Donald C. Hambrick
Professor
Don Hambrick is Evan Pugh University Professor and the Smeal Chaired Professor of Management, Smeal College of Business. He is also Bronfman Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University. An internationally recognized management scholar, Don is the author of numerous articles and books on strategy formulation, strategy implementation, executive psychology, executive staffing and incentives, the composition and processes of top management teams, and corporate governance. His book, Navigating Change: How CEOs, Top Teams, and Boards Steer Transformation, presents leading-edge thinking for executives who are embarking on corporate change initiatives. Another book, Strategic Leadership: Theory and Research on Executives, Top Management Teams, and Boards, is extensively used by scholars of executive leadership. Don is an acknowledged leader in his field, having served as President of the prestigious Academy of Management, on the board of directors of the Strategic Management Society, and on the editorial boards of almost all the major scholarly journals in his field.
Expertise
Current research focuses on executive psychology, top management team dynamics, and history and evolution of the field of strategic management.
Education
Ph D in Organizational Strategy and Policy, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 1979-05-01 MBA in Marketing and Planning/Control, Harvard University, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA, 1972-01-01 BS in Finance, The University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, 1968-01-01
Courses Taught
MGMT 531 – Strat Impl and Chg
This course addresses the managerial challenge of strategy implementation, particularly by examining the organizational elements that must be drawn into line to support a strategy, as well as the immense difficulties of changing an organization. As such, the course relies on two overarching frameworks. The first is a model of organizational alignment; the second is a model for managing the change process. The course will emphasize application and practice, primarily by the use of cases. Students will be asked, class after class, to take the position of a senior manager or an adviser to a manager, and develop answers to questions like these: WhatÀs the real problem here? How are the elements of the problem interconnected? What should be done? How, specifically, should we go about it? Strategy Implementation and Organizational Change will be relevant for a broad array of students, including those hoping to be managers, consultants, investors, and entrepreneurs. Because the course focuses on changing entire organizations (rather than small parts of organizations), we will be primarily taking the point of view of senior managers. However, our frameworks and tools, and the skills students will develop, will be useful early in their careers, as they face the need to manage change in their own subunits, as well as the need to comprehend and contribute to firm-wide changes.
MGMT 531 – Strategy Implementation and Organizational Change
Assess gap between current organization and that needed to implement new strategy or execute change; identify process for closing gap.
MGMT 535 – The Upper Echelons Perspective: Theory and Research
To learn to evaluate and conduct research on top executives and their influence on organizational strategy, structure and performance.
MGMT 535 – Upper Echelons
To learn to evaluate and conduct research on top executives and their influence on organizational strategy, structure and performance.
MGMT 578 – Sem Corp Stratgy
Current theoretical and research issues applicable to the study of corporate strategy formulation and implementation.
MGMT 578 – Seminar in Corporate Strategy
Current theoretical and research issues applicable to the study of corporate strategy formulation and implementation.
MGMT 596 – Individual Studies
Creative projects, including nonthesis research, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.
MGMT 600 – Thesis Research
MGMT 601 – Ph.D Dis Full-Time
NO DESCRIPTION.
MGMT 601 – PH.D. DISSERTATION FULL-TIME
NO DESCRIPTION.
MGMT 831 – Strat Impl and Chg
This course addresses the managerial challenge of strategy implementation, particularly by examining the organizational elements that must be drawn into line to support a strategy, as well as the immense difficulties of changing an organization. As such, the course relies on two overarching frameworks. The first is a model of organizational alignment; the second is a model for managing the change process. The course will emphasize application and practice, primarily by the use of cases. Students will be asked, class after class, to take the position of a senior manager or an adviser to a manager, and develop answers to questions like these: What's the real problem here? How are the elements of the problem interconnected? What should be done? How, specifically, should we go about it? Strategy Implementation and Organizational Change will be relevant for a broad array of students, including those hoping to be managers, consultants, investors, and entrepreneurs. Because the course focuses on changing entire organizations (rather than small parts of organizations), we will be primarily taking the point of view of senior managers. However, our frameworks and tools, and the skills students will develop, will be useful early in their careers, as they face the need to manage change in their own subunits, as well as the need to comprehend and contribute to firm-wide changes.
Selected Publications
Dewan Y., Gupta A., Hambrick D. C. "The Origins and Evolution of Red, Blue, Purple Employee Populations: A Theory of How Organizations Become Ideologically Skewed" Academy of Management Rewiew, 2026-03-01
Hambrick D. C., Wowak A. "On the Absence of Conservative Sociopolitical Activism by CEOs: Explanations and Implications" Strategic Organization, 2025-08-25
Hambrick D. C., Lee E. "A Model of CEO Succession Planning as a Risky Investment: Anticipated Costs, Uncertain Results, and Contingency Conditions" Organization Science, vol. 36, 2025-03-01
Hambrick D. C., Fischer T., Sajons G. B., Van Quaquebeke N. "Leadership Science Beyond Questionnaires" The Leadership Quarterly, vol. 34, 2023-12-01
Lovelace J. B., Bundy J., Pollock T. G., Hambrick D. C. "The Push and Pull of Attaining CEO Celebrity: A Media Routines Perspective" Academy of Management Journal, vol. 65, 2022-08-01
Wowak A. J., Busenbark J. R., Hambrick D. C. "How Do Employees React When Their CEO Speaks Out? Intra- and Extra-Firm Implications of CEO Sociopolitical Activism" Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 67, 2022-06-01
Lee M., Gupta A., Hambrick D. C. "The Distinct Effect of Wealth- and CSR-oriented Shareholder Unrest on CEO Career Outcomes: A New Lens on Settling Up and Executive Job Demands" Academy of Management Journal, vol. 65, 2022-02-01
Joshi A., Hambrick D. C., Kang J. "The Generativity Mindsets of Chief Executive Officers: A New Perspective on Succession Outcomes" Academy of Management Review, vol. 46, 2021-04-01
Hambrick D. C., Wowak A. J. "CEO Sociopolitical Activism: A Shareholder Alignment Model" Academy of Management Review, vol. 46, 2021-01-01
Hambrick D. C., Wowak A. J. "Strategic Leadership, in Duhaime, I.M., Hitt, M., and Lyles, M. (eds.) Strategic Management: State of the Field and Its Future" Strategic Management: State of the Field and Its Future, 2021-01-01
Graf-Vlachy L., Bundy J., Hambrick D. C. "Effects of an Advancing Tenure on CEO Cognitive Complexity" Organization Science, vol. 31, 2020-07-01
Quigley T. J., Hambrick D. C., Misangyi V. F., Rizzi G. A. "CEO Selection as Risk-taking: A New Vantage on the Debate About the Consequences of Insiders Versus Outsiders" Strategic Management Journal, vol. 40, 2019-09-01
Gupta A., Briscoe F. S., Hambrick D. C. "Evenhandedness in Resource Allocation: Its Relationship with CEO Ideology, Organizational Discretion, and Firm Performance" Academy of Management Journal, vol. 61, 2018-10-01
Hambrick D. C., Crossland C. "A Strategy for Behavioral Strategy: Appraisal of Small, Midsize, and Large Tent Conceptions of This Embryonic Community" Advances in Strategic Management, vol. 39, 2018-08-01
Lovelace J., Bundy J., Hambrick D. C., Pollock T. G. "The Shackles of CEO Celebrity: Sociocognitive and Behavioral Role Constraints on "Star" Leaders" Academy of Management Review, vol. 43, 2018-07-01
Hambrick D. C. "The Fattest of the Fat Cats: Observations on Aguinis and Colleagues' Findings on CEO Pay" Management Research: The Journal of the Iberoamrerican Academy of Management, 2018-03-01
Hambrick D. C., Lovelace J. B. "The Role of Executive Symbolism in Advancing New Strategic Themes in Organizations: A Social Influence Perspective" Academy of Management Review, vol. 43, 2018-01-01
Gupta A., Briscoe F. S., Hambrick D. C. "Red, Blue, and Purple Firms: Organizational Political Ideology and Corporate Social Responsibility" Strategic Management Journal, vol. 38, 2017-05-01
Hambrick D. C., Misangyi V. F., Park C. "The Quad Model for Identifying a Corporate Director's Potential for Effective Monitoring: Toward a New Theory of Board Sufficiency" Academy of Management Review, vol. 40, 2015-07-01
Quigley T. J., Hambrick D. C. "Has the "CEO Effect" Increased in Recent Decades? A New Explanation for the Great Rise in America's Attention to Corporate Leaders" Strategic Management Journal, vol. 36, 2015-06-01
Hambrick D. C., Humphrey S. E., Gupta A. "Structural Interdependence Within Top Management Teams: A Key Moderator of Upper Echelons Predictions" Strategic Management Journal, vol. 36, 2015-03-01
Hambrick D. C. "CEO, Wiley Encyclopedia of Management" Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 2015-01-01
Hambrick D. C. "Top Management Teams, Wiley Encyclopedia of Management" Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 2015-01-01
Briscoe F. S., Chin M. K., Hambrick D. C. "CEO Ideology as an Element of the Corporatae Opportunity Structure for Social Activists" Academy of Management Journal, vol. 57, 2014-12-01
Crossland C., Zyung J., Hiller N. J., Hambrick D. C. "CEO Career Variety: Effects on Firm-level Strategic and Social Novelty" Academy of Management Journal, vol. 57, 2014-06-01
Hambrick D. C., Quigley T. J. "Toward More Accurate Contextualization of the CEO Effect on Firm Performance" Strategic Management Journal, vol. 35, 2014-04-01
Hambrick D. C. "Upper Echelons Theory, The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management" The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management, 2013-10-01
Gerstner W. C., Konig A., Enders A., Hambrick D. C. "CEO Narcissism, Audience Engagement, and Organizational Adoption of Technological Discontinuities (Recipient of 2014 Best Paper Award, German Academic Association for Business Research, Verba" Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 58, 2013-06-01
Chin M. K., Hambrick D. C., Trevino L. K. "Political Ideologies of CEOs: The Influence of Executive Values on Corporate Social Responsibility" Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 58, 2013-06-01
Quigley T. J., Hambrick D. C. "When the Former CEO Stays on as Board Chair: Effects on Successor Discretion, Strategic Change, and Performance" Strategic Management Journal, vol. 33, 2012-07-01
Chen G., Hambrick D. C. "CEO Replacement in Turnaround Situations: Executive (Mis)fit and Its Performance Implications" Organization Science, vol. 23, 2012-01-01
Hambrick D. C., Wowak A. "Whom Do We Want as Our Business Leaders? How Changes in the Corporate Milieu Have Brought About a New Breed of CEO, in .E. Ricart and J.M. Rosanas (eds.), Towards a New Theory of the Firm" Towards a new Theory of the Firm, 2012-01-01
Crossland C., Hambrick D. C. "Differences in Managerial Discretion Across Countries: How National-level Institutions Affect the Degree to Which CEOs Matter" Strategic Management Journal, vol. 32, 2011-08-01
Wowak A. J., Hambrick D. C., Henderson A. D. "Do CEOs Encounter Within-Tenure ‘Settling Up’? A Multiperiod Perspective on Executive Pay and Dismissal" Academy of Management Journal, vol. 54, 2011-08-01
Chatterjee A., Hambrick D. C. "Executive Personality, Capability Cues, and Risk-Taking: How Narcissistic CEOs React to Their Successes and Stumbles" Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 56, 2011-06-01
Wowak A. J., Hambrick D. C. "A Model of Person-Pay Interaction: How Executives Vary in Their Responses to Compensation Arrangements" Strategic Management Journal, vol. 31, 2010-08-01
Pollock T. G., Chen G., Jackson E. M., Hambrick D. C. "How Much Prestige Is Enough? Assessing the Value of Multiple Types of High-Status Affiliates for Young Firms" Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 25, 2010-01-01
Chen G., Trevino L. K., Hambrick D. C. "CEO Elitist Association: Toward a New Understanding of an Executive Behavioral Pattern" Leadership Quarterly, vol. 20, 2009-06-01
Finkelstein S., Hambrick D. C., Cannella A. Strategic Leadership: Theory and Research on Executives, Top Management Teams, and Boards, 2009-01-01
Hambrick D. C. "Top Management Teams" Encyclopedia of Executive Governance, 2009-01-01
Chen G., Hambrick D. C., Pollock T. G. "Puttin' on the Ritz: Pre-IPO Enlistment of Prestigious Affiliates as Deadline-Induced Remediation" Academy of Management Journal, vol. 51, 2008-10-01
Hambrick D. C., v. Werder A., Zajac E. "New Directions in Corporate Governance Research" Organization Science, vol. 19, 2008-06-01
Hambrick D. C., Chen M. "New Academic Fields as Admittance-Seeking Social Movements: The Case of Strategic Management" Academy of Management Review, vol. 33, 2008-01-01
Wiesenfeld B. M., Wurthmann K., Hambrick D. C. "The Stigmatization and Devaluation of Elites Associated With Corporate Failures: A Process Model" Academy of Management Review, vol. 33, 2008-01-01
Crossland C., Hambrick D. C. "How National Systems Differ in Their Constraints on Corporate Executives: A Study of CEO Effects in Three Countries" Strategic Management Journal, vol. 28, 2007-01-01
Chatterjee A., Hambrick D. C. "It’s All About Me: Narcissistic CEOs and Their Effects on Company Strategy and Performance" Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 52, 2007-01-01
Sanders W. G., Hambrick D. C. "Swinging For the Fences: The Effects of CEO Stock Options on Company Risk-Taking and Performance" Academy of Management Journal, vol. 50, 2007-01-01
Hambrick D. C. "The Field of Management's Devotion to Theory: Too Much of a Good Thing?" Academy of Management Journal, vol. 50, 2007-01-01
Hambrick D. C. "Upper Echelons Theory - An Update" Academy of Management Review, vol. 32, 2007-01-01
Nag R., Hambrick D. C., Chen M. "What Is Strategic Management, Really? Inductive Derivation of a Consensus Definition of the Field" Strategic Management Journal, vol. 28, 2007-01-01