Phillips, Nelson X.
Nelson Phillips is Professor of Strategy and Organizational Behaviour at Imperial College London. His research interests include various aspects of organization theory, technology strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship, often studied from an institutional theory perspective. He also has an interest in discourse analysis and related textual research methods. He has published numerous academic articles and book chapters including articles in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management Science, Sloan Management Review, Organization Science, Journal of Management Studies, Strategic Organization, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, and the Academy of Management Annals. He has also published three books: Discourse Analysis with Cynthia Hardy published in 2002, Power and Organizations with Stewart Clegg and David Courpasson published in 2006, and Technology and Organization with Graham Sewell and Dorothy Griffiths published in 2010. He is currently co-editing a new Handbook of Innovation Management with David Gann and Mark Dodgson, and an RSO volume entitled Religion and Organization with Paul Tracey and Michael Lounsbury.
Prior to joining Imperial, Professor Phiilips was the Beckwith Professor of Management Studies at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge from 2002 to 2005 and an Associate Professor in the Strategy and Organisation Area at McGill University in Montreal, Canada from 1993 to 2002. While on sabbatical in 2000/2001, Professor Phillips spent six months as the Edward Clarence Dyason Universitas 21 Fellow at Melbourne University in Melbourne, Australia and six months as a Visiting Professor at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. Professor Phillips completed his PhD in Organisational Analysis from the University of Alberta, Canada in 1995.
His research interests lie in four main areas. First, much of his work focuses on various aspects of new institutional theory. His work in this area connects conventional approaches to understanding institutional process to new theoretical perspectives such as discourse analysis or to new empirical areas of study such as entrepreneurship. Second, he has been increasingly engaged in a program of research looking at a range of different but related issues in entrepreneurship, family business and social entrepreneurship. His interest in this area lies in applying social theory to developing deeper understandings of these important forms of organization. Third, Prof. Phillips has a strong interest in technology strategy and innovation, where he has been working for several years on various aspects of the social dynamics of technology adoption and the ramifications of these dynamics for technology strategy and innovation. He is particularly interested in the dynamics of the adoption of digital consumer devices and these dynamics on firms and industries. Finally, he has a strong interest in qualitative research methods, and in particular, in the application of discourse analysis, narrative analysis and other related methods of investigation to the study of organizations.
Professor Phillips has published more than 75 academic articles and book chapters including articles in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management Science, Sloan Management Review, Organization Science, Journal of Management Studies, Strategic Organization, Organizational Research Methods and Organization Studies. He has also written a book with Cynthia Hardy (Melbourne) entitled Discourse Analysis, which was published in 2002; a second book, Power in Organisations, with Stewart Clegg (University of Technology Sydney) and David Courpasson (EM-Lyon) for the Sage Fundamentals of Organization Science series in 2006; and most recently a book, Technology and Organization, with Dorothy Griffith (Imperial) and Graham Sewell (Melbourne) that was published in 2010. He is currently working on a book on linguistic methods in management and a handbook of innovation management co-authored with David Gann (Imperial) and Mark Dodgson (QUT).
Professor Phillips is currently the co-editor with Marvin Washington (Alberta) of the Journal of Management Inquiry. He was formally a senior editor at Organization Studies. He is also currently a member-at-large of the OMT Division Executive Committee of the Academy of Management.
Professor Phillips teaches courses in strategy, organisation behaviour, innovation, and leadership at the undergraduate and graduate level. In addition, he is very active in executive education where he has been involved in program design and delivery for a wide range of clients including Allen & Overy, the Royal Society, Finmeccanica, BT, ARM, Shell and Lainge O'Rourke.
