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

My early research, including several ongoing studies, examines the relationship between organization design and strategy choices in multiunit-multimarket firms, such as diversified companies, firms with multiple branches, business groups, and multinationals.  For these firms, delegation and control concerns are crucial due to the need for 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 have increasingly focused on dual-purpose companies, which pursue both financial and social objectives. I explore how these companies 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 intertwined with social value-creating activities, the primary organization design challenge for these companies is mitigating these tradeoffs.  I have begun to investigate this issue, a topic that has so far received relatively little attention in the organization design literature.

PUBLICATIONS

* denotes articles with authors listed in alphabetical order

• Organization Design

• Organization design in multiunit-multimarket firms

• Organization design as a competitive choice

• Cognitive drivers of organization design

• Organization design in dual-purpose companies

• Publications on other topics

I. Organization design

Organization design concerns formal and informal organizational attributes, including structures, processes, and systems, their antecedents, and the influence they have on the organization, its constituent units, and its members. I contribute to this vibrant area of research by focusing on the drivers of design choices in complex organizations.

Joseph, J. & Sengul, M. Organization design: Current insights and future research directions. Journal of Management, forthcoming.*

Joseph, J., & Sengul, M. 2023. Strategy and structure for effectiveness. In E. Locke & C. Pearce (Eds.), Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior (3rd Edition): 595-620. Wiley.*

II. Organization design in multiunit-multimarket firms

Organization design as a competitive choice

Seeing organization design as a competitive choice, I have studied how a firm’s organization is influenced by the competitive context in which the firm and its units are embedded. In other words, the firm’s choice of design parameters is a response to its competition. Thus, the emphasis is not on internal mechanisms to improve efficiency, as in the classical work by Chandler, Williamson, and others, but on competitive mechanisms that are external to the firm. Instead, I show that incentive (reflecting a cost-benefit calculation) and ability (reflecting organizational and/or environmental constraints) to deploy specific instruments of control vary across markets in which firms and different units of a firm are embedded.

Obloj, T. & Sengul, M. Ownership as a bundle of rights: Antecedents of the wedge between control and cash flow rights within firms. Strategy Science, forthcoming.*

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Cognitive drivers of organization design

I have examined how firms use organization design mechanisms to manage cognitive processes that could affect organizational outcomes. A basic premise of various theories of organizations is that the way managers interpret their environment plays a crucial role in firm behavior and decision making. When confronted with a complex and uncertain environment, managers form simplified representations of the environment that reflect their assumptions and beliefs, which shapes what they notice and how they make sense of their environment. Departing from the rich body of cognition research in strategy and management, the emphasis of my work is not on how aspects of organization design affect cognitive processes, but on how behavioral patterns and cognitive biases (and their anticipation) affect firms’ design choices.

Sengul, M. & Yu, T. 2024. A socio-cognitive explanation of organizational grouping decisions: Multidivisional firms and the formation of their divisions. Journal of Management, 50(5): 1772-1796.*

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.

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

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.

In recent years, I have developed an interest in understanding how design choices interact with executives’ use of language—a powerful tool for shaping the interpretations of others. As a first step, I explore the attributes of language and their effects on competitive behavior with my coauthors, employing advanced natural language processing techniques.

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.*

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.*

III. Organization design in dual-purpose companies

Over the past decade, I have turned my attention to the study of organization design in dual-purpose companies that simultaneously pursue both financial and social objectives, even though my interest in the topic dates back to my first publication as a doctoral student. Money-making activities are often not fully separable from social value-creating activities, and most, if not all, dual-purpose companies face inevitable tradeoffs. Hence, unlike single-purpose companies, the key organization design challenge for these companies is mitigating these tradeoffs—an issue common not only to dual-purpose organizations but to all organizations juggling multiple goals. In my recent work, I have started to explore how dual-purpose companies can navigate these tradeoffs, a topic that has received very little consideration in the organization design literature so far.

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.*

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.*

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); forthcoming in "HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leading with Purpose" (2025)

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.

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.* 

IV. Publications on other topics 

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.

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]