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Gerry McNamara

Gerry McNamara

Title(s)

Professor
Management

Contact Information

439 N. Business Complex
(517) 432-5527

Interests

Strategic decision-making; organizational risk taking; strategic positioning within markets; and mergers and acquisitions

Degree

PhD University of Minnesota

Bio

Dr. Gerry McNamara is an Associate Professor of Management at Michigan State University whose areas of expertise revolve around strategic decision-making, organizational risk taking, and strategic positioning within markets. By taking an international focus of his decision making research Dr. McNamara has the opportunity to frame his research topics in multinational settings giving him insight into multinational firms, the way they perceive risk in emerging markets, and the competitive and market factors that exert influence over their perceptions.
When he is not passing on valuable knowledge in the classroom, Dr. McNamara is presenting his research findings to international audiences and serving on the editorial boards of top research journals including: the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, Organizational Science, and the Strategic Management Journal. Additionally, Dr. McNamara is a Representative at Large for the Corporate Strategy and Governance Division of the Strategic Management Society. These and other experiences have given Dr. McNamara valuable perspectives to take back to the classroom and use to further increase the value of a MSU education.
Always on the cutting edge of new insights and research, one of Dr. McNamara’s current projects involves how cultural distance influences the timing of firms entering new markets, which he is examining with a current doctoral student.

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Professor McNamara is a professor of management at Michigan State University. Previously, he was a member of the faculty at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

His research focuses on examining the effects of behavioral factors, organizational practices, and strategic positioning on organizational decision-making and risk taking. His research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, the Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and the Journal of International Business Studies. His research on mergers and acquisitions has been abstracted in the New York Times, The Economist, and Business Week. His research on hypercompetition in markets was honored by Emerald Management Reviews as one of the top-50 articles published in business journals in 2003.

He presently serves as an Associate Editor for the Academy of Management Journal. He has previously served on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, and the Strategic Management Journal. He served as a Representative at Large for the Corporate Strategy and Governance Division of the Strategic Management Society and currently serves as a member of the Awards Committee of the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management.  He was honored by the Western Academy of Management as an Outstanding Scholar in 2013.

Premier Articles

JournalArticleVolumeYear
Organization ScienceAre technology-intensive industries more dynamically competitive? No or Yes212010
Academy of Management JournalThe performance implications of participating in an acquisition wave: Early mover advantages, bandwagon effects, and the moderating influence of industry characteristics and acquirer tactics512008
Organization ScienceMoving closer to the auction: Examining compensation design effects on firm risk192008
Academy of Management JournalExamining the impact and role of special issue and regular journal articles in the field of management492006
Strategic Management JournalIs performance driven by industry- or firm-specific factors? A response to Hawawini, Subramanian, and Verdin262005
Organization ScienceCrisis and competition in expert organizational decision making: Credit-rating agencies and their response to turbulence in emerging economies152004
Strategic Management JournalCompetitive positioning within and across a strategic group structure: the performance of core, secondary, and solitary firms242003
Strategic Management JournalSame as it ever was: The search for evidence of increasing hypercompetition242003
Academy of Management JournalBanking on commitment: Intended and unintended consequences of an organization's attempt to attenuate escalation of commitment452002
Strategic Management JournalExamining the effect of complexity in strategic group knowledge structures on firm performance232002
Organization ScienceControlling decision-making practice in organizations122001
Journal of International Business StudiesThe influence of competitive positioning and rivalry on emerging market risk assessment312000
Academy of Management JournalRisk and return in organizational decision making421999
Academy of Management JournalDecision making in an organizational setting: Cognitive and organizational influences on risk ...401997