Sri Zaheer

Sri Zaheer

Dean Emerita and Elmer L. Andersen Chair in Global Corporate Social Responsibility
Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship

Education:

  • BS 1973
    Physics Madras University
  • PGDBA(MBA) 1975
    Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
  • PhD 1992
    International Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Expertise:

  • Technology and global organization
  • The legitimacy of multinational enterprises
  • Knowledge management
  • Time-based strategies
  • Cross cultural merger and acquisition
  • Globalization

Biography

Srilata (Sri) Zaheer became the 12th dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota on March 8, 2012. She served in this role until July 2, 2023.

During her tenure as dean of the Carlson School, Sri launched a Military Veterans Initiative to help servicemen and women transition from military to business careers, resulting in the Carlson School being named the number one Military Friendly business school in the nation. Sri increased the business community’s engagement with the school, resulting in a wealth of new experiential learning opportunities for students, and oversaw the introduction of new degrees in business analytics, supply chain management, finance, and new programs in partnership with Tsinghua University in Beijing and Tongji University in Shanghai, as well as online degrees and certificates.

Sri holds the Elmer L. Andersen Chair in Global Corporate Social Responsibility and her research focus is on international business — a topic on which she has published extensively. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, and a former Consulting Editor of the Journal of International Business Studies. In 2018, Zaheer received the PwC Strategy& Eminent Scholar Award, for lifetime achievement in scholarship from the International Management Division of the Academy of Management.

Prior to academia, Zaheer worked for multinationals such as Tata Consultancy Services and Sandoz (India) Ltd. She also reported on politics and business from India and Nigeria for Business International. These experiences have provided the foundation for her research in international business, as well as leading the Carlson School’s engagement with the corporate community.

Sri serves on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, where she is currently serving as chair. She previously served on the boards of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), Greater Twin Cities United Way, the Guthrie Theater, and the Destination Medical Center Economic Development Agency of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

In 2021, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal honored Sri’s professional achievements, leadership qualities, and contributions to the broader Twin Cities community with its Women in Business Career Achievement Award. In 2020, for her service on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Sri was named an Outstanding Director by Twin Cities Business (TCB). In 2019, Sri was recognized as part of the publication's TCB 100: The 100 People to Know in 2020. Also in 2019, Sri was inducted into the Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest Business Hall of Fame and honored as a Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys. In 2013, Sri was recognized as a Women in Business award winner by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. 

Selected Works & Activities

  • Journal Articles
    "Wall Street versus Main Street: Firm Strategies for defending legitimacy and their impact on different stakeholders," A. Lamin and S. Zaheer, Organization Science (forthcoming).
  • Journal Articles
    "Sense of Place: From location resources to MNE locational capital," S. Zaheer and L. Nachum, Inaugural issue of Global Strategy Journal, (forthcoming)
  • Journal Articles
    "Does it Matter Where Countries Are? Proximity to knowledge, markets and resources and MNE location choices," L. Nachum, S. Zaheer and S. Gross, Management Science, 54(7):1252-1265 (2008).
  • Journal Articles
    "Cluster capabilities or ethnic ties? Location choice by foreign and domestic entrants in the services offshoring industry in India", S. Zaheer, A. Lamin and M. Subramani, Journal of International Business Studies, 40(6): 944-968 (2009)
  • Journal Articles
    "Market Microstructure in a Global B2B Network," S. Zaheer and A. Zaheer, Strategic Management Journal (2001).
  • Book Chapters
    "The Multinational Enterprise as an Organization," E. Westney and S. Zaheer, The Oxford Handbook of International Business, eds. Alan Rugman and Thomas L. Brewer (Oxford University Press, 2001).
  • Journal Articles
    "Time Scales and Organizational Theory," S. Zaheer, S. Albert, and A. Zaheer, Academy of Management Review (1999). This article was chosen as one of the three best papers in the Academy of Management Review that year.
  • Journal Articles
    "The Dynamics of the Liability of Foreignness," S. Zaheer and E. Mosakowski, Strategic Management Journal (1997).
  • Journal Articles
    "Knowledge Retention and Personnel Mobility: The Nondisruptive Effects of Inflows of Experience," T. Madsen, E. Mosakowski, and S. Zaheer, Organization Science (2003).
  • Book Chapters
    "Creativity Under Constraint: Technological Imprinting and the Migration of Indian Business to the New Economy," S. Zaheer and R. Rajan, The Global Internet Economy, ed. Bruce Kogut (MIT Press, 2003).
  • Journal Articles
    "Identity Versus Culture in Mergers of Equals," S. Zaheer, M. S. Schomaker, and M. E. Genc, European Management Journal (2003).
  • Journal Articles
    "Concentration and Dispersion in Global Industries: Remote Electronic Access and the Location of Economic Activities," S. Zaheer and S. Manrakhan, Journal of International Business Studies (2001).
  • Book Chapters
    "Acceptable Risk: A Study of Global Currency Trading Rooms in the United States and Japan," S. Zaheer, The Performance of Financial Institutions, eds. S. Zenios and P. Harker (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
  • Journal Articles
    "Organizational Legitimacy under Conditions of Complexity: The Case of the Multinational Enterprise," T. Kostova and S. Zaheer, Academy of Management Review (1999).
  • Journal Articles
    "The Persistence of Distance? The Impact of Technology on MNE Motivations for Foreign Investment," L. Nachum and S. Zaheer, Strategic Management Journal (2005).
  • Journal Articles
    "Catching the Wave: Alertness, Responsiveness, and Market Influence in Global Electronic Networks," A. Zaheer and S. Zaheer, Management Science (1997).
  • Journal Articles
    "Breaking the Silos: Distributed Knowledge and Strategic Responses to Volatile Exchange Rates," D. R. Lessard and S. Zaheer, Strategic Management Journal (1996).
  • Journal Articles
    "Overcoming the Liability of Foreignness," S. Zaheer, Academy of Management Journal (1995).
  • Book Chapters
    "Time-Zone Economies and Managerial Work in a Global World," S. Zaheer, Innovations in International and Cross-Cultural Management, eds. P. C. Earley and H. Singh (Sage, 2000).
  • Journal Articles
    "The Global Configuration of a Speculative Trading Operation: An Empirical Study of Foreign Exchange Trading," E. Mosakowski and S. Zaheer, Organization Science (1999).
  • Chair, International Management Division, Academy of Management, 2001

  • Eldridge Haynes Prize for the best interdisciplinary work, Academy of International Business, 1994

  • Richard N. Farmer Best Dissertation Award, Academy of International Business, 1992

  • Dean, Carlson School of Management

  • Member, Founding International Academic Council, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India

  • Barry M. Richman Best Dissertation Award, Academy of Management, International Management Division, 1992

  • Fellow of the Academy of International Business

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