Mary Benner

About

Mary Benner is the Department Chair and Professor in the Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship Department. She has a PhD in management from Columbia University, an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business, and a BS in economics from the University of Minnesota. She joined the Carlson School in 2010.

Her research, at the intersection of organization theory and strategic management, explores how firms innovate and initiate, and adapt to technological changes. She has studied the effects of systematic process management practices such as ISO 9000 and Six Sigma on firms' innovation and responses to new technologies and is currently examining the influence of financial markets and securities analysts on how established firms innovate and address the opportunities and challenges of technological change. Her research is published in leading academic journals and has won several awards, including the Academy of Management Review's Decade Award and Best Paper Award. She has been a Co-Editor of the Strategic Management Journal since January 2023.  She served as a Senior Editor at Strategy Science in 2022, as an Associate Editor at Administrative Science Quarterly from 2012 to 2021, and as a Senior Editor at Organization Science from 2010-2012.  She also serves on the editorial board of the Academy of Management Review.  She was named to the Poets & Quants list of the Best 50 Undergraduate Professors in 2020.

She was an assistant professor in the Management Department at The Wharton School from 2001-2010, and prior to that, she also held managerial positions at Honeywell and as a consultant.