May
2012
BIRGER
WERNERFELT
J.
C. Penney Professor of Management
MIT
Sloan School of Management
MASSACHUSETTS
INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
E62-532,
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge,
MA 02139
bwerner@mit.edu
EDUCATION:
Harvard University, DBA
(Managerial Economics)
University of Copenhagen, MA
(Economics)
University of Copenhagen, BA
(Philosophy)
PREVIOUS
POSITIONS:
University
of Copenhagen
Department
of Economics
Visiting Professor of Economics
Northwestern University
J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management
Associate Professor of Strategy (with tenure)
University of Michigan
Graduate School of Business Administration
Assistant Professor of Policy and
Control
University of Copenhagen
Department of Economics
Research Fellow in Mathematical Economics
A/S Creole
Vice President, Strategic Planning
HONORS AND AWARDS:
Doctorate, Honoris Causa,
Copenhagen Business School, 2012
Keynote speaker, DRUID 2011
Highly Cited Author,
Economics/Business, ISI
Fellow of the International
Academy of Management
Fellow of the World Innovation
Foundation
Who's
Who Among Executives and Professionals, first listing in Honors Ed, 2008
Who’s Who
in America, first listing in 61st Ed, 2007
Who’s Who
in American Education, first listing in 7th Ed, 2006
Who’s Who
in Science and Engineering, first listing in 8th Ed, 2005
Who’s Who
in Economics, first listing in 4th Ed, 2003
Pashigian Lecturer, University
of Chicago, 2002
Hightower Distinguished Lecturer,
Emory University, 1998
Finalist, J.D.C. Little Best
Paper Award, INFORMS College of Marketing, 1997.
Winner,
Strategic Management Society/Wiley Prize, 1994.
Finalist, J.D.C. Little Best
Paper Award, INFORMS College of Marketing, 1994.
Honorable Mention, O’Dell
Award, Journal of Marketing Research, 1992.
Finalist,
J.D.C. Little Best Paper Award, TIMS College of Marketing, 1991.
Best paper, Business Policy
and Planning, Academy of Management, 1988.
PUBLICATIONS (Economics, Marketing,
Mathematics, Strategic Management, Reviews): Note: All articles are the
sole copyright of the respective publishers. Materials are provided for
educational use only.
ECONOMICS
“Inefficient Pre-Bargaining Search”, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical
Economics, 168, no. 2, June, Forthcoming, 2012.
“On
the Grouping of Tasks into Firms: Make-or-Buy with Interdependent Parts”,
(with Sharon Novak), Journal of Economics
and Management Strategy, 21, no. 1, Spring, pp.
53-77, 2012.
“Costs
of Implementation: Bargaining Costs Versus Allocative
Efficiency”, (with Boris Maciejovsky), Journal
of Economic Behavior and Organization, 77, no. 3, March, pp. 318 – 25,
2011.
“Bargaining
Before or After Communication?", Journal
of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 164, no. 2, June, pp. 211-229,
2008.
“Renegotiation
Facilitates Contractual Incompleteness”, Journal of Economics and
Management Strategy, 16, no. 4, Winter, pp.
893-910, 2007.
“Delegation,
Committees, and Managers”, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy,
16, no. 1, Spring, pp. 35-51, 2007.
“Determinants of Asset Ownership: A Study of the Carpentry Trade” (with Duncan I. Simester), Review of Economics and Statistics,
87, no. 1, February, pp. 50-58, 2005.
“Robust Incentive Contracts”, Journal
of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 160, no. 4, December, pp.
545-54, 2004.
“Organizational
Languages”, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 13, no. 3,
Fall, pp. 461-72, 2004.
“Governance
of Adjustments”, Journal of Business, 77, no. 2, Part 2, April, pp.
S3-S24, 2004.
“Why
Should the Boss Own the Assets?”, Journal of
Economics and Management Strategy, 11, no. 3, Fall, pp. 473-85, 2002.
“On
the Nature and Scope of the Firm: An Adjustment-Cost Theory”, Journal of
Business, 70, no. 4, October, pp. 489-514, 1997. Reprinted in The Theory of The Firm: Critical Perspectives,
ed. Nicolai Foss, New York, NY: Routledge, 2000.
“Comment
on ‘Monitoring Agents with Other Agents’ by Hal R. Varian”, Journal of
Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 146, no. 1, March, pp. 177-79,
1990.
“Tacit Collusion in Differentiated Cournot Games”, Economics Letters, 29, no. 4, April, pp. 303-06, 1989.
“Reputation,
Monitoring and Effort”, Information Economics and Policy, 3, no. 3,
September, pp. 207-18, 1988.
“Diversification,
Ricardian Rents, and Tobin’s q”, (with Cynthia A. Montgomery), RAND
Journal of Economics, 19, no. 4, Winter,
pp. 623-32, 1988. Reprinted in Resources, Firms, and Strategies: A
Reader, ed. Nicolai Foss, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1997.
“Umbrella
Branding as a Signal of New Product Quality: An Example of Signalling by
Posting a Bond”, RAND Journal of Economics, 19, no. 3, Autumn, pp. 458-66, 1988.
“General
Equilibrium with Real Time Search in Labor and Product Markets”, Journal
of Political Economy, 96, no. 3, August, pp. 821-31, 1988.
“Tobin’s q and the Importance of Focus in Firm Performance”, (with Cynthia A. Montgomery), American Economic Review, 78,
no. 1, March, pp. 246-50, 1988. Reprinted in Corporate Strategy,ed. Margarethe
Wiersema and Joe Beck, Chelteeenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011.
“Product Line Rivalry: Note”, American
Economic Review, 76, no. 4, September, pp. 842-44, 1986.
“Brand Loyalty and User Skills”, Journal
of Economic Behavior and Organization, 6, no. 4, December, pp. 381-85,
1985.
“Stagflation,
New Products and Speculation”, Journal of Macroeconomics, 6, no. 3, Summer, pp. 295-309, 1984.
“Consumers with Differing Reaction Speeds, Scale Advantages and
Industry Structure”, European Economic Review, 24,
no. 2, March, pp. 257-70, 1984.
MARKETING
“On Brand Extension as
a Signal of Product Quality”, Marketing
Science, 32, forthcoming, 2013
“Class Pricing”, Marketing
Science, 27, no. 5, Sep-Oct, pp. 755 - 63, 2008.
“Product Development Resources and the Scope of the Firm”, Journal of Marketing, 69, no. 2, April, pp. 15-23, 2005.
“Implementing Quality Improvement Programs Designed to Enhance
Customer Satisfaction: Quasi-Experiments in the United States and Spain” (with Duncan I. Simester, John R. Hauser, and Roland Rust), Journal
of Marketing Research, 37, no.1, February, pp. 102-112, 2000.
“Bounded
Rationality Modeling”, (with Bertrand Munier, Reinhard Selten et al), Marketing
Letters 10, no. 3, August, pp. 233-48, 1999.
“Sidepayments in Marketing” (with John
R. Hauser and Duncan I. Simester). Marketing Science, 16,
no. 3, Summer, pp. 246-55, 1997. Finalist, 1997
J.D.C. Little Best Paper Award, INFORMS College of Marketing.
“The
Role of Inference in Context Effects: Inferring What You Want from What is
Available” (with Drazen Prelec and Florian Zettelmeyer), Journal of
Consumer Research, 23, no. 1, June, pp.118-25, 1997.
“Internal Customers and Internal Suppliers” (with John R. Hauser and Duncan I. Simester), Journal of
Marketing Research, 33, no. 3, August, pp. 268-80, 1996.
“Efficient
Marketing Communication: Helping the Customer Learn”. Journal of
Marketing Research, 33, no. 2, May, pp. 239-46, 1996.
“A Rational Reconstruction of the Compromise Effect”, Journal of Consumer Research, 21, no. 4, March, pp.
627-33, 1995.
“Customer
Satisfaction Based Incentive Systems” (with John R. Hauser and Duncan I.
Simester), Marketing Science, 13, no. 4, Winter,
pp. 327-50, 1994. Finalist, 1994 J.D.C. Little Best Paper Award, INFORMS
College of Marketing.
“An Efficiency Criterion for Marketing Design”, Journal of Marketing Research, 31, no. 4, November, pp.
462-70, 1994.
“Selling
Formats for Search Goods”, Marketing Science, 13,
no. 3, Summer, pp. 298-309, 1994.
“On
the Function of Sales Assistance”, Marketing Science, 13, no. 1, Winter, pp. 68-82, 1994.
“Risk Reduction and Umbrella Branding”
(with Cynthia A. Montgomery), Journal of Business, 65, no. 1, January,
pp. 31-50, 1992.
“Sources of Superior Performance: Market Share vs. Industry Effects
in the U.S. Brewing Industry”, (with Cynthia A.
Montgomery) Management Science, 37, no. 8, August, pp. 954-59, 1991.
“Brand
Loyalty and Market Equilibrium”, Marketing Science, 10, no. 3, Summer, pp. 229-45, 1991. Finalist,
1991 J.D.C. Little Best Paper Award, TIMS College of Marketing.
“An
Evaluation Cost Model of Consideration Sets” (with John R. Hauser), Journal
of Consumer Research, 16, no. 4, March, pp. 393-408, 1990.
“Advertising
Content When Brand Choice is a Signal”, Journal of Business, 63, no.
1, January, pp. 91-98, 1990.
“The Competitive Implications of Relevant-Set/Response Analysis”, (with John R. Hauser), Journal of Marketing Research, 26,
no. 4, November, pp. 391-405, 1989.
“Credible Delegation by Oligopolists: An Example from Distribution
Channel Management” (with Anne T. Coughlan), Management
Science, 35, no. 2, February, pp. 226-39, 1989.
“A
Model for Customer Complaint Management”, (with Claes Fornell), Marketing
Science, 7, no. 3, Summer, pp. 287-98, 1988. Abbreviated version in Incentive, September 1988.
“Existence
and Uniqueness of Price Equilibrium in ‘Defender”’ (with John R. Hauser), Marketing
Science 7, no. 1, Winter, pp. 92-93, 1988.
“Defensive Marketing Strategy by Customer Complaint Management: A
Theoretical Analysis”, (with Claes Fornell), Journal
of Marketing Research 24, no. 4, November, pp. 337-46, 1987.
Honorable mention, 1992 O’Dell Award, Journal
of Marketing Research.
“Competitive
Price and Quality Under Asymmetric Information”,
(with Gerard J. Tellis), Marketing Science 6, no. 3, Summer, pp. 240-53,
1987.
“A Special Case of Dynamic Pricing Policy”, Management Science 32, no. 12, December, pp. 1562-66,
1986.
“Consumption Experience and Sales Promotion Expenditure” (with Claes Fornell and William T. Robinson) Management Science
31, no. 9, September, pp. 1089-1105, 1985.
“The Dynamics of Prices and Market Shares Over the Product Life
Cycle”, Management Science 31, no. 8,
August, pp. 928-39, 1985.
“To Brand or Not to Brand? A Theoretical
and Empirical Question” (with David E.M.
Sappington), Journal of Business 58, no. 3, July, pp. 279-93, 1985.
MATHEMATICS
“On the Existence of a Nash Equilibrium Point in N-Person
Nonzero Sum Stochastic Jump Differential Games”, Optimal
Control Applications and Methods, 9, no. 4, October-December, pp. 449-56,
1988.
“Uniqueness
of Nash Equilibrium for Linear-Convex Stochastic Differential Games”, Journal
of Optimization Theory and Applications, 53, no. 1, April, pp. 133-38,
1987.
“Semifuzzy
Games”, International Journal for Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 19, no.
1, May, pp. 21-28, 1986.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
“The Use of Resources in Resource Acquisition”, Journal of Management, 37, no. 5, September, pp. 1369-73, 2011.
“Why
do Firms Tend to Become Different?”, in Constance
Helfat (ed.), Handbook of Organizational Capabilities, Malden, MA and
Oxford, UK: Blackwell, Chapter 9, pp. 121-33, 2003.
“Foreword”, in Nicolai Foss
(ed.), Resources, Firms, and Strategies: A Reader, Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 1997.
“Resource-Based Strategy in a
Stochastic Model”, in Cynthia A. Montgomery (ed.), Resource-Based and
Evolutionary Theories of the Firm, Norwell, MA, and Dordrecht: Kluwer
Academic, pp. 133-46, 1995.
“The Resource-based View of the Firm: Ten Years After”, Strategic Management Journal, 16, no. 3, March, pp.
171-75, 1995.
“Strategy
and the Research Process: Reply” (with Cynthia A. Montgomery and Srinivasan
Balakrishnan), Strategic Management Journal, 12, no. 1, January, pp.
83-84, 1991.
“Why
Do Firms Reduce Business Risk?” (with Raphael H.
Amit), Academy of Management Journal, 33, no. 3, September,
pp. 520-33, 1990.
“From
Critical Resources to Corporate Strategy”, Journal of General
Management, 14, no. 3, Spring, pp 4-12, 1989. Chosen as one of five articles to be reprinted in Journal of
General Management: Through the Years, 2008.
“Determinants of Firm Performance: The Relative Importance of
Economic and Organizational Factors” (with Gary S.
Hansen), Strategic Management Journal 10, no. 5, September-October, pp.
399-411, 1989.
“Strategy Content and the Research Process: A Critique and
Commentary”, (with Cynthia A. Montgomery and
Srinivasan Balakrishnan), Strategic Management Journal, 10, no. 2,
March-April, pp. 189-97, 1989.
“The
Link Between Resources and Types of Diversification:
Theory and Evidence”, (with Sayan Chatterjee), Strategic Management
Journal, 12, no. 1, January, pp.33-48, 1991. A substantially different
version entitled, “Related or Unrelated Diversification: A Resource-based
Approach”, is in Proceedings of the Academy of Management, 1988, pp.
7-11. Best Paper, Business Policy and Planning, Academy of Management
National Meeting, 1988.
“What
is an Attractive Industry?” (with Cynthia A.
Montgomery) Management Science, 32, no. 10, October,
pp. 1223-30, 1986. Reprinted in Corporate Strategy (Ed. Jeffrey
A. Krug), London, UK : Sage Publications, 2008.
“Technical Change, Competition and Vertical Integration” (with S. Balakrishnan), Strategic Management Journal, 7,
no. 4, July-August, pp. 347-59, 1986.
“The
Relation Between Market Share and Profitability”, Journal
of Business Strategy, 6, no. 4, Spring, pp. 67-74, 1986.
“The Capital Asset Pricing Model and Strategic Planning”, Management Science, 31, no. 4, April, pp. 510, 1985.
“Competitive
Strategy Under Uncertainty” (with Aneel Karnani) Strategic
Management Journal, 8, no. 2, March-April, pp. 187-194, 1987. Another
version with the same title is in Proceedings of the Academy of Management, 1984,
pp. 42-46 and in Administrative World, no. 5, pp. 137-41, 1988 (in
Chinese).
“Multiple Point Competition” (with
Aneel Karnani), Strategic Management Journal, 6, no. 1, January-March,
pp. 87-96, 1985. Another version with the same title is in Proceedings
of the Academy of Management, 1983, pp. 27-31.
“A Resource-based View of the Firm”, Strategic
Management Journal 5, no. 2, April-June, pp. 171-80, 1984. Winner, 1994 Strategic Management Society/Wiley Best Paper Prize.
Reprinted in Resources, Firms, and Strategies: A Reader, ed. Nicolai
Foss, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1997; in Alternative Theories of
the Firm, ed. Richard N. Langlois, Tony Fu-Lai Yu, and Paul L. Robertson,
Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2001; in The Economics of Business
Strategy, ed. John Kay, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2002; and
in Strategic Management, ed. J. Birkinshaw, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar
Publishing, 2004.
REVIEWS:
Review of R. K. Morck, Concentrated
Corporate Ownership in Journal of Economic Literature, 40, no.
1, March, pp. 181-82, 2002.
Review of
R. Selten, Models
of Strategic Rationality in Managerial and Decision Economics, 11, no. 1,
February, pp. 69-70, 1990.
MANUSCRIPTS:
“Efficient
Adaptation Versus Gains From Specialization: Procuring Labor Services”,
Working Paper, M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
“The Equilibrium Organization
of Labor”, Working Paper, M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
Coeditor,
Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 2007-
Panel Member, European Research
Council 2007-2011
Advisory
Board, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, 2003-
Area
Editor, Marketing Science, 1995-97
Associate
Editor, Management Science, 1987-94, 1997-00
Editorial
Board, Marketing Science, 1990-01
Editorial
Board, Strategic Management Journal, 1986-06
Editorial Board, Journal of Marketing
Research, 1996-98
Ad hoc referee for:
Economics
American Economic Review
Canadian Journal of Economics
Eastern Economic Journal
Econometrica
Economic Inquiry
International Economic Review
International Journal of Industrial
Organization
Israel Science Foundation
Journal of Development Economics
Journal of Economic Behavior and
Organization
Journal of Economic Theory
Journal of Economics (Zeitschrift
fur Nationalokonomie)
Journal of Economics &
Management Strategy
Journal of the European Economic
Association
Journal of Industrial Economics
Journal of Institutional and
Theoretical Economics
Journal of Law, Economics, and
Organization
Journal of Macroeconomics
Journal of Political Economy
Journal of Public Economics
Managerial and Decision Economics
National Science Foundation
Quarterly Journal of Economics
Quarterly Review of Economics and
Business
RAND Journal of Economics
Review of Economic Studies
Review of Economics and Statistics
Review of Industrial Organization
Scandinavian Journal of Economics
Social Science and Humanities
Research Council of Canada
Marketing
International Journal of
Research in Marketing
Journal of Business
Journal of Consumer Research
Journal of Marketing
Journal of Marketing Research
Journal of Public Policy and
Marketing
Management Science
Marketing Science
Sloan Management Review
Strategic Management
Academy of Management
Journal
Academy of Management Review
California Management Review
Industrial and Corporate Change
Journal of Management
Journal of Management Studies
Management Science
Organization Science
Research Policy
Strategic Management Journal
Miscellaneous
Information Systems
Research
Mathematics of Operations Research
Operations Research
Optimal Control Applications and
Methods
Member of:
American Economic Association
Econometric Society
INFORMS College of Marketing
Strategic Management Society
DISSERTATION COMMITTEES: MARKETING
Matthew
Selove (Chair), “Three Essays on Strategic and Tactical Issues in Product
Design”, 2010; first job at the University of Southern California. (Winner,
John A. Howard Dissertation Award of the American Marketing Association.)
Robert
Zeithammer (Member), “Forward-Looking Bidders in Sequential Auctions”, 2003;
first job at The University of Chicago, now at the University of California at
Los Angeles.
Dina Mayzlin (Chair), “Word of Mouth
as a Marketing Tool: Influencing and Learning from Consumer Conversations”,
2002; first job at Yale University, now tenured at the University of Southern
California. (Winner, John A. Howard Dissertation Award of the American
Marketing Association.)
David Godes (Chair), “Essays
on Marketing and the Organization”, 2000; first job at Harvard University, now
tenured at the University of Maryland. (Winner, 2000 Zenon & Clotilde
Zannetos Thesis Prize of MIT)
Florian
Zettelmeyer (Co-chair), "Three Essays on Strategic and Organizational Uses
of Information in Marketing", 1996; first job at the University of
Rochester; now full professor at Northwestern University.
(Honorable Mention, 1995 Dissertation Proposal Award of the Marketing Science
Institute)
Eric T.
Anderson (Co-chair), “Essays in Pricing and Advertising”, 1995; first job at
the University of Rochester; now full professor at Northwestern University.
(Honorable Mention, 1994 Dissertation Proposal Award of the Marketing Science
Institute)
Duncan I.
Simester (Chair), “Analytical Essays on Marketing”, 1993; first job at the
University of Chicago; now full professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. (Winner, 1992 Dissertation Proposal Award of the
Marketing Science Institute)
Miguel Villas-Boas (Chair),
“On Promotions and Advertising Policies: A Strategic Approach”, 1991; first job
at the University of California at Berkeley; now full professor there.
(Finalist, 1993 J.D.C. Little Best Paper Award, 1993 Frank Bass Best
Dissertation Paper Award, TIMS College of Marketing)
Gerald J.
Tellis (Member), “Consumer Information, Marketing Strategy, and Market Share”, 1983;
first job at the University of Iowa; now full professor at the University of
Southern California.
DISSERTATIONS COMMITTEES CHAIRED:
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Gary S. Hansen, “Determinants
of Firm Performance: An Integration of Economic and Organizational Factors”,
1987; first job at the University of Washington at Seattle; now tenured at the
University of California at Santa Barbara (Winner, 1987 Dissertation award of
the Academy of Management)
Sayan Chatterjee, “The
Diversification Decision: The Economics of the Manager’s Perspective”, 1985;
first job at Purdue University; now full professor at Case Western University
(Finalist, 1985 Dissertation award of the Academy of Management)
Srinivasan Balakrishnan, “A
Dynamic Analysis of the Vertical Integration Strategy”, 1983; first job at
UCLA; now retired from the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis (Finalist,
1983 Dissertation award of the Academy of Management)
DISSERTATIONS CHAIRED: ACCOUNTING
John Cheh, “Incentive Effects
of Inter-Agent Monitoring: Implications for Responsibility Accounting and
Auditor-Consultant Interaction”, 1986; first job at New York University; now
full professor at University of Akron.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Theory of the Firm
Selling Formats
Marketing Design
Marketing Implementation
Organizational Information
Processing