Beckwith Professor of Management Studies
Director of the MPhil in Strategy, Marketing & Operations Programme
Head of the Strategy & International Business Subject Group
BS (Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi), MBA, PhD (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Research interests
Strategy formulation and renewal; CEO and executive team competencies (human and social capital); corporate governance (board of directors).
Subject group: Strategy & International Business
Professional experience
Yasemin Y Kor is Beckwith Professor of Management Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School. She received her MBA and PhD in Business Administration from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Professor Kor’s research focuses on the intersections of strategy formulation and renewal, top management teams, and corporate governance. She studies strategy as a configuration of resources and capabilities that are uniquely assembled to achieve a purpose. In her research, she examines how organisations differ in ways in which they manage and govern their resources and capabilities, and how they renew/revitalise their strategies. She has done industry-based research on firms in medical devices and biotechnology industries, professional service firms, food and beverage industry (conventional/organic food), and international social ventures. Lately, she has been doing research on sustainable food systems such as the pursuit of certified organic food market by large food companies (via acquisitions and greenfield entry), and reduction of the global food waste problem along the food supply chain.
Professor Kor is a former US Fulbright Research Scholar and served as an Associate Editor of Journal of Management, a premier research journal. She serves on the editorial boards of Strategic Management Journal and Strategic Organization. She served as an elected member of the Business Policy and Strategy Division Research Committee at the Academy of Management, and as a Representative at Large for the Corporate Strategy IG at the Strategic Management Society. She is part of the Global Food Security Interdisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Cambridge and serves on its Steering Committee. She is also the Academic Director of the Executive Education Programme on Leading Strategic Change and Renewal which attracted professionals and executives from a wide range of businesses, government, and non-profit sector.
Previous appointments
Prior to joining the School as the Beckwith Chair, Yasemin Y Kor was an Associate Professor of Management and Moore Research Fellow at the Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina.
Awards & honours
- Emerald Citation of Excellence Award (for the paper “Dynamic managerial capabilities: configuration and orchestration of the top executives’ capabilities and the firm’s dominant logic” by Kor and Mesko (2013), Strategic Management Journal), 2016
- Elected Research Committee Member, Academy of Management, Business Policy and Strategy Division – Selecting BPS Dissertation Competition judge, 2015-present
- Darla Moore Research Fellow, 2014-2015
- US Fulbright Research Scholar, Fall 2013
- Elected Representative-at-Large, Strategic Management Society – Corporate Strategy Interest Group, 2009-2011
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management, BPS Division, 1999, 2004, 2007
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, Midwest Academy of Management, 1999
Selected publications
Here are a selection of Yasemin Kor’s publications. Please see the “Selected publications” tab above for a more comprehensive list.
Ma, S., Kor, Y.Y. and Seidl, D. (2022) “Top management team role structure: a vantage point for advancing upper echelons research.” Strategic Management Journal, 43(8): O1-O28 (DOI: 10.1002/smj.3368)
Nasirov, S., Li, Q.C. and Kor, Y.Y. (2021) “Converting technological inventions into new products: the role of CEO human capital.” Journal of Product Innovation Management, 38(5): 522-547 (DOI: 10.1111/jpim.12601)
Kor, Y.Y., Ma, S. and Seidl, D. (2020) “Opportunities and pitfalls of advice seeking by CEOs and executives.” Harvard Business Review China, August: 132-139
Tan, D., Su, W., Mahoney, J.T. and Kor, Y. (2020) “A review of research on the growth of multinational enterprises: a Penrosean lens.” Journal of International Business Studies, 51: 498-537 (DOI: 10.1057/s41267-020-00328-8)
Ma, S., Kor, Y.Y. and Seidl, D. (2020) “CEO advice seeking: an integrative framework and future research agenda.” Journal of Management, 46(6): 771–805 (DOI: 10.1177/0149206319885430)
Kor, Y.Y., Mahoney, J.T., Siemsen, E. and Tan, D. (2016) “Penrose’s The theory of the growth of the firm: an exemplar of engaged scholarship.” Production and Operations Management, 25(10): 1727-1744 (DOI: 10.1111/poms.12572)
Journal articles
Kor, Y.Y. and Mahoney, J.T. (2000) “Penrose’s resource-based approach: the process and product of research creativity.” Journal of Management Studies, 37(1): 109-139
Kor, Y.Y. (2003) “Experience-based top management team competence and sustained growth.” Organization Science, 14(6): 707-719
Kor, Y.Y. and Mahoney, J.T. (2004) “Edith Penrose’s (1959) Contributions to the resource-based view of strategic management.” Journal of Management Studies, 41(1): 183-191 (DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2004.00427.x)
Kor, Y.Y. and Mahoney, J.T. (2005) “How dynamics, management, and governance of resource deployments influence firm-level performance.” Strategic Management Journal, 26(5): 489-496 (DOI: 10.1002/smj.459)
Kor Y.Y. and Leblebici, H. (2005) “How do interdependencies among human-capital deployment, development, and diversification strategies affect firms’ financial performance?” Strategic Management Journal, 26(10): 967-985 (DOI: 10.1002/smj.485)
Kor, Y.Y. (2006) “Direct and interaction effects of top management team and board compositions on R&D investment strategy.” Strategic Management Journal, 27(11): 1081-1099 (DOI: 10.1002/smj.554)
Kor, Y.Y., Mahoney, J.T., and Michael, S.C. (2007) “Resources, capabilities, and entrepreneurial perceptions.” Journal of Management Studies, 44(7): 1185-1210 (DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00727.x)
Foss, N.J., Klein, P.G., Kor, Y.Y., and Mahoney, J.T. (2008) “Entrepreneurship, subjectivism, and the resource-based view: towards a new synthesis.” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2(1): 73-94 (DOI: 10.1002/sej.41)
Kor, Y.Y. and Misangyi, V.F. (2008) “Outside directors’ industry-specific experience and firms’ liability of newness.” Strategic Management Journal, 29(12): 1345-1355 (DOI: 10.1002/smj.709)
Pettus, M.L., Kor, Y.Y. and Mahoney, J.T. (2009) “A theory of change in turbulent environments: the sequencing of dynamic capabilities following industry deregulation.” International Journal of Strategic Change Management, 1(3): 186-212 (DOI: 10.1504/IJSCM.2009.024509)
Kor, Y.Y. and Sundaramurthy, C. (2009) “Experience-based human capital and social capital of outside directors.” Journal of Management, 35(4): 981-1006 (DOI: 10.1177/0149206308321551)
Harris, D. and Kor, Y. (2013) “Role of human capital in scaling social entrepreneurship.” Journal of Management for Global Sustainability, 1(2): 163-172 (DOI: 10.13185/JM2013.01210)
Kor, Y.Y. and Mesko, A. (2013) “Dynamic managerial capabilities: configuration and orchestration of top executives’ capabilities and the firm’s dominant logic.” Strategic Management Journal, 34(2): 233-244 (DOI: 10.1002/smj.2000)
Sundaramurthy, C., Pukthuanthong, K. and Kor, Y. (2014) “Positive and negative synergies between the CEO’s and the corporate board’s human and social capital: a study of biotechnology firms.” Strategic Management Journal, 35(6): 845-868 (DOI: 10.1002/smj.2137)
Mahoney, J.T. and Kor Y.Y. (2015) “Combining capability and governance perspectives to advance human capital research.” Academy of Management Perspectives, 29(3): 296-308 (DOI: 10.5465/amp.2014.0151)
Kor, Y.Y., Mahoney, J.T., Siemsen, E. and Tan, D. (2016) “Penrose’s The theory of the growth of the firm: an exemplar of engaged scholarship.” Production and Operations Management, 25(10): 1727-1744 (DOI: 10.1111/poms.12572)
Kor, Y.Y., Prabhu, J. and Esposito, M. (2017) “How large food retailers can help solve the food waste crisis.” Harvard Business Review, 19 December 2017
Chen, P.-L., Kor, Y., Mahoney, J.T. and Tan, D. (2017) “Pre-market-entry experience and post-market-entry learning of the board of directors: implications for post-entry performance.” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 11(4): 441–463 (DOI: 10.1002/sej.1251)
Pettus, M.L., Kor, Y.Y., Mahoney, J.T. and Michael, S.C. (2018) “Sequencing and timing of strategic responses after industry disruption: evidence from post-deregulation competition in the US railroad industry.” Strategic Organization, 16(4): 373-400 (DOI: 10.1177/1476127017743502)
Kor, Y.Y., Ma, S. and Seidl, D. (2020) “Opportunities and pitfalls of advice seeking by CEOs and executives.” Harvard Business Review China, August: 132-139
Tan, D., Su, W., Mahoney, J.T. and Kor, Y. (2020) “A review of research on the growth of multinational enterprises: a Penrosean lens.” Journal of International Business Studies, 51: 498-537 (DOI: 10.1057/s41267-020-00328-8)
Ma, S., Kor, Y.Y. and Seidl, D. (2020) “CEO advice seeking: an integrative framework and future research agenda.” Journal of Management, 46(6): 771–805 (DOI: 10.1177/0149206319885430)
Nasirov, S., Li, Q.C. and Kor, Y.Y. (2021) “Converting technological inventions into new products: the role of CEO human capital.” Journal of Product Innovation Management, 38(5): 522-547 (DOI: 10.1111/jpim.12601)
Ma, S., Kor, Y.Y. and Seidl, D. (2022) “Top management team role structure: a vantage point for advancing upper echelons research.” Strategic Management Journal, 43(8): O1-O28 (DOI: 10.1002/smj.3368)
Kor, Y., Mahoney, J.T. and Tan, D. (2023) “Edith Penrose’s under-explored insights in strategic management and international business research.” Strategic Management Review (forthcoming)
