Message from the STR Division Chair

2026 Spring Newsletter & Annual Meeting Highlights
Brian Wu, STR Division Chair
wux@umich.edu

 

Dear STR colleagues,

The STR leadership team looks forward to seeing many of you at the 86th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in Philadelphia, July 31-August 4, 2026. Philadelphia offers a walkable and historically rich setting for reconnecting with colleagues, welcoming new members to STR, and celebrating the research, teaching, mentoring, and service that make our division such a vibrant scholarly community.

STR Three-Year Review 

We recently completed STR's three-year review, and I am delighted to share that the Academy of Management Board has renewed the STR Division for another three years. This outcome reflects the strength of our community and the sustained work of many volunteers across STR leadership, committees, task forces, regional initiatives, reviewer pools, award committees, consortia, PDWs, and annual meeting programming. The full report is posted on the STR website; you can read it here. I will send a separate message in July with a fuller summary of the review, the AOM Board feedback, and our priorities for the next three years. 

Briefly, the review affirmed STR's strong position as a large, stable, and highly active division, noting our robust membership and submission trends, well-established governance processes, substantial financial reserves, and clear awareness of the field's evolving direction. Several strengths are worth celebrating. STR is the second-largest Division or Interest Group in AOM, with 5,996 members in 2025 and membership growth averaging 3.5% annually since the last review. Our growth is increasingly global: 59.7% of STR members are based outside the United States. STR members remain highly engaged in the Annual Meeting, accounting for roughly 11% of paper submissions, 8% of symposium submissions, and 7% of PDW submissions. The report also highlights STR's Global Impact Plan, our year-round digital and virtual programming, our responsiveness to member concerns, and our commitment to supporting emerging scholars. Between 2023 and 2025, STR organized 41 recorded virtual sessions, now available through STR's digital channels. Our Global Impact Plan has more than doubled scholarships for junior scholars from underrepresented regions and expanded STR co-sponsorship of workshops and conferences across nearly all major global regions. STR also endowed the Emerging Scholar Award in honor of Michael Porter, creating a lasting signal of support for early-career strategy scholars.

Annual Meeting Highlights: Philadelphia 2026

The AOM community will gather at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and nearby venues from July 31 to August 4. STR activities begin with PDWs, consortia, and community-building events and continue through our awards sessions, plenary, dissertation finalists' presentations, Business Meeting, and STR Social. Please consult the AOM Program Navigator and the STR website for the most current room assignments and registration details.

• Friday, July 31, 5:30-7:30 PM ET: STR Happy Hour - Organized by the Membership Engagement Committee at Liberty Point on the Philadelphia Waterfront, 211 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd.
• Sunday, August 2, 8:00-11:00 AM ET: STR Awards breakfast social and award sessions - Honoring our career award winners, including Frank Rothaermel for the STR Outstanding Educator Award and Sid Winter for the STR Distinguished Scholar Award. Philadelphia Convention Center, 113C.
• Monday, August 3, 8:00-9:00 AM ET: STR Plenary breakfast - Breakfast with the plenary speakers at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Grand Ballroom B.
• Monday, August 3, 9:00-10:30 AM ET: STR Plenary: "Core Strategy Meets AI and AI Meets Core Strategy" - With Connie Helfat and Dan Levinthal, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Grand Ballroom B.
• Monday, August 3, 3:00-4:30 PM ET: STR Best Dissertation Finalists' Presentations - Pennsylvania Convention Center, 113C.
• Monday, August 3, 4:30-5:30 PM ET: STR Business Meeting - Pennsylvania Convention Center, 113C. Please join us to learn more about the division, recognize STR volunteers, and celebrate award winners.
• Monday, August 3, 6:00-8:00 PM ET: STR Social - Love City Brewing Company, 1023 Hamilton Street, with drinks, Italian food, and networking, organized by the Membership Engagement Committee.

Thank You to the STR Community

STR is a volunteer-run scholarly community, and all of these activities are possible only because so many members generously contribute their time, judgment, creativity, and care. I am deeply grateful to our Global Representatives, STR Ambassadors, reviewers, PDW and symposium organizers, mentors, panelists, and session chairs. I also offer my sincere thanks to Secretary Dave Maslach, Treasurers Paul Drnevich and Sandip Bisui, Communications Officer Paolo Aversa, Membership Engagement Chairs Andy Wu and Cameron Miller, and the many members of our hardworking executive, research, and awards committees.

I am especially grateful to Division Chair-Elect Isin Guler, Program Chair Nan Jia, and Assistant Program Chair John Joseph for their extraordinary partnership and service. I also want to give special recognition to Past Division Chair Deepak Somaya. It is impossible to thank Deepak sufficiently for his tireless dedication, generous guidance, and the invaluable experience he has shared over the past five years. He has done so much for STR and for our field. I invite all members to join me in recognizing his five years of service as an STR Officer, and I encourage you to reach out to him during the Annual Meeting to share your appreciation.

I look forward to seeing many of you in Philadelphia.

Best,

Brian

STR Leadership Team 2025-26

• Paolo Aversa (City University of London) - Communications Officer

• Sandip Bisui (Purdue University)  - Treasurer

• Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra (Northeastern University) - Executive Committee / Global Impact

• Colleen Cunningham (University of Utah) - Executive Committee / Awards and Catering

• David Clough (University of British Columbia) - Executive Committee / Non-Conference Task Force

• Paul Drnevich (University of Alabama) - Treasurer

• Isin Guler (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) - Division Chair-Elect

• Kenneth Huang (National University of Singapore) - Executive Committee / Program Associate Editor (AE)

• Nan Jia (University of Southern California) - Program Chair

• John Joseph (University of California, Irvine) - Assistant Program Chair

• Catherine Magelssen (London Business School) - Executive Committee / Three-Year Review

• Arianna Marchetti (Bocconi University) - Executive Committee / Program AE

• John Mawdsley (HEC Paris) - Executive Committee / Career Awards

• Dave Maslach (Florida State University) - Secretary

• Cameron Miller (Syracuse University) - Membership Engagement Chair

• Francisco Polidoro (University of Texas at Austin) - Executive Committee / Elections

• Maria Roche (Harvard Business School) - Executive Committee / Non-Conference Task Force

• Juan Santalo (IE University) - Executive Committee / Teaching Committee

• Deepak Somaya (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) - Past Division Chair

• Sheryl Winston Smith (Temple University) - Executive Committee / Non-Conference Task Force

• Andy Wu (Harvard Business School) - Membership Engagement Chair

• Brian Wu (University of Michigan) - Division Chair

• Maggie Zhou (University of Michigan) - Executive Committee / Program AE

Useful Links

STR Division homepage | STR Three-Year Review Report | AOM 2026 Annual Meeting information | AOM 2026 Program Navigator

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Xun (Brian) Wu
Robert G. Rodkey Collegiate Professor of Business Administration
Professor of Strategy
Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Division Chair, Strategic Management (STR) Division, Academy of Management
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