categories.

Selected Publications

Awards and Honors

  • TIM Distinguished Scholar (Technology and Innovation Management) (2019) Academy of Management
  • BPS Wiley Outstanding Educator Award (2016) Academy of Management, BPS Division
  • Cornell Tech Faculty Teaching Award (2019) Cornell-Tech
  • SMS Foundation Scholar (2016) Strategic Management Society, Knowledge & Innovation IG
  • JGSM Apple Teaching Award, Class of 2019 (2019) Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management

Recent Courses

  • NBAE 5900 - Advanced Strategic Analysis
  • NBAY 5795 - Advanced Strategic Analysis
  • NRE 5420 - PhD Seminar in Strategy
  • NBA 6050 - Strategy Formulation and Competitive Analysis

Academic Degrees

  • PhD University of Michigan, 1996
  • MBA University of Michigan, 1994
  • MA University of Michigan, 1994
  • MBA Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, 1986
  • BA St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi, 1984