research


* Authorship in alphabetical order

My main research interest is in organization design, with a particular focus on the drivers of design choices in complex organizations. 

My early research, including a number of ongoing studies, bridges competitive and corporate strategy and explores the relationship between organization design and strategy choices of multiunit-multimarket firms, such as diversified companies, firms with multiple branches, business groups, and multinationals.  Delegation and control concerns are particularly relevant for these firms because they require coordination across multiple units and across industry and/or geographic boundaries.  I have explored how organization design choices vary between and within multi-unit firms, focusing on the influence of the competitive context and cognitive processes in two parallel streams. 

In my more recent research, I focus increasingly on dual-purpose companies (that pursue both financial and social objectives) and how they use organization design choices to mitigate tradeoffs between money-making and social value-creating activities to satisfy a broad range of stakeholders.  Since money-making activities are often not fully separable from social value-creating activities, the key organization design challenge for these companies, unlike single-purpose companies, is mitigating these tradeoffs.  I have started to explore how they can do so, a topic that so far received little consideration in the organization design literature.

In terms of methodology, my work is mainly empirical, relying on large sample studies.  I gather unique and hard-to-get data that goes deep inside the organization and, at the same time, is broad and comprehensive to study market-level dynamics to study formal aspects of organization design, such as decision rights, incentives, organizational groupings, and reporting relationships.


PUBLICATIONS

Battilana, J., Obloj, T., Pache, A.-C., & Sengul, M. 2022. Beyond shareholder value maximization: Accounting for financial/social tradeoffs in dual-purpose companies. Academy of Management Review, 47(2): 237-258.*

Guo, W., Sengul, M., & Yu, T. 2021. The impact of executive verbal communication on the convergence of investors' opinions. Academy of Management Journal, 64(6): 1763-1792.*

Sengul, M. 2021. The promise and limits of social franchises as hybrid organizations. Journal of Organization Design, 10(3-4): 115-117.

Obloj, T. & Sengul, M. 2020. What do multiple objectives really mean for performance? Empirical evidence from the French manufacturing sector. Strategic Management Journal, 41(13): 2518-2547.*

Guo, W., Sengul, M., & Yu, T. 2020. Rivals' negative earnings surprises, language signals, and firms' competitive actions. Academy of Management Journal, 63(3): 637-659.*

Sengul, M. 2019. Organization design as a competitive choice: An application to the study of innovation. Journal of Organization Design, 8: 22.

Battilana, J., Pache, A.-C., Sengul, M., & Kimsey, M. 2019. The dual-purpose playbook: What it takes to do well and do good at the same time. Harvard Business Review, 97(2): 124-133.

Reprinted in “HBR’s 10 Must Reads 2020: The Definitive Management Ideas of the Year from Harvard Business Review,” pp. 121-136, Harvard Business Review Press (October 2019)

Sengul, M., Almeida Costa, A., & Gimeno, J. 2019. The allocation of capital within firms. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1): 43-83.

Sengul, M. 2018. Organization design and competitive strategy: An application to the case of divisionalization. Advances in Strategic Management, 40: 207-228.

An earlier version received: Booz.Allen & Hamilton / SMS Annual Conference Best PhD Paper Prize

Sengul, M. & Obloj, T. 2017. Better safe than sorry: Subsidiary performance feedback and internal governance in multiunit firms. Journal of Management, 43(8): 2526-2554.

Battilana, J., Sengul, M., Pache, A.-C., & Model, J. 2015. Harnessing productive tensions in hybrid organizations: The case of work integration social enterprises. Academy of Management Journal, 58(6): 1658-1685.

Sengul, M. & Dimitriadis, S. 2015. Multimarket competition. Journal of Organization Design, 4(3): 18-30.

Sengul, M. & Gimeno, J. 2013. Constrained delegation: Limiting subsidiaries' decision rights and resources in firms that compete across multiple industries. Administrative Science Quarterly, 58(3): 420-471.

Dissertation paper

Obloj, T. & Sengul, M. 2012. Incentive life-cycles: Learning and the division of value in firms. Administrative Science Quarterly, 57(2): 305-347.*

AOM HR Division's Scholarly Achievement Award, Finalist

Sengul, M., Gimeno, J., & Dial, J. 2012. Strategic delegation: A review, theoretical integration, and research agenda. Journal of Management, 38(1): 375-414.

An earlier version received: Honorable Mention, McKinsey / SMS Annual Conference Best Paper Prize

Battilana, J., Gilmartin, M., Sengul, M., Pache, A.-C., & Alexander, J. 2010. Leadership competences for implementing planned organizational change. Leadership Quarterly, 21(3): 422-438.

Battilana, J., Anteby, M., & Sengul, M. 2010. The circulation of ideas across academic communities: When locals re-import exported ideas. Organization Studies, 31(6): 695-713.

Rangan, S. & Sengul, M. 2009. The influence of macro structure in the international realm: IGO interconnectedness, export dependence, and immigration links in the foreign market performance of transnational firms. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54(2): 229-267.

Dissertation paper; An earlier version was nominated for: Carolyn Dexter Best International Paper Award

Rangan, S. & Sengul, M. 2009. Information technology and transnational integration: Theory & evidence on the evolution of modern multinational enterprise. Journal of International Business Studies, 40 (9, JIBS40/AIB50 Anniversary Issue: Innovations in International Business Theory): 1496-1514.

Dissertation paper; Winner of Emerald Citation of Excellence Award for one of the top 50 management articles published in 2009 in the field of business and management

Yu, T., Sengul, M., & Lester, R.H. 2008. Misery loves company: The spread of negative impacts resulting from an organizational crisis. Academy of Management Review, 33(2): 452-472.

Sengul, M. 2008. Essays on Delegation and Control in Multi-Unit Firms. Doctoral Dissertation, INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.

Wiley-Blackwell Outstanding Dissertation Award in Business Policy and Strategy, Finalist

Battilana, J. & Sengul, M. 2006. Interorganizational cooperation between not-for-profit organizations: A relational analysis. In O. Kyriakidou & M. Ozbilgin (Eds.), Relational Perspectives in Organizational Studies: A Research Companion: 197-220. Edward Elgar.* 





Garbage can: Notes from a few abandoned projects

Adoption of identification methods in strategy & management, 1980-2015 [2017, Data snippet]

Multimarket competition and internal capital markets: Subsidiaries' responses to the loss of funding [2015, Presentation at the AOM annual conference]