Sri Zaheer

Sri Zaheer

Dean, Elmer L. Andersen Chair in Global Corporate Social Responsibility

Carlson Office of the Dean

Education

BS 1973
Physics Madras University

PGDBA(MBA) 1975
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

PhD 1992
International Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Expertise

Technology and global organization

The legitimacy of multinational enterprises

Knowledge management

Timebased strategies

Cross cultural merger and acquisition

Globalization

Srilata (Sri) Zaheer became the 12th dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota on March 8, 2012.

During her tenure as dean of the Carlson School, Sri launched a Military Veterans Initiative to help servicemen and women transition from military to business careers, has increased the business community’s engagement with the school which has resulted in myriad new experiential learning opportunities for students, and has overseen the introduction of several new programs including new master’s programs in Business Analytics, Finance, and Supply Chain Management.

Sri joined the University in 1991 as an assistant professor and held a variety of roles prior to becoming dean, including serving as the PhD coordinator in the department of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship (SME), department chair, and associate dean of faculty and research, where she was responsible for faculty in seven academic departments and the school''s research infrastructure.

Sri holds the Elmer L. Andersen Chair in Global Corporate Social Responsibility and her research focus is on international business—a topic on which she has published extensively, and work that has been honored by such organizations as the Academy of International Business and the Academy of Management. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, and a former Consulting Editor of the Journal of International Business Studies.

Prior to academia, Zaheer worked for multinationals such as Tata Consultancy Services and Sandoz (India) Ltd. She also reported on politics and business from India and Nigeria for Business International. These experiences provided the foundation for her research in international business, as well as leading the Carlson School’s engagement with the corporate community.

Sri serves on the boards of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), Greater Twin Cities United Way, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. She previously served on the boards of the Guthrie Theater and Destination Medical Center Economic Development Agency in Rochester, Minnesota.

In 2013, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal honored Sri’s professional achievements, leadership qualities, and contributions to the broader Twin Cities community with its Women in Business Award.

Selected Works

Dealing with information asymmetry in crossborder acquisitions Academy of Management Best Papers Proceedings. Dastidar and S. Zaheer (2010).

Abstracts

"Building a Process Model of Local Adaptation of Practices: A Study of Six Sigma Implementation in Korean and US firms," Journal of International Business Studies (2010).

Abstracts

"Wall Street versus Main Street: Firm Strategies for defending legitimacy and their impact on different stakeholders," A. Lamin and S. Zaheer, Organization Science (forthcoming).

"Sense of Place: From location resources to MNE locational capital," S. Zaheer and L. Nachum, Inaugural issue of Global Strategy Journal, (forthcoming)

"Does it Matter Where Countries Are? Proximity to knowledge, markets and resources and MNE location choices," L. Nachum, S. Zaheer and S. Gross, Management Science, 54(7):12521265 (2008).

"Cluster capabilities or ethnic ties? Location choice by foreign and domestic entrants in the services offshoring industry in India", S. Zaheer, A. Lamin and M. Subramani, Journal of International Business Studies, 40(6): 944968 (2009)

"Market Microstructure in a Global B2B Network," S. Zaheer and A. Zaheer, Strategic Management Journal (2001).

"The Multinational Enterprise as an Organization," E. Westney and S. Zaheer, The Oxford Handbook of International Business, eds. Alan Rugman and Thomas L. Brewer (Oxford University Press, 2001).

"Time Scales and Organizational Theory," S. Zaheer, S. Albert, and A. Zaheer, Academy of Management Review (1999). This article was chosen as one of the three best papers in the Academy of Management Review that year.

"The Dynamics of the Liability of Foreignness," S. Zaheer and E. Mosakowski, Strategic Management Journal (1997).

"Knowledge Retention and Personnel Mobility: The Nondisruptive Effects of Inflows of Experience," T. Madsen, E. Mosakowski, and S. Zaheer, Organization Science (2003).

"Creativity Under Constraint: Technological Imprinting and the Migration of Indian Business to the New Economy," S. Zaheer and R. Rajan, The Global Internet Economy, ed. Bruce Kogut (MIT Press, 2003).

"Identity Versus Culture in Mergers of Equals," S. Zaheer, M. S. Schomaker, and M. E. Genc, European Management Journal (2003).

"Concentration and Dispersion in Global Industries: Remote Electronic Access and the Location of Economic Activities," S. Zaheer and S. Manrakhan, Journal of International Business Studies (2001).

"Acceptable Risk: A Study of Global Currency Trading Rooms in the United States and Japan," S. Zaheer, The Performance of Financial Institutions, eds. S. Zenios and P. Harker (Cambridge University Press, 2000).

"Organizational Legitimacy under Conditions of Complexity: The Case of the Multinational Enterprise," T. Kostova and S. Zaheer, Academy of Management Review (1999).

"The Persistence of Distance? The Impact of Technology on MNE Motivations for Foreign Investment," L. Nachum and S. Zaheer, Strategic Management Journal (2005).

"Catching the Wave: Alertness, Responsiveness, and Market Influence in Global Electronic Networks," A. Zaheer and S. Zaheer, Management Science (1997).

"Breaking the Silos: Distributed Knowledge and Strategic Responses to Volatile Exchange Rates," D. R. Lessard and S. Zaheer, Strategic Management Journal (1996).

"Overcoming the Liability of Foreignness," S. Zaheer, Academy of Management Journal (1995).

"TimeZone Economies and Managerial Work in a Global World," S. Zaheer, Innovations in International and CrossCultural Management, eds. P. C. Earley and H. Singh (Sage, 2000).

"The Global Configuration of a Speculative Trading Operation: An Empirical Study of Foreign Exchange Trading," E. Mosakowski and S. Zaheer, Organization Science (1999).

Current Activities

Administrative Appointments

Dean, Carlson School of Management

Honors and Awards

Eldridge Haynes Prize for the best interdisciplinary work, Academy of International Business, 1994

Richard N. Farmer Best Dissertation Award, Academy of International Business, 1992

Barry M. Richman Best Dissertation Award, Academy of Management, International Management Division, 1992

Scholarly Service

Chair, International Management Division, Academy of Management, 2001

Member, Founding International Academic Council, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India

Fellow of the Academy of International Business