Kate Odziemkowska

I am an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. I joined Rice in 2019 after completing my Ph.D. at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. My research focuses on cooperative strategy—formal interorganizational relationships such as alliances or collaborations—in nonmarket settings. More specifically, I study how and when strategically aligning with often-adversarial stakeholders, such as social activists, NGOs, and local communities can benefit firms, and the implications for stakeholders and society. My research explains why cooperative strategy is an increasingly popular approach to managing nonmarket stakeholders, when and why existing theories of interorganizational relationships fail in nonmarket settings, and the critical role conflict and networks play in cooperative nonmarket strategy. In newer projects, I explore how cooperative and conflictual stakeholder relationships affect firm innovation, returns to corporate scope expansion, and political strategies.

I serve on the Editorial Board of Organization Science, am a Representative-at-Large in the Strategic Management Society’s Stakeholder Strategy Interest Group, and a member of the OMT Research Committee at the Academy of Management. At Rice, I teach courses in strategic management, stakeholder management and networks. Prior to my PhD, I worked in private, public and non-profit sectors.