Witold Henisz Faculty Profile

Witold Henisz
Associate Professor of Management

PhD, University of California at Berkeley, 1998; MA, Johns Hopkins University, 1993; BA, Stanford University, 1991

Research Areas
Impact of political hazards on international investment strategy; analyzes(1) the political and economic determinants of substantive changes in government policy; government attempts to redistribute investor returns to the broader polity; (2) the strategic responses by organizations to such policy changes; (3) the determinants of the success of these strategic responses; large capital intensive investments with a high degree of political salience often in emerging market settings

Recent Consulting
Principal, Political Risk Identification and Management, LLC.

Current Projects
Predicting disputes between investors and host country governments in electricity generation and wireless telecommunications services; performance of wireless carriers as a function of regulatory and market structures; predicting trade liberalizations; examining the political risk management strategies of firms in the energy industry.

Academic Positions Held
Wharton: 1998-present

Career and Recent Professional Awards; Teaching Awards
Finalist, Aspen Institute’s 2006 Faculty Pioneer Award. Bronze Prize ($10,000) in International Finance Corporation/Financial Times 2006 Essay Competition on Topic of “Business and Development: The Private Path to Prosperity.”; Excellence in Teaching Award, Wharton Undergraduate Division, 2007; Faculty teaching award (electives), MBA for Executives Program, Class 31East, 2007 and 28East, 2004; Finalist, Haynes Prize for Best Paper by a scholar under the age of 40, 2005 & 2002 Academy of International Business Annual Conference; Finalist, Best Overall Paper at 2002 Academy of International Business Annual Conference; Richard N. Farmer Award for best dissertation in International Business, Academy of International Business, 1999; Finalist, The Free Press Doctoral Dissertation Award, Business Policy and Strategy Division, Academy of Management, 1999

Professional Leadership 2003-2007
Departmental Editor, Journal of International Business Studies, 2007; Associate Editor, Economics and Politics, 2004-present; Co-Departmental Editor, Journal of International Business Studies, 2005-2007; Editorial Board, Academy of Management Journal, 2004-present; Business and Politics, 2004-present; Strategic Management Journal, 2007-present; Strategic Organization, 2005-present and Journal of International Business Studies, 1999-2005; Research Committee Member, International Management Division, Academy of Management, 2003; Consortium Co-Chair, Junior Faculty Consortium, International Management Division, Academy of Management, 2003-2004; Consortium Chair, Doctoral Consortium, Academy of International Business, 2002

Representative Publications
(with E. Mansfield)
“Votes and Vetoes: The Political Determinants of Commercial Openness.” International Studies Quarterly 50.1 (2006).

(with B. Zelner and M. Guillén)
“The Worldwide Diffusion of Market-Oriented Infrastructure Reform” American Sociological Review 70.6 (2005).

(with B. Zelner)
“Legitimacy, Interest Group Pressures and Change in Emergent Institutions: The Case of Foreign Investors and Host Country Governments”, Academy of Management Review 30.2 (2005).

(with J. Macher)
“Firm- and Country-Level Tradeoffs and Contingencies in the Evaluation of Foreign Investment: The Semiconductor Industry, 1994-2002.” Organization Science 15.6 (2004).

(with A. Delios)
"Political Hazards, Experience and Sequential Entry Strategies: The International Expansion of Japanese Firms, 1980-1998." Strategic Management Journal 24.12 (2003).

(with A. Delios)
"Uncertainty, Imitation and Plant Location: Japanese Multinational Corporations, 1990-96." Administrative Science Quarterly 46.3 (2001).

"The Institutional Environment for Multinational Investment." Journal of Law Economics and Organization 16.2 (2000).