Academic Areas Strategy and Leadership Faculty and Research

At Booth, a key component of our mission is to educate current and future leaders.

The strategy and leadership faculty at Chicago Booth are producing groundbreaking research that they incorporate into the Booth classroom—from the use of strategy to predict business failure or success to the application of behavioral science theory to leadership, strategy, creativity, and innovation.

In addition to conducting their research and teaching the next generation of leaders, our faculty are active in making an impact in their communities—from providing their insights to the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic to serving on Illinois governor JB Pritzker’s Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding.

Faculty in this area are sought after by global media outlets, including Bloomberg, and they win top awards, such as Crain’s Chicago Business’s 40 Under 40.

Strategy and Leadership Faculty

At Booth, you’ll find that a number of strategy and leadership courses provide students with an experiential approach to learning.

The Leadership Studio is an innovative and first-of-its-kind course that uses fieldwork and leadership coaching to help students learn, practice, and unleash leadership agility throughout their careers. Interpersonal Dynamics takes an experiential-learning approach to help students build interpersonal communication skills, learn how they are perceived by others, and use emotions as an information channel. Leadership Practicum offers students three invaluable inputs toward helping them develop: the fundamentals of leading, guidance toward building a personal development strategy, and coaching to accelerate development.

Discover more about our strategy and leadership faculty, including the classes they teach, below.

Featured Research in Chicago Booth Review

Discover some of the latest research from our strategy and leadership professors.

Read More in Chicago Booth Review

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Awards and Honors

“These research partnerships represent our best chance to create new knowledge that helps social service providers and advances academics.”

Christina Hachikian, speaking to Crain’s Chicago Business. Professor Hachikian was named to the publication’s 40 Under 40 list for her work to reinvent what it means to do business in Chicago through financial impact and community leadership.

Learn More about Professor Hachikian

Awards and Honors
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Research with Impact

“Once the pandemic is behind us, we’ll have to choose what to return to and what to keep from our remote way of working. I think Zoom and its ilk will continue to have an important place for those situations where teams are geographically dispersed or there’s some urgent decision that needs to be made. But the type of work that delivers innovation—creative work—will still best be done in person.”

Harry L. Davis, writing about why he believes there will be more innovation post-COVID-19.

Get More of His Insights

Research with Impact

Our MBA Concentrations in This Area

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Strategy and Leadership Faculty in the News

There Will Be More Innovation post-COVID-19. Here’s Why.
October 16, 2020 | Crain’s Chicago Business
The pandemic can be an opportunity to reflect on how we can and should use our time when things are back to normal, suggests Booth’s Harry L. Davis.

How Citizens and Companies Can Support Antiracism in Chicago
July 02, 2020 | Inside Hook
One way companies can combat systemic racism is to employ blind hiring practices, suggests Booth’s Christina Hachikian. She says that blind hiring helps with intersectionality and promotes an actually diverse workplace.

Facebook Ad Boycott Hands New Ammo to Legion of Washington Foes
June 30, 2020 | Bloomberg
Facebook faces additional antitrust scrutiny from the US Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department, and a coalition of state attorneys general led by New York’s Letitia James. Booth’s Guy Rolnik suggests Facebook is not ready for a potential breakup of the company. “If it’s a Biden administration this is what’s going to be on the table,” he says.

Partnering across the University of Chicago and Beyond

Our strategy and leadership faculty members are active in and outside of Booth.

Harry L. Davis and Robert H. Gertner serve as trustees of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, and Christina Hachikian serves on Illinois governor JB Pritzker’s Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding.

Research Spotlight

Discover some of the latest working papers and published papers from our strategy and leadership faculty.

“The Cutoff Structure of Top Trading Cycles in School Choice”
Jacob Leshno, with coauthor Irene Lo (Stanford University)

“Direct and Indirect Bargaining Costs and the Scope of the Firm”
Marc Knez, with coauthor Duncan Simester (MIT Sloan School of Management)

“One Path Does Not Fit All: A Career Path Approach to the Study of Professional Women Entrepreneurs”
Ronald S. Burt, with coauthor Jennifer Merluzzi (George Washington University School of Business)

Research Centers in This Area

Research centers across Booth and the University of Chicago are hubs for innovation and world-changing research. The centers provide our faculty with research support, and our faculty members lend their expertise to the centers, enriching the student experience and the broader academic community at Booth.

See Our Other Academic Areas

Accounting  Behavioral Science  Econometrics and Statistics  Entrepreneurship  Finance  Macroeconomics  Marketing  Microeconomics  Operations Management  Organizations and Markets  Strategy and Leadership