Department of Strategic Management & Public Policy
The Department of Strategic Management and Public Policy (SMPP) brings together professors who bridge the issues of vital importance to business today, including competitive corporate strategy, corporate responsibility, business ethics, strategic environmental management, social networks and social capital, and the relationships between business and politics and between business and society, sustainability, and labor market equality and diversity.
Reflecting the vision, mission and goals of the GW School of Business, SMPP works to cultivate ethical, diverse, and inclusive leaders who make a positive impact on the environment, on society, and on governance through our teaching and research. We also take advantage of our Washington, D.C. location to engage with stakeholders in the wider business and policy communities.
Our department includes 15 full-time faculty and several well-experienced adjunct faculty, who together bring a wealth and depth of experience in the business, not-for-profit and public policy arenas. Faculty engage in scholarly research which is published in leading academic journals as well as important practitioner journals to connect their research to the individuals who apply this work in real-world private and public sector settings. Faculty currently serve in senior editorial positions at Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Journal of Business Ethics, and Organization Theory.
SMPP offers three core courses in GWSB’s undergraduate degree programs: Markets and Politics, Business Ethics and the Legal Environment, and Strategy Formulation and Implementation. We offer two core courses on Strategic Management and on Business Ethics and Public Policy in the various GWSB graduate programs. The department also offers graduate elective seminars, including Strategic Environmental Management, Corporate Governance, Social Capital, and Impact Investing.
In addition to our core course offerings, SMPP offers two academic programs: a BBA with a concentration in Business Economics and Public Policy, and a Ph.D. in Business with a Management and Strategy Area of Focus.
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2023-2024 SMPP Speaker Series
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Raj Choudhury, Lumry Family Associate Professor, Harvard Business School
“Loss of Peers and Individual Worker Performance: Evidence From H-1B Visa Denials”
Ryan Raffaelli, Marvin Bower Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
“Organizational emplacement as a response to digital threat: The novel resurgence of independent bookstores”
Erin Reid, Professor of Human Resources & Management, DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University
“Earning inherent dignity? How a living wage gentrifies work roles”
Justin W. Webb, Belk Distinguished Professor of Business Innovation, Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
“How informal entrepreneurs organize market governance: The emergence and evolution of organizing rules”
Tyler Wry, Associate Professor of Management, Wharton
“Getting into the set: The effects of impact investing in global microfinance”
What's New in SMPP
Prof. Emeritus Howard Beales Provides Expert Testimony on the Hill and Publishes WSJ Opinion Piece
Prof. Emeritus Howard Beales recently provided expert testimony to congress. His testimony appeared before the Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, on Federal Trade Commission Practices: A Discussion on Past Versus Present. The testimony was based on the paper Prof. Beales wrote with Tim Muris on change eras at the FTC, contrasting current FTC leader Lina Khan with prior major changes in 1970 and 1980. Prof. Beales also published a related opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.
Prof. Vikram Bhargava's Research Cited in New California Social Media Law
California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed into law a bill entitled "Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act" (SB976). Drafts of the bill cited a Business Ethics Quarterly article by Vikram Bhargava, assistant professor of strategic management and public policy, entitled "Ethics of the Attention Economy: The Problem of Social Media Addiction" (coauthored with M. Velasquez).
Prof. Thomas Debass Teaches Business & Society Series Course on Artificial Intelligence
Over four days this summer, graduate students heard from guest speakers and delved into frameworks and analyses about AI and its future potential in Professor Thomas Debass's course, Business & Society: AI. In addition to being a lecturer in Strategic Management and Public Policy at GW, Professor Debass serves as managing director of the Office of Global Partnerships in the U.S. Department of State, a role he has held since 2016. In this capacity, Debass leads public-private partnerships that advance foreign policy aims, many of them intended to promote entrepreneurship and innovation and each one requiring the interdisciplinary cooperation of business and society.
Prof. Ernie Englander to Present at AofM and IABS 2024 Meetings
Professor Ernie Englander will present "HOW Did CEOs Learn Not to Diversify? Institutional Change and MBA Corporate Finance Textbooks” at the Academy of Management 2024 annual meeting in Chicago. He will also present "Campaign GM — a revised history of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility" with David Gindis, University of Warwick, at the International Association for Business & Society 2024 annual meeting in Annapolis.
SMPP Faculty on the Global Lecture Circuit
Professor Joel Gehman delivered the keynote address "Tackling Grand Challenges: Theoretical Perspectives and Future Prospects" at the 2nd Organization & Society Network Meeting hosted by UNSW Sydney School of Management and Governance in Hamilton Island, Australia, in December 2023. Professor Vikram Bhargava delivered a lecture, "Social Media, off-duty laudatory conduct and employment," at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford in October 2023. The lecture was part of a seminar series called R:ETRO - Reputation: Ethics, Trust, and Relationships.
Profs. Wade and Merluzzi Publish Articles in Top Sociology Journals
Professor Jim Wade published “Racial disparity in leadership: Evidence of valuative bias in the promotions of National Football League Coaches” in the American Journal of Sociology with Christopher Rider of the University of Michigan, Anand Swaminathan of Emory University, and Andreas Schwab of Iowa State University. Professor Jennifer Merluzzi published "A Hidden Barrier to Diversification? Performance Recognition Penalties for Incumbent Workers in Male-Dominated Occupations" in the American Sociological Review with Jirs Meuris of the University of Wisconsin.
Read More About What's New in SMPP
Contact Us
The George Washington University School of Business
Department of Strategic Management and Public Policy
2201 G Street NW, Funger Hall, Ste. 615
Washington, D.C. 20052
Phone: (202) 994-6677
Fax: (202) 994-8113
Staff Contact:
Rochelle Rediang
Senior Academic Department Administrator
email: [email protected]
phone: 202-994-6677
The Institute for Corporate Responsibility (ICR)
Professor John Forrer, Director