Mauro Guillen

Mauro Guillen
  • William H. Wurster Professor of Multinational Management
  • Vice Dean, MBA Program for Executives

Contact Information

  • office Address:

    255 S. 38th Street
    Suite 108
    Philadelphia, PA 19104

Research Interests: economic sociology, emerging multinational firms, globalization, international banking strategies, international political economy, multinational management, organizational theory

Links: CV, Career Highlights, OP-EDs, Google Scholar, COVID-19 Resources, Distance Data Downloads, Guillen-Capron Shareholder Protections Index

Overview

Mauro F. Guillén is one of the most original thinkers at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he is the Vice Dean of Wharton’s MBA Program for Executives. An expert on global market trends, he is a sought-after speaker and consultant. He combines his training as a sociologist at Yale and as a business economist in his native Spain to methodically identify and quantify the most promising opportunities at the intersection of demographic, economic, and technological developments. His online classes on Coursera and edX have attracted over 100,000 participants from around the world. He has won multiple teaching awards at Wharton, where his presentation on global market trends has become a permanent feature of over fifty executive education programs annually.

His research, teaching, and speaking incorporates both numerical assessments of trends and illuminating examples from business, politics, and everyday life. He shows in accessible terms that one can accurately forecast trends by systematically following the babies and following the money into the future. His research has earned him many distinctions, including Fulbright, Rockefeller, and Guggenheim fellowships, a membership in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and prizes from the Academy of Management, the American Sociological Association, the Social Science History Association, and the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. He is an elected member of the Sociological Research Association and the Macro Organizational Behavior Society, and a winner of the Aspen Institute’s Faculty Pioneer Award.

His research, op-eds, and commentary have been featured in numerous outlets, from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to The Economist, and the Financial Times. He has appeared on radio and TV shows such as NPR’s Marketplace and Radio Times, CNBC’s Mad Money and Squawk Box, and CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS. He is a seasoned public speaker at conferences, conventions, forums, and corporate events organized by industry associations and Fortune 500 companies. He serves or has served on several advisory groups, boards of directors, and nonprofit boards of trustees.

His book on 2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything was an instant Wall Street Journal bestseller and a Financial Times Book of the Year, with translations into German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Mandarin, Romanian, Turkish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese.

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Research

Teaching

All Courses

  • ANTH0120 - Globalization

    This course sets the current state of globalization in historical perspective. It applies the concepts of anthropology, history, political economy and sociology to the study of globalization. We focus on a series of questions not only about what is happening, but about the growing awareness of it and the consequences of this increasing awareness. In answering these questions we draw on a variety of case studies, from historical examples of early globalization (e.g. The Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds, global flows of conspicuous commodities such as sugar, coffee, and tea, the rise and transformations of early capitalism), to issues facing our current globalized world (e.g. mass-mediatization and multilingualism, border regimes and international migration, planetary urbanization). The body of the course deals with particular dimensions of globalization, reviewing both the early and recent history of each. The overall approach is historical and comparative, setting globalization on the larger stage of the economic, political and cultural development of various parts of the modern world. The course is taught by anthropologists who draw from economic, linguistic, sociocultural, archaeological, and historical perspectives, offering the opportunity to compare and contrast distinct disciplinary approaches. It seeks to develop a general social-science-based theoretical understanding of the various historical dimensions of globalization: economic, political, social and cultural.

  • GLBS2000 - Global: Soci, Eco, Poli Aspect

    This course offers an analysis of globalizing and anti-globalizing tendencies in the world. It combines the insights of sociology, economics, and political science to provide an understanding of topics such as population and migration trends, the evolution of global consumer and financial markets, the spread of digital technologies, inequality, populism, climate change and food security, and the shifting geopolitical balance of power. Students will learn how different theories explain the current interplay among social, economic, and political forces.

  • INTS7210 - Global Analysis

    TBD

  • MGMT1980 - Special Topics in MGMT

    Courses offered of various topics and points of focus, ranging across multiple concentrations of Management, (i.e., Entrepreneurial, Strategy, Organizational Effectiveness, etc.).

  • MGMT2870 - Global Mgmt Digital Business

    Digital businesses enable users to communicate, interact, share, and engage in transactions. They enable individuals to shop, work, play, and learn, and they offer companies new ways of organizing their value chains, reaching customers, collecting and analyzing information, and creating value. This half-semester, 0.5-cu class deals with the international expansion of businesses through the use of digital technologies. The focus is on the tension between the eminent scalability facilitated by digital technologies and the ruggedness of the international landscape, shaped as it is by demographics, consumer preferences, culture, regulatory structures, and network effects operating at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The class covers both companies launched as digital businesses and traditional companies undergoing a digital transformation. Topics include industry dynamics, the impact of network effects, the sequence of foreign market entry, regulatory risk, strategic interaction, and global versus local strategies for both new digital businesses and established firms undergoing digital transformation. While there are no specific requirements, knowledge of the fundamental concepts of competitive strategy and global strategy is essential to follow this class. Students will learn through interactive class discussions, team-based exercises, and self-made short videos to pitch novel new ideas about digital businesses.

  • MGMT6110 - Managing Est Enterprise

    This course is about managing large enterprises that face the strategic challenge of being the incumbent in the market and the organizational challenge of needing to balance the forces of inertia and change. The firms of interest in this course tend to operate in a wide range of markets and segments, frequently on a global basis, and need to constantly deploy their resources to fend off challenges from new entrants and technologies that threaten their established positions. The class is organized around three distinct but related topics that managers of established firms must consider: strategy, human and social capital, and global strategy.

  • MGMT6120 - Managing Emerg Entrprse

    This course is about managing during the early stages of an enterprise, when the firm faces the strategic challenge of being a new entrant in the market and the organizational challenge of needing to scale rapidly. The enterprises of interest in this course have moved past the purely entrepreneurial phase and need to systematically formalize strategies and organizational processes to reach maturity and stability, but they still lack the resources of a mature firm. The class is organized around three distinct but related topics that managers of emerging firms must consider: strategy, human and social capital, and global strategy.

  • MGMT7870 - Global Mgmt Digital Business

    Digital businesses enable users to communicate, interact, share, and engage in transactions. They enable individuals to shop, work, play, and learn, and they offer companies new ways of organizing their value chains, reaching customers, collecting and analyzing information, and creating value. This half-semester, 0.5-cu class deals with the international expansion of businesses through the use of digital technologies. The focus is on the tension between the eminent scalability facilitated by digital technologies and the ruggedness of the international landscape, shaped as it is by demographics, consumer preferences, culture, regulatory structures, and network effects operating at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The class covers both companies launched as digital businesses and traditional companies undergoing a digital transformation. Topics include industry dynamics, the impact of network effects, the sequence of foreign market entry, regulatory risk, strategic interaction, and global versus local strategies for both new digital businesses and established firms undergoing digital transformation. While there are no specific requirements, knowledge of the fundamental concepts of competitive strategy and global strategy is essential to follow this class. Students will learn through interactive class discussions, team-based exercises, and self-made short videos to pitch novel new ideas about digital businesses.

  • MGMT7990 - Special Topics MGMT

    Courses offered of various topics and points of focus, ranging across multiple concentrations of Management, (i.e., Entrepreneurial, Strategy, Organizational Business, etc.).

  • MGMT8900 - Advanced Study-Ind

  • MGMT8970 - Global Modular Course A

    Special course arranged for Wharton MBA students, focused on global business, management and innovation.

  • MGMT8980 - Global Modular Course B

    removing WH 898 as erroneous crosslist.

  • PPE3999 - Independent Study

    Student arranges with a faculty member to pursue a research project on a suitable topic. For more information about research and setting up independent studies, visit: https://ppe.sas.upenn.edu/study/curriculum/independent-studies

  • SOCI2910 - Globalization

    This course sets the current state of globalization in historical perspective. It applies the concepts of anthropology, history, political economy and sociology to the study of globalization. We focus on a series of questions not only about what is happening, but about the growing awareness of it and the consequences of this increasing awareness. In answering these questions we draw on a variety of case studies, from historical examples of early globalization (e.g. The Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds, global flows of conspicuous commodities such as sugar, coffee, and tea, the rise and transformations of early capitalism), to issues facing our current globalized world (e.g. mass-mediatization and multilingualism, border regimes and international migration, planetary urbanization). The body of the course deals with particular dimensions of globalization, reviewing both the early and recent history of each. The overall approach is historical and comparative, setting globalization on the larger stage of the economic, political and cultural development of various parts of the modern world. The course is taught by anthropologists who draw from economic, linguistic, sociocultural, archaeological, and historical perspectives, offering the opportunity to compare and contrast distinct disciplinary approaches. It seeks to develop a general social-science-based theoretical understanding of the various historical dimensions of globalization: economic, political, social and cultural.

  • SOCI9999 - Independent Rdgs & Res

    For advanced students who work with individual instructors upon permission. Intended to go beyond existing graduate courses in the study of specific problems or theories or to provide work opportunities in areas not covered by existing courses.

  • WH2130 - Global Modular Course B

    TBD

Awards and Honors

  • Wharton Teaching Excellence Award, 2020
  • Nominated to the Anvil Teaching Award by a vote of all Wharton MBA students, 2014
  • Delivers Clarendon Lectures at Oxford University, 2014
  • Elected member of the Sociological Research Association, 2013
  • Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Award, 2013
  • Excellence in Teaching: Core Curriculum (top 10 teaching ratings in Core), 2012
  • Spring Core Teaching Award (“Goes above and beyond the call of duty”), 2011
  • Finalist, Carolyn Dexter Best International Paper Award, Academy of Management, 2007
  • IV Fundación Banco Herrero Prize, awarded annually to the most promising Spanish social scientist under the age of 40, 2005
  • Elected Fellow of the Macro Organizational Behavior Society, 2004
  • W. Richard Scott Best Paper Award, American Sociological Association, 2003
  • Special Mention, Best Paper Award, Section on Comparative and Historical Sociology, American Sociological Association, 2002
  • Wharton Core MBA Teaching Award, 2000
  • Selected as Guggenheim Fellow, 1998
  • As Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1998
  • Gulf Publishing Company Best Paper Award from the Academy of Management, 1997
  • President’s Book Award of the Social Science History Association, 1993
  • Finalist, American Sociological Association Best Dissertation Award, 1992
  • Co-Winner, Sussman Dissertation Prize, Department of Sociology, Yale University, 1992
  • Gustavus Myers Award for Outstanding Book on Human Rights, 1991
  • Special Mention, Worldwide Competition for Young Sociologists, World Congress of Sociology, International Sociological Association, 1990

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Latest Research

Raquel Garcia-Garcia, Esteban Garcia-Canal, Mauro Guillen (2019), International Dispersion and Profitability: An Institution-Based Approach, Management International Review .
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