I am an Associate Professor at the Department of Strategy & Entrepreneurship at the BI Norwegian Business School. I specialize in strategic management at the intersection of innovation studies, focusing on the activities and practices of managers and teams in the dynamic pursuit of deep technological innovation over time. By employing an interdisciplinary approach, I integrate insights from sociology and social psychology to delve into the nuanced processes of succeeding and failing. My research involves a comprehensive collection of field data encompassing interviews, observations, and archival records obtained from top management teams of incumbents, managers, and employees working with strategy, innovation, and technology. I also study collaborative efforts of these managers with academics from research-focused organizations, contributing to the realization of radical innovation. Ultimately, in all of my research, I strive for academic and practical relevance by contributing to understanding processes leading toward a resource-responsible world, particularly in the context of climate repair.
Next to my research and teaching activities, I seek to involve myself in the global academic community actively. I regularly review for Long Range Planning, Organization Studies, and Strategic Organization. I serve as a Representative at Large in the Strategic Management Society (SMS) Strategy Practice Interest Group and regularly organize a virtual Reading Club ‘Behind the Scene’ in the Academy of Management (AOM) Strategizing Activities and Practices Interest Group. I am also co-founder and host of the interdisciplinary Qualitative Research Forum at BI (together with Prof. Davide Nicolini WBS/BI).
To further develop my skills as an academic I was a visiting researcher at Stanford University, VU Amsterdam, UCD Dublin, and Warwick Business School. I received my doctoral degree in International Business from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and also earned a master's degree from WU.
My dissertation was awarded the EIBA Best Dissertation Proposal and nominated as a finalist for the Gunnar Hedlund Best Dissertation Award.
I have gained industrial experience in international companies like Rewe Group, Hilton Hotels, RHI AG, and the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. These experiences drove my interest in the management and conducting of research of experts and organizations. Next to my research positions, I was a project member in an applied research project at FH Wien and an executive assistant to the rector of WU.
Keywords: Collaboration, Expertise, Managers and Frontline employees, Practices, Processes, Qualitative Research, Strategic Organization, Strategizing
Grossmann-Hensel, Benjamin; Jarzabkowski, Paula, Kratochvil, Renate, Seidl, David, Spee, Paul & Whittington, Richard (red.). Elgar Encyclopedia of Strategy as Practice
Kratochvil, Renate; Gruenauer, Johanna, Friesl, Martin & Güttel, Wolfgang (2022)
Deliberate simple rule creation and use: Activities and challenges
Using ‘simple rules’ may enable managers to take organizational decisions more rapidly. While prior research presents advantages of simple rule use during strategy formation, we lack insights into how firms can deliberately create simple rules and mitigate the challenges therein. This is particularly interesting for established firms struggling to leverage their wealth of experience. We explore how managers of a multinational corporation deliberately create and use simple rules to implement the firm’s growth strategy. Drawing on interviews and secondary data, we reveal the activities through which managers ensure the relevance and legitimacy of codified simple rules, yet also establish causality between simple rules and outcomes. Simple rule creation is accomplished via bottom-up identification and lateral validation, its use via consistent top-down guiding and timely adaptation. Our findings contribute to the growing body of research on the evolution of simple rules and aspects of strategy implementation more generally.
Kratochvil, Renate & Schmeisser, Bjoern (2021)
Book Review: How Will You Measure Your Life?, by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon
Innovationen im (öffentlichen) Gesundheitssystem: Eine Analyse aus strategischer Perspektive
Pfannstiel, Mario A; Kassel, Kristin & Rasche, Christoph (red.). Innovationen und Innovationsmanagement im Gesundheitswesen Technologien, Produkte und Dienstleistungen voranbringen
Kratochvil, Renate; Tippmann, Esther & Parker, Andrew (2020)
Who do you tap for help when trying to solve an unusual business problem?
LSE Business Review
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2020/06/09/who-do-you-tap-for-help-when-trying-to-solve-an-unusual-business-problem/ During sudden onset crises, such as pandemics, military conflicts, hurricanes and large scale bushfires, the number of unusual, complex business problems surges dramatically, and managers at all levels of an organisation’s hierarchy need to be able to deal with them. However, because of the erratic occurrence and unique structure of these problems, managers are not often trained in how to solve them. Examples of such problems are: When national borders are closed, how do we deliver our products to our customers?; Can we replace analogue products with digital services?; When the value of a local currency has dropped dramatically, how should we price our products?; How can we support employees located in risky areas?
Accessing diverse knowledge for problem solving in the MNC: A network mobilization perspective
Global Strategy Journal, 9(3), s. 423- 452. Doi: 10.1002/gsj.1311
The fundamental challenge of problem solving is synthesizing diverse knowledge for solution development. This article addresses the trade‐off between knowledge diversity, that is, approaching the most relevant individual to maximize the likelihood that he/she possesses diverse knowledge and the ability to access, that is, recognize and assimilate this knowledge. We examine this trade‐off in relation to managers in subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) and two types of diverse knowledge—novel knowledge and specialist expertise. We use a network mobilization perspective and arguments on network range within and across organizational boundaries, testing our hypotheses on a dataset of 838 ties from 120 managers leading problem‐solving projects. Our study offers implications for the knowledge‐based view of the MNC as well as the problem‐solving perspective in strategy.
Kvålshaugen, Ragnhild; kratochvil, Renate, Khanamiryan, Mariya & Moore, Graham (2020)
Bort fra dataklemming - byggebransjen inn i den digitale tidsalder
Byggeindustrien [Kronikk]
Kratochvil, Renate & Jane, Sophie (2023)
Who am I, and What am I Doing? Understanding How to Craft and Communicate a Compelling Academic Identity Narrative
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management.
Kratochvil, Renate & Nicolini, Davide (2023)
Studying Practices and Processes to Explore Cross-Boundary Collaboration
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management.
Kratochvil, Renate (2023)
Connecting micro-strategizing to macro-phenomena – challenges and opportunities for qualitative research