It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing away of Prof. Avi
Fiegenbaum, a colleague who has contributed greatly to the field of
strategic management. Condolences are sent to his family, friends and
colleagues at the Technion and beyond.
Avi has completed his PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign. His dissertation "Strategic Group Theory" won the Best
Dissertation Award from the BPS Division at the Academy of Management. He
then joined the University of Michigan Ann Arbor in 1986 and in 1991
returned to Israel to the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management
at the Technion, where he has served as an associate professor. His early
research focused on the development of industrial strategic groups and
strategic reference points. This research has furnished insights and
empirical findings that advance understanding of competitive benchmarking.
He also studied various aspects of organizational risk-taking mechanisms
and their associated outcomes. He leveraged prospect theory to explain
organizational behavior, noting that when organizations are above their
reference point they behave as risk averse. However, below their reference
point, they tend to take risks. These paradoxical findings have direct
implications for major strategic issues, such as joint venturing and
foreign direct investment. In his recent research, Avi has worked with
several PhD students on absorptive capacity and performance feedback
learning. In addition, he investigated issues that are relevant to the
economic development of Israel and the Middle East, such as foreign direct
investment, technological incubators and startup companies, venture
capital investments, and the strategy of Israeli multinationals. Avi's
work has been published in the Strategic Management Journal, Academy of
Management Journal, and Academy of Management Review among other outlets
and books. He served on the editorial boards of prominent journals such as
the Strategic Management Journal and Strategic Organization. In addition,
Avi outreached to corporate executives and boards of directors in Israeli
corporations and contributed to the development of sports fields, with
special interest in volleyball, where he once played on the national team.
Colleagues, students, and friends of Avi reflect on his very warm
personality and his tendency to always seek compromise and resolution. He
was a very open minded scholar whose aspirations and dedication have
contributed significantly to the development of the field of strategy in
Israel. We hope that his followers will continue to fulfill his vision of
a prosperous scholarship of strategic management in Israel.
Sincerely,
Prof. Dovev Lavie
Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Tel: 972-4-8294435
Fax: 972-4-8295688
Email:
dlavie@ie.technion.ac.il
Website: http://ie.technion.ac.il/dlavie.phtml