Sharon F. Matusik is an American business strategy scholar. She is the Edward J. Frey Dean of Business at the

Ross School of Business The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship. Matusik's research focuses on understanding the knowledge-intensive firm and the contribution of firm knowledge to

competitive advantage In business, a competitive advantage is an attribute that allows an organization to outperform its competitors. A competitive advantage may include access to natural resources, such as high-grade ores or a low-cost power source, highly skilled ...

in strategic management entrepreneurship.

Education and career

Matusik received a

bachelor of arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

with majors in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

with honors from

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philanthr ...

at Waterville,

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

in 1986. She received a

doctor of philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

with concentration on

strategic management In the field of management, strategic management involves the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by an organization's managers on behalf of stakeholders, based on consideration of Resource management, resour ...

from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1998. Matusik served on the faculty at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

before moving to the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2004, where she served as Academic Research Director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship. She rose through the ranks to become Professor in the Leeds School in 2014. In 2016, Matusik was named interim senior associate dean for Faculty and Research, and in 2017, she was appointed interim dean at the Leeds School of business, subsequently permanent dean. In 2022, Matusik moved to the University of Michigan, where she is the Edward J. Frey Dean of Business.

Research

Matusik and Hill examined the role of " contingent workers" in knowledge flows that affect competitive advantage of a firm – temporary employees, independent contractors; workers at outsourcing firms, contract workers on-site at a firm, consultants, etc. Reliance on contingent workers can stimulate information flows inside a firm by causing firms to codify of tacit knowledge inside the firm, but also puts the firm at risk of having its special expertise appropriated. Matusik has also studied

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, such as the role of “offensive” and “defensive”

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s in the pricing of initial public offerings, the role played by

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

ists in the success or failure of startup firmsMatusik, S. F., & Fitza, M. A. (2012). Diversification in the venture capital industry: leveraging knowledge under uncertainty. Strategic Management Journal, 33(4), 407-426. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/smj.1942

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matusik, Sharon American women academics Colby College alumni University of Washington alumni University of Colorado Boulder faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women Ross School of Business faculty