The Grigor McClelland Doctoral Dissertation Award
The Grigor McClelland Doctoral Dissertation Award is an annual prize of £5,000 presented to a single author whose PhD or DBA thesis, completed in the preceding calendar year, demonstrates exceptional innovation in the field of management and organisation studies. Finalists also each receive £1,000 in recognition of their outstanding contributions.
Named in honour of Grigor McClelland, founder of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS) and a pioneer of business and management research in the UK, the award celebrates doctoral work that explores bold new directions or challenges established thinking within the discipline.
This prestigious award is proudly supported by the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS).
How to Apply
For the latest information on eligibility criteria, submission guidelines, and deadlines, please visit our how to apply page.
Winners of the Grigor McClelland Dissertation Award
Winner
Alan Zhang (Columbia Business School, USA)
Instability Scaffolding: Enacting Strategic Instabilities to Produce Authentic Premium Wine
Finalists
Rohin Borpujari (University College London, UK)
Managing Secretive Innovation: A Historical Study of the Making of the Atomic Bomb
Dipsikha Guha Majumdar (Northumbria University, UK)
Reimagining Entrepreneurship through the Lens of Caste Inequality and Gender
Winner
Sanjay Popat (University of Leeds, UK)
Only Time Will Tell: The Temporality of Occupational Stress in Foundation Doctors
Finalists
Adrian Marrison (University of Warwick, UK)
Punishment and Violence in Organisation Studies
Katja Wölfl (WU - Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria)
Essays in Buyer-Supplier Negotiations. Configurational Insights
Winner
Elmira van den Broek (Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden)
Artificial intelligence at work: An ethnography of the development and use of machine learning in hiring
Finalists
Madeleine Meurer (Jönköping International Business School, Sweden)
Digital footprints of entrepreneurs: Towards a deeper understanding of support acquisition in digital spaces
Snehanjali Chrispal (Deakin University, Australia)
Listening To “Her” Unheard Voice: Using a Decolonial Lens to Make Visible Institutional Work Efforts to Disrupt Gendered Violence in India
Winner
Milo Shaoqing Wang (Arizona State University, USA)
Three Studies on Stigmatization: The Emergence, Maintenance, and Removal of Stigma
Finalists
Jonathan Feddersen (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)
The temporal emergence of social relations: An event-based perspective of organising
Lauren Waardenburg (IESEG School of Management, France)
Behind the scenes of artificial intelligence: Studying how organizations cope with machine learning in practice
Winner
Maria Roche (Harvard Business School, USA)
Interactions and Innovation
Finalists
Francesca Bellesia (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy)
Individuals in the Workplatform. Exploring Implications for Work Identity and Algorithmic Reputation Management
Lindsey Cameron (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
The Rise of Algorithmic Work: Implications for Organizational Control and Worker Autonomy
Winner
Ivar Padrón-Hernández (Hitotsubashi University, Japan)
When International Strategy Meets Local Institutions: Subsidiary Influence in the Context of Headquarter Initiatives
Finalists
Mike Lee (INSEAD, France)
Self-Managing Organizations: Exploring the Dynamics and Consequences of Radically Decentralizing Authority
Kathleen Stephenson (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Paperless Professors: A Study of Changing Academic Work and Workspaces
Winner
Corinna Frey-Heger (Erasmus University, The Netherlands)
Organizing in Times of Global Displacement and Refugee Crises
Finalists
Sumati Ahuja (University of Technology Sydney, Australia)
Professional Identity and Status: An Ethnography of Architects in Professional Service Firms
Catherine Faherty (Northwestern University, USA)
Bound by Blood in the Family Firm? Examining the Effects of Trusting and Feeling Trusted in the Family Firm Top Management Team
Winner
Pedro Monteiro (University of Warwick, UK)
Heavier Than Air: The Enabling Roles of Bureaucracy in Cross-Expertise Collaboration
Finalists
Erynn Beaton (The Ohio State University, USA)
Managerialism, Mission, & Values: Micromechanisms of Nonprofit Institutionalization
Philip Gylfe (Aalto University, Finland)
Choreographing Strategy an Exploration into Middle Managers’ Embodied Interaction
Winner
Julia DiBenigno (Yale University, USA)
Warriors versus Experts: Managing Conflict between Professional Groups for US Army Mental Healthcare
Finalists
Christian Hampel (University of Oxford, UK)
When Crisis Hits: How Organizations Manage Their Reputations, Fight Stigmatization, and Regain Legitimacy
Jeroen Wolbers (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Cross-boundary Coordination Processes in Emergency Management
Winner
Doug Lepisto (Western Michigan University, USA)
Reason For Being: Exploring the Emergence and Members’ Responses to Organizational Purpose in an Athletic Footwear and Apparel Company
Finalists
Evelyn Micelotta (University of New Mexico, USA)
When Institutions Bend but Do Not Break: The Institutional Accommodation of Open Access in Scientific Publishing
Isabella Krysa (St Mary’s University, Canada)
The Construction of the ‘Immigrant’ in Canada’s Immigration Discourse – A Foucauldian Critical Discourse Analysis through Postcolonial Lenses
Winner
Hila Lifshitz-Assaf (New York University, USA)
Shifting Loci of Innovation: A Study of Knowledge Boundaries, Identity and Innovation at NASA
Finalists
Eric Zhao (Indiana University, USA)
Institutional Complexity of National Systems and the Fate of Global Microfinance
Tiona Zuzul (London Business School, UK)
Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Nascent Industries
Winner
Ryan Raffaelli (Harvard Business School, USA)
Identity and Institutional Change in a Mature Field: The Re-Emergence of the Swiss Watchmaking Industry, 1970-2008
Finalists
Frank de Wit (University of Melbourne, Australia)
The Paradox of Intragroup Conflict
Gwyneth Edwards (HEC Montreal, Canada)
The Influence of CEO Narratives in Organizational Path Dependence
Thomas Roulet (HEC Paris, France)
Banking on illegitimacy: Logics, disapprobation and inter-organizational relationships in the post-crisis finance industry (2007-2011)
Winner
Henrika Franck (Hanken School of Economics, Finland)
Ethics in Strategic Management: An inquiry into Otherness of a Strategy Process
Finalists
Richard Tee (EPFL, Switzerland)
Architectural Innovation and Design Evolution: Strategic and Organizational Dynamics of Industry Platforms
Natalya Vinokurova (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
The 2008 Mortgage Crisis as a Failure of Analogical Reasoning
Winner
Tyler Wry (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Embedded Categories: Three Studies on the Institutional Shaping of Categories and Category Effects
Finalists
Julien Jourdan (Imperial College London, UK)
Logic Duality, Conformity, and Survival in the French Film Industry, 1987-2008
Renee Rottner (New York University, USA)
The Life of a Project: Accomplishing Legitimacy and Mobilizing Resources for Sustained Innovation
Winner
Jean-Philippe Vergne (University of Western Ontario, Canada)
Playing with fire: Category-level strategies for dealing with public disapproval. The case of the global arms industry (1996-2007)
Finalists
Andre Laplume (Michigan Technological University, USA)
Heuristics for Strategic Ambidexterity: Balancing Exploration and Exploitation over Time in Varying Environments
Chengwei Liu (University of Warwick, UK)
Essays on Luck, Counterfactual Thinking, and Entrepreneurial Cognition