WBS PhD student awarded scholarship from the Strategic Management Society

• WBS PhD student Christina Wawarta has been selected for the prestigious SRF program from the Strategic Management Society
• The PhD student convinced the selection committee with her research proposal and the publication potential of her dissertation project during a competitive process
• WBS is among the few non-US institutions with a student accepted for the SRF program
• The scholarship includes substantive research funding, exclusive training opportunities and conference waivers

WBS PhD student Christina Wawarta has been selected for the prestigious Dissertation Research Program (SRF) of the Strategic Management Society.

Under the guidance of her doctoral supervisor Professor Sotirios Paroutis of the Strategy & International Business (SIB) Group, the student’s research proposal was successfully accepted following a competitive selection and review process.

The SRF Research Funding Program by the Strategic Management Society

The annual Dissertation Research Program (SRF) from the Strategic Management Society supports up to 15 full-time doctoral students in the field of strategic management. Its funds are intended to supplement other financial resources available to its recipients and to support elements of their research that enhance the quality, expand the scope, augment the research design, or in some other way enrich their dissertation projects.

The Strategic Management Society consists of over 3,000 members from more than 80 different countries and includes academics, business practitioners, and consultants. It focuses on the development and dissemination of insights on the strategic management process, as well as on fostering contacts and interchange around the world. It is also responsible for the Strategic Management Journal – one of the top-rated publications in the area of management.

Research with prospects – Strategy at the NASA Johnson Space Center

Christina Wawarta was awarded additional funding for her qualitative in-depth research of strategy development and implementation at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, US. She is currently in her third year of the WBS PhD programme and thereby among the very few SRF recipients so far, who are not associated with a US institution.

Her research in the area of Strategy-as-Practice focuses on strategy tools in a broad sense, ranging from (socio-)material, technical to social tools. She is interested in the selection and adaptation processes of such tools and the value that they create for the practitioners in the actual making of strategy. The first paper proposal, based on the data collected at the Space Center, has recently been accepted for the annual conference of the Strategic Management Society. Access to the otherwise closed-up organization has been made possible through the resourceful network of Professor Loizos Heracleous, who is co-supervising Christina and also forms part of the School's SIB Group.