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CALLS FOR 2026 STR CAREER AND DISSERTATION AWARD NOMINATIONS

Isin Guler

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

STR Division Chair Elect

2026 STR DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR AWARD NOMINATIONS

The STR Distinguished Scholar Award is given in even-numbered years. This award recognizes an individual who has developed a core set of ideas that fundamentally advanced research and understanding in the field of strategic management. While these ideas may involve a specific theoretical or empirical discovery, priority is given to their importance to the field rather than the accumulation of disparate facts or findings. The intent is to recognize contributions that significantly impacted the development of the field.

This call invites nominations for the 2026 STR Distinguished Scholar Award from the STR community.  Nominations will also be sought from the STR Award Committee, prior winners of the STR Distinguished Scholar Award, the STR Executive Committee and STR Officers, as well as prior STR Division Chairs. No self-nominations are accepted.

Previous award winners: David Teece, Jay Barney, Margaret Peteraf, Kathleen Eisenhardt, Daniel Levinthal.

Individuals interested in nominating a strategic management scholar for this most prestigious award should send an email to Deepak Somaya, STR Division Chair Elect (guler@unc.edu) with the subject line heading "STR Distinguished Scholar Award nomination." Please regard the nomination as accepted when you receive a confirmation email response (and kindly check your Junk folder / Spam filter for this email). Nomination emails should include a letter explaining your reasons for supporting the nominee and how the individual(s) research contributed to intellectual development of the field of strategic management, along with relevant CV(s) or URL link(s). Typical nomination letters are no longer than one page. Nominees are evaluated by a committee consisting of senior scholars in strategic management. Building on the nomination letters, the committee will conduct its own research to document and evaluate the contributions of candidate nominees.

Nominations for the STR Distinguished Scholar Award will be accepted until Sunday, January 26, 2026.

2026 STR OUTSTANDING EDUCATOR AWARD NOMINATIONS

The STR Division of the Academy of Management requests nominations for the STR Outstanding Educator Award, to be given at next year's annual meetings. The STR Division has recognized Outstanding Educators with an award since 1987. In recognition of support from the publishing company Richard D. Irwin, this award was previously known as the Irwin Outstanding Educator Award. Since 2008, the STR division has presented this award on an annual basis.

This award is designed to recognize an established strategy scholar who has demonstrated a long-term commitment to and expertise in educating strategy students. Nominees should have at least 15 years of service since graduating from their own doctoral programs. In odd years, STR evaluates nominees with respect to their contributions to Ph.D. and doctoral education. In even years, STR evaluates nominees with respect to their contributions to MBA/executive education in strategic management.

Since our next meeting will be in 2026, we are now soliciting nominations for scholars who have made significant contributions to MBA/executive education in strategic management.

Manifestations of outstanding educator contributions might include:

Evidence of outstanding teaching capabilities over an extended period. The nominee demonstrates mastery of the field and an ability to cultivate a strategic perspective in future business leaders. (For example, former students might provide testimonials as to the impact that this individual had on their growth and development as strategists or as business leaders). The nominee demonstrates either depth or breadth in teaching strategy-related topics to Master's (MBA) and/or Executive Education populations. The nominee creates learning environments that promote constructive and interactive class discussions in which students challenge assumptions and share their knowledge and experiences. It is likely that the nominee has been named for teaching awards.

Evidence of an important impact on strategy pedagogy though demonstrated expertise of by developing new and different teaching methods or materials that were subsequently widely adopted by others. (For example, the nominee may have produced for strategy courses high-quality simulations, textbooks, business cases, online material, or experiential exercises. Alternatively, the nominee may have been involved in administering a highly effective and innovative Master's (MBA)/executive program in strategic management).

Evidence of deep passion about the subject of strategic management, and about the intellectual development of the nominee's students.

Previous award winners include:

• 1987: C. Roland Christensen (Harvard U.)
• 1989: James Brian Quinn (Dartmouth College)
• 1991: Charles Summer (U. of Washington)
• 1993: Michael Porter (Harvard U.)
• 1995: William H. Newman (Columbia U.)
• 1997: David Jemison (U. of Texas)
• 1999: Arnold Cooper (Purdue U.)
• 2001: Michael A. Hitt (Arizona State U.)
• 2003: Donald C. Hambrick (Penn State U.)
• 2005: Jay Barney (Ohio State U.)
• 2007: Kathy Eisenhardt (Stanford U.)
• 2008: Pankaj Ghemawat (IESE Business School)
• 2009: Will Mitchell (Duke U.)
• 2010: Anita McGahan (U. of Toronto)
• 2011: Joseph Mahoney (U. of Illinois)
• 2012: Henry Mintzberg (McGill U.)
• 2013: Bernard Yeung (National U. of Singapore)
• 2014: Myles Shaver (U. of Minnesota)
• 2015: Dan Levinthal (U. of Pennsylvania)
• 2016: Gautam Ahuja (U. of Michigan)
• 2017: Glenn Carroll (Stanford U.)
• 2018: Sharon Oster (Yale U.)
• 2019: David Mowery (U. of California Berkeley)
• 2020: Jan Rivkin (Harvard U.)
• 2021: Edward J. Zajac (Northwestern U.)
• 2022: Margarethe F. Wiersema (U. of California Irvine)
• 2023: Aks Zaheer (University of Minnesota)
• 2024: David Collis (Harvard U.)
• 2025: Rajshree Agarwal (Maryland U.)

How to nominate someone for the STR Outstanding Educator Award:

Please send an email to Isin Guler, STR Division Chair Elect (guler@unc.edu) with the subject line heading "STR Outstanding Educator Award nomination." Please regard the nomination as accepted when you receive a confirmation email response (and kindly check your Junk folder / Spam filter for this email). Nomination emails should include a letter explaining your reasons for supporting the nominee, including a few sentences to address how your nominee meets the award criteria, as well as relevant CV(s) or URL link(s). Typical nomination letters are no longer than one page. Self-nominations are accepted. Nominees are evaluated by a committee consisting of senior scholars in strategic management, which will conduct its own research to document and evaluate the merits of candidate nominees.

Nominations will be accepted up until Sunday, January 26, 2026.

2026 STR OUTSTANDING DISSERTATION AWARD

The STR Division will offer the Outstanding Dissertation Award in Strategic Management again in 2026. Any doctoral dissertation may be entered that satisfies the following criteria:

1. The dissertation addresses topics in the area of business policy and strategic management.
2. The dissertation was completed between January 27, 2025 and January 26, 2026, where the completion date is when the degree is completed and awarded.
3. The dissertation was not previously submitted for consideration for this award. A dissertation may be submitted to STR and other divisions simultaneously if it fits within each division's domain statement. The STR domain statement can be found at https://str.aom.org/home  (under About).

Interested recent graduates should submit their applications by email to Isin Guler, STR Division Chair Elect (guler@unc.edu) with the subject line heading "STR Division Outstanding Dissertation Award submission." Please regard the nomination as accepted when you receive a confirmation email response (and kindly check your Junk folder / Spam filter for this email). The application should include the following Word documents as attachments:

1. A one-page abstract of the dissertation.
2. A ten-page double-spaced summary of the dissertation.
3. A separate cover page listing your name, the dissertation's title, the completion date, the name of the university granting your degree, your current university affiliation and any intervening affiliation (such as a post-doc or visiting position), and a complete list of dissertation committee members (advisor, other committee members, any "defense opponent" etc.) and their affiliations.

In order to facilitate compliance with the STR conflict of interest policy and the blind review process, please remove any author-identifying information from your abstract and dissertation summary.

Initial submissions must be received by Sunday, January 26, 2026. Submissions are by email only and will not be accepted by fax or regular mail. Members of the STR Research Committee will evaluate the dissertation summaries and invite a subset of entrants to submit their complete dissertations in March 2026 for further evaluation.

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Isin Guler
Kenan-Flagler Business School
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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