Lecturer in Strategy
Economics and Strategy Group
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Education
- 2003-2008 University of Oxford, Saïd Business School (D.Phil. in Management)
Title: Doing Deals in a Global Law Firm: The Reciprocity of Institutions and Work
- 2002-2003 University of Oxford, Saïd Business School (M.Sc. in Management Research)
Title: Contingencies on Knowledge Management Systems in Consulting Firms
- 1998-2002 University of Cologne, Dept. of Management and Economics (B.A. equivalent)
Title: Coopetition in Intra-organizational Knowledge-exchange: Manifestations, Effects and Counter-measures in a Professional Service Firm
Employment
- 2008-2009 Post-doctoral Research Fellow, University of Oxford and University of Alberta
- 2005-2009 Teaching Assistant, Oxford Executive Education, University of Oxford
- 2004-2007 College Lecturer in Management, St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford
Research Interests
I am interested in understanding the interplay between organizational structures and practices with the institutional environments in which they are embedded. Specifically, I look into questions of internationalisation, decision-making and technology usage, innovation and cross-border work, which I investigate in professional service firms in the law, consulting, and insurance sectors.
Broad research questions I am currently investigating include:
- How do field-straddling organizations cope with institutional complexity and how do their responses feed back into institutional structures?
- What roles do technology-mediated and face-to-face interactions play in business decision-making?
- How can professional service firms tap new sources of competitive advantage?
- Why and how do career structures in highly institutionalized sectors (fail to) change?
- Whose reputation matters and how does it matter for the performance of large law firms?
Publications
Malhotra, N., Morris, T., & Smets, M. New Career Models in UK Professional Service Firms: From Up-or-out to Up-and-going-nowhere?, forthcoming in: International Journal of Human Resource Management
Reihlen, M., Smets, M. & Veit, A. Management Consulting Firms as Institutional Agents: Strategies for Creating and Sustaining Institutional Capital, Forthcoming in Schmalenbach Business Review
Smets (2006) Book Review: “Collaborative Entrepreneurship: How Communities of Networked Firms Use Continuous Innovation to Create Economic Wealth” by Miles, Miles & Snow, Organization Studies, 27(6):899-902
Work in Progress
Smets, M., Morris, T. & Greenwood, R. Orchestrating for a Winning Performance: Rethinking Strategic Management in Professional Service Firms
Smets, M., Morris, T. & Malhotra, N. New Career Models and Innovation in Professional Sectors, Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship in Professional Services, Reihlen, M. & Werr, A.
Smets, M., Morris, T & Malhotra, N. Career Models of Human Resource Managers and Legal Professionals in Elite London Law Firms - Mind the Gap
Malhotra, N., Morris, T., & Smets, M.: Issues of Internal and External Fit in Organizational Design: The Case of the Tournament Promotion Model in Law Firms
Smets, M., Morris, T. & Morris, W. Reputation and Performance in Large Law Firms
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