Edward (Ned) Smith
Edward (Ned) Smith

MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATIONS
Associate Professor of Management & Organizations
Associate Professor of Sociology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences (Courtesy)

Print Overview

Ned Smith is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, Associate Professor (by courtesy) of Sociology, core faculty member of the Northwestern Institute for Complexity (NICO), and faculty associate at the Northwestern Institute for Policy Research. Prior to joining Northwestern, Ned was the NBD Bancorp Assistant Professor of Strategy at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2010 and BA in East Asian Studies (Chinese literature and language) and Political Science from Yale University in 2003.

Ned has two main areas of research. First, he studies the effects of social structure on the behavior and decision-making of individuals and organizations. His research in this area was awarded a Kauffman Foundation Fellowship in 2009. More recently, Ned's articles on investor decision-making in the hedge fund industry ("Identities as Lenses," Administrative Science Quarterly), and market responses to new executive appointments ("Better in the Shadows", with Kevin Gaughan) were awarded the (2012) Best Published Paper Award by the Academy of Management and the (2016) Best Paper Award by the Academy of Management, respectively. Second, Ned works to connect research on cognitive processes and network theories of social capital to better understand how people utilize (and squander) the resources available to them in their social networks. This research analyzes how people mentally construct their social worlds, i.e., their social networks, according to various psychological and situational factors.

Ned has published his research in leading management and sociology journals including the American Journal of Sociology, Administrative Science Quarterly, The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, Management Science, Organization Science, Social Networks, Strategic Management Journal, Social Science Research, Industrial and Corporate Change, and Research in Organizational Sciences. He is currently a senior editor at Organization Science and is a member of the editorial board at Administrative Science Quarterly.

Ned teaches MBA and executive-level courses on strategy implementation, social networks, strategic alliances, change management, and social media, as well as doctoral-level courses on quantitative research methods. While at Michigan Ned was the recipient of the Neary Award for Teaching Excellence (top professor as voted by students). Since coming to Northwestern Ned served as Searle Teaching Fellow for the 2014-15, Searle Center for Advancing Learning & Teaching. 

Areas of Expertise
Behavioral Finance
Creativity and Innovation
Group Dynamics
Management of Organizations
Organizational Structure and Relationships
Strategic Leadership
Strategic Management and Implementation
Print Vita
Education
Ph.D., 2010, Economic Sociology and Organizational Behavior, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago
B.A., 2003, East Asian Studies (Chinese Language and Literature), Political Science, Yale University, Yale University
Mandarin Chinese Immersion, 2001, Beijing Capital University of Economics and Business

Academic Positions
Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, MORS, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2013-present
Bank One Corp Assistant Professor of Strategy and Business Administration, Strategy, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, 2012-2013
Assistant Professor, Strategy, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, 2010-2013

Honors and Awards
Northwestern University Provost Fellowship for Digital Learning
2016 Best Paper Award, Academy of Management (OMT Division)
Fellow, Searle Institute for Teaching and Learning
Forbes "Data Freaks" Award for Best Published Research Using Qualtrics Platform, Forbes
2012 Best Published Paper Award, Academy of Management (OMT Division)
Neary Teaching Excellence Award, University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
Kauffman Foundation Fellowship for research in entrepreneurship, Kaufman Foundation
Economist Intelligence Unit Global Business Professor of the Year (Nominee), Economist Intelligence Unit

Editorial Positions
Senior Editor, Organization Science, 2016
Editorial Board Member, Administrative Science Quarterly, 2014-Present
Associate Editor, American Journal of Sociology, 2009-2010

Print Research
Research Interests
Decision Making, Social Networks, Organizational and Group Structure and Relationships, Market Emergence, Creativity and Innovation, Social Structure of Organizations and Markets

Articles
Smith, Edward (Ned) and Heewon Chae. 2016. "We do what we must, and call it by the best names": Can Deliberate Names Mitigate the Consequences of Organizational Nonconformity?. Strategic Management Journal. 37(6): 1021-1033.
Abstract
Smith, Edward (Ned) and W. Rand. Forthcoming. Simulating macro-level effects from micro-level observations. Management Science.
Abstract
Smith, Edward (Ned) and Heewon Chae. 2017. The effect of organizational atypicality on reference group selection and performance evaluation. Organization Science. 28(6): 1134-1149.
Abstract
Smith, Edward (Ned) and Shelby Gai. 2017. Institutional Interruption: A Relational Account of the Growth and Decline of Product Heterogeneity in the Global Hedge Fund Industry. Industrial and Corporate Change.
Abstract
Shea, Catherine, Tanya Menon, Edward (Ned) Smith and K. Emich. 2015. The affective antecedents of social network structure. Social Networks. 43: 91-99.
Link
Smith, Edward (Ned) and Yuan Hou. 2015. Redundant Heterogeneity and Group Performance. Organization Science. 26(1): 37-51.
Abstract
Menon, Tanya and Edward (Ned) Smith. 2014. Identities in Flux: Cognitive Network Activation in Times of Change. Social Science Research. 45: 117-130.
Link
Smith, Edward (Ned). 2013. From Role Conflict to Evaluation Discordance: How do Conflicting Performance Evaluations Affect Risk Taking in Multiple Audience Contexts?. Research in Organizational Science.
Bothner, Matthew, Young-Kyu Kim and Edward (Ned) Smith. 2012. How Does Status Affect Performance? Status as an Asset versus Status as a Liability in PGA and NASCAR. Organization Science. 23(2): 416-433.
Smith, Edward (Ned), Tanya Menon and Leigh Thompson. 2012. Status Differences in the Cognitive Activation of Social Networks. Organization Science. 23(1): 67-82.
AbstractLink
Smith, Edward (Ned). 2011. Identities as Lenses: How Organizational Identity Affects Audiences' Evaluation of Organizational Performance. Administrative Science Quarterly. 56(1): 61-94.
Bothner, Matthew, Joel Podolny and Edward (Ned) Smith. 2011. Organizing Contests for Status: The Matthew Effect Versus the Mark Effect. Management Science. 57(3): 439-457.
Bothner, Matthew, Richard Haynes, Wonjae Lee and Edward (Ned) Smith. 2010. When do Matthew Effects Occur?. Journal of Mathematical Sociology. 33(2): 80-114.
Bothner, Matthew, Edward (Ned) Smith and Harrison White. 2010. A Model of Robust Positions in Social Networks. American Journal of Sociology. 116(3): 943-92.
Working Papers
Cao, Jiyin and Edward (Ned) Smith. 2017. Why do high status people have larger social networks? Belief in status-quality coupling as a driver of social networking behavior.
Smith, Edward (Ned) and Yuan Tian. 2017. Stretched Too Thin? The Paradox of Promoting Diversity in Higher Education.
Abstract
Smith, Edward (Ned) and Kevin Gaughan. 2016. Better in the Shadow? Public Attention, Media Coverage and Market Reaction to Female CEO Announcements..
Abstract
Cases
Smith, Ned. 2015. Aura: Designing Strategy and Status in Saudi Arabia. Case 5-115-002 (KEL924).
Abstract

 
Print Teaching
Teaching Interests
Strategy, Organizational Structure and Decision Making, Research Methods, Statistics, Social Network Analysis
Full-Time / Evening & Weekend MBA
Strategy Implementation (MORS-455-0)
Two-thirds of business and corporate strategies fail not due to poor strategy or flawed logic but poor execution. However smart a new strategy may be, it takes informed managers and strong leadership to make it a successful one. Expanding on the lessons from MGMT 431, this course focuses on strategy implementation, with emphasis on the decisions, actions, structures, and conditions that facilitate the successful attainment of strategic objectives. Our guiding framework involves applying principles of social organization to mobilize the necessary resources to pursue a given strategy.

Social Processes in Organizations (MORS-524-2)
Group behavior in organizational settings. Topics include recent theory and research on group formation, social influence, group composition, group performance, group decision making, diversity, coalitions, intergroup relations and social dilemmas.