Quick Links

» CV
» Publications
» Current Research
» Teaching
» Knowledge@Wharton
» Awards
» Miscellaneous
» Executive Education

Nicolaj Siggelkow
Chair of the Management Department
David M. Knott Professor
Co-Director of the Mack Center for Technological Innovation


Nicolaj Siggelkow is the David M. Knott Professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is the Department Chair of Wharton’s Management Department and a Co-Director of the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at Wharton. He studied Economics at Stanford University and earned an M.A. in Economics from Harvard University. He received a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University and the Harvard Business School. Professor Siggelkow has been the recipient of multiple MBA and Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Awards, including the Class of 1984 Award presented to the faculty member with the highest teaching rating in the MBA classroom, the Helen Kardon Moss Anvil Teaching Award, the Wharton Award, and the Wharton Graduate Association Student Choice Award. His research has been published in the leading management journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Industrial Economics, Management Science, Organization Science, and Strategic Organization. In 2008, he received the Administrative Science Quarterly Scholarly Contribution Award for the most significant paper published in ASQ five years earlier. Nicolaj is a member of the Editorial Review Boards of Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Organization, and Academy of Management Perspectives.

His current research focuses on the strategic and organizational implications of interactions among a firm’s choices of activities and resources. In particular, his research has focused on three broad questions: How do firms develop, grow and adjust their set of activities over time? How does organizational design affect a firm’s ability to find high-performing sets of activities? What role do interactions among a firm’s activities play in creating and sustaining competitive advantage? To address these questions, he has employed a range of methodological approaches, including in-depth field studies of individual firms, econometric methods for large-scale data sets, formal modeling, and simulation models.

Publications
Vikas Aggarwal, Nicolaj Siggelkow, Harbir Singh (2011), Corporate Development Choices and Interdependence: Strategic Tradeoffs and Performance Implications, Strategic Management Journal, 32: 705-730
Nicolaj Siggelkow (2011), Firms as Systems of Interdependent Choices, Journal of Management Studies, 48: 1126-1140
Felipe Csaszar, Nicolaj Siggelkow (2010), How much to copy? Determinants of Effective Imitation Breadth, Organization Science, 21: 661-676
Felipe Csaszar, Nicolaj Siggelkow (2010), Appendix for "How much to copy?"
Nicolaj Siggelkow, Jan W. Rivkin (2009), Hiding the Evidence of Valid Theories: How Coupled Search Processes Obscure Performance Differences among Organizations, Administrative Science Quarterly, 54: 602-634
Michael E. Porter, Nicolaj Siggelkow (2008), Contextual Interactions within Activity Systems and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage, Academy of Management Perspectives, 22(2): 34-56

View More  

top of page

Current Research
Oliver Baumann, Nicolaj Siggelkow 2010, Expanding a Search Domain in Complex Design Projects: The Value of Gradually Decreasing Parochialism
Dirk Martignoni, Nicolaj Siggelkow 2010, When it Pays to be Neurotic or to Have Blind Spots: The Value of Understanding External and Internal Contingencies

top of page

Teaching

MGMT 701: Strategy and Competitive Advantage.
This course is concerned with strategy issues at the business unit level. Its focus is on the question of how firms can create and sustain a competitive advantage. A central part of the course deals with new concepts that have been developed around the notions of complementarities and fit. Other topics covered in the course include the creation of competitive advantage through commitment, competitor analysis, different organizational responses to environmental changes, real options, modularity, and increasing returns. An important feature of the course is a term-length project in which groups of students work on firm analyses that require the application of the course concepts.

top of page

Knowledge@Wharton
Falling Behind: Working Women in Germany Grapple with Limited Child-Care Options 01/11/2008
Can Dell's Turnaround Strategy Keep HP at Bay? 09/05/2007
A New Tool for Resurrecting an Old Theory of the Firm 05/17/2006
Wishing Upon a Star: Hiring a CEO from Inside the Company Vs. Going Outside 04/06/2005
How Mutual Fund Managers Exploit Opportunities to Maximize Fees 09/08/2004
Keeping Fit: The Liz Claiborne Story 03/01/2000

top of page

Honors And Awards
Student-elected Faculty Marshal, 2011
Student-elected Faculty Marshal, 2010
Helen Kardon Moss Anvil Teaching Award, 2010
Excellence in Teaching Award, 2010
Administrative Science Quarterly Scholarly Contribution Award for the most significant paper published in ASQ five years earlier, 2008
Excellence in Teaching Award, 2006-2007

View More  

top of page

Miscellaneous
Nicolaj Siggelkow, Co-Director of Mack Center for Technological Innovation

top of page

Executive Education
Co-Director, Strategic Thinking and Management for Competitive Advantage

top of page

 
 
Siggelkow Nicolaj

Nicolaj  Siggelkow
3207 SH-DH
3620 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA19104
Phone: (215) 573-7137
Fax: (215) 898-0401
siggelkow@wharton.upenn.edu

Personal Website

Research Interests:
Competitive strategy; evolution of fit; firms as systems of interconnected choices