Benjamin M. Cole, Ph.D., holds the William J. Loschert Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship and serves as director of the Full-time MBA and Professional MBA programs. As a tenured associate professor of strategy, he teaches the Strategy and Blockchain: Industry Disruptor & Creator courses at the graduate level. Dr. Cole has been recognized numerous times for his impact on students. He was selected by the Class of 2015 in the graduate school for both the Gladys and Henry Crown Award for Faculty Excellence and the Stanley Fuchs Award; he similarly was selected by the Class of 2013 and Class of 2009 in the undergraduate school for the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence.
Dr. Cole uses both domestic and international settings to investigate how social factors—such as status, legitimacy and media framings—influence economic exchanges, regulatory oversight and technological innovation. Dr. Cole’s contributions as a scholar have been recognized by three different divisions of the Academy of Management, as well as INFORMS. In 2013, he was selected as a finalist by the International Management (IM) Division for two international research awards: the Gustavson Best Qualitative Paper Award and the Douglas Nigh Award for the Best Interdisciplinary Paper authored by Junior Scholar(s). In 2009, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004, he was awarded the Outstanding Review Award from the Business Policy and Strategy (BPS) Division, and in 2007 and 2006, he received the Above and Beyond the Call of Duty Award from the Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division. Finally, in 2006, he was one of eight finalist globally in the INFORMS / Organization Science Dissertation Proposal Competition. Dr. Cole serves on the editorial review board of theAcademy of Management Journal, the flagship empirical journal of the Academy of Management.
Dr. Cole lived and worked in Japan for nine years before entering academia. During his time in Tokyo, he worked as a writer/translator at Shubun Publishing Co. and as a corporate representative at the country’s largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corporation. Dr. Cole is also the managing director of Bushin Books LLC, a publication company that he launched in 2001. He has appeared on CBS’s Evening News with Katie Couric, has been cited in U.S. News and World Report, and has worked with several multinational corporations, including ConsenSys AG, Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank and JTB Travel USA.
Dr. Cole earned his BA in Japanese language and culture from Occidental College and his MBA with distinction and PhD in strategy from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
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