Sarah Kaplan Faculty Profile

Sarah Kaplan
Assistant Professor of Management

PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2004; MA, Johns Hopkins University, The Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, 1990; BA, University of California at Los Angeles, 1986

Research Areas
Innovation; strategic management; cognition; technical change

Recent Consulting
Working with firms in a variety of industries on issues of strategic renewal and reinvention.

Current Projects
Understanding the role of managerial cognition in shaping firm response to discontinuities with a particular focus on strategic choice and action. Studies of the biotech, PDA and telecoms industries.

Academic Positions Held
Wharton: 2004-present

Other Positions
McKinsey & Company: Senior Innovation Specialist, 1995-99, Engagement Manager, 1993-94, Associate, 1990-92; Theodore Barry & Associates, 1986-1988; Research Associate (strategy consultant); Additional experience at Crédit Lyonnais in Los Angeles, CA, the Banque Bruxelles Lambert in Brussels, Belgium, and the USAID Office of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, DC.

Representative Publications
(with R. Foster)
Creative Destruction New York: Currency/Doubleday, 2001.

(with E. Beinhocker)
"The Real Value of Strategic Planning." The Sloan Management Review 44.2 (2003).

(with R. Henderson)
"Inertia and Incentives: Bridging Organizational Economics and Organizational Theory." Organization Science 16(5), 509-521.

(with F. Murray and R. Henderson)
"Discontinuities and Senior Management: Assessing the Role of Recognition in Pharmaceutical Firm Response to Biotechnology." Industrial and Corporate Change 12.4 (2003).

"Framing contests: strategy making during a discontinuity." Working paper, 2005.

(with M. Tripsas)
"Thinking about Technology: Understanding the Role of Cognition in Technical Change."