Benjamin Cole

Benjamin M. Cole, Ph.D., holds the William J. Loschert Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University and currently serves as Area Chair for the Strategy & Statistics Area. Dr. Cole uses global research settings to investigate how social factors—such as legitimacy, status, logics and media framings—influence technological innovation, regulatory oversight and economic transactions. He also holds a key interest in the disruptive nature of blockchain on existing industries; he teaches courses on blockchain and strategy. Dr. Cole is the organizer of the Blockchain Disruptor Conference and serves as an external advisor to several blockchain initiatives, where he specializes in helping them articulate and monetize their unique business models.

Dr. Cole served for three years (2015-2018) as Director of the Full-time Cohort MBA and Professional MBA programs at the Gabelli School. His efforts to innovate in the curricular and co-curricular space were recognized not only by the students, but also in the Gabelli School’s placement in various rankings. The Cohort program gained 47 points in the U.S. News & World Report ranking (2015: #110 | 2018: #63), 37 points in the Poets & Quants ranking (2015: #99 | 2017: #62), 12 points in the Bloomberg BusinessWeek ranking (2015: #72 | 2017: #60), re-entry into the Forbes ranking (2015: unranked | 2018: #70), and a debut in The Economist ranking (2015: unranked | 2018: #92). The Professional MBA program saw a 40 point gain in the U.S. News & World Report ranking (2015: #91 | 2018: #51).

Before entering academia, Dr. Cole lived in Japan for nine years, where he worked as both a translator for a Japanese textbook company and as a corporate representative for Japan’s largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corporation. During that time, he had interactions with representatives of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and was involved in preparing materials used in the 1995 Japan-U.S. trade negotiations. He was a key player in introducing the Toyota Hybrid System and the Fuel Cell Hybrid System technologies to the global media and financial community, and acted as simultaneous interpreter for Executive Vice President Akihiro Wada in charge of global technology. He also communicated firm decision-making on foreign direct investment in China, India, Poland, and the U.S., as well as coordinated projects between Japan, Belgium, Malaysia and the U.S. In short, Dr. Cole has personal experience with many of the topics that managers face in this globalized environment. As a bilingual and a former expatriate, Dr. Cole is keenly interested in cross-cultural hurdles to effective management. Dr. Cole earned his B.A. in Japanese Language & Culture from Occidental College, and his M.B.A. (with Distinction) and Ph.D. in Strategy from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Education

• PhD: Strategy, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
• Master's: MBA with Distinction, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
• Bachelor's: BA, Japanese Language and Culture, Occidental College

Research interests

• The social construction of economic exchanges, industry regulation and technological innovation
• The constructs of status, legitimacy, logics and media framings
• The opportunities and challenges of the global business environment