Ravi Madhavan
Professor of Business Administration

Contact

208 Mervis Hall
rmadhavan@katz.pitt.edu
412-648-1530

Profile

Ravi Madhavan is a Professor of Business Administration and the Alcoa Foundation International Faculty Fellow at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. He also chairs the University of Pittsburgh’s South Asia Faculty Council. After earning his PhD in strategic management at the University of Pittsburgh, Ravi served on the faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign from 1995 to 2001, after which he returned to Pitt as a faculty member. Prior to his PhD, he spent eight years as a manager in the information technology industry, gaining experience in consulting, executive education, and marketing.

Ravi’s intellectual interests focus on how networks drive complex capabilities. His current research flows in two streams. In his journal- focused research, he applies the network perspective to better understand a set of managerially relevant topics – in particular, strategic alliances, Mergers & Acquisitions and Venture Capital as drivers of innovation and competitive advantage in global industries. In a second stream based on over a decade of fieldwork in China, his current overarching interest is in developing a socio- cognitive theory of complex capabilities in systems integration industries (e.g., nuclear power, large commercial aircraft). Here, he employs the dominant logic of networks to better understand the complex capabilities required for success in such managerially “extreme” contexts. Competitive advantage in any field comes from doing difficult things really well. But what does it take to succeed in contexts that are especially challenging: technologically advanced, operationally unforgiving, organizationally elaborate and highly embedded in socio-political and regulatory systems? The nuclear power and commercial aircraft industries represent these features at their fullest: both are systems integration industries that develop products to operate in extreme conditions with catastrophic costs of failure, are multi-technology and multi-actor in scope, and are highly regulated. What do we know about the complex managerial capabilities that underlie competitive advantage in such industries? What unique aspects distinguish these complex capabilities from the capabilities that we observe in other types of industries? How do new entrants, such as China in both these industries, acquire and refine these complex capabilities, and how do incumbents sustain and upgrade them? Ravi employs the dominant logic of networks to address these questions, as crystallized in the image of Alliances, M&A, and Venture Capital as recombination mechanisms underlying the formation of complex capabilities.

Ravi has published papers in premier journals including Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, and Journal of Marketing. His dissertation, “Strategic Flexibility in the Global Steel Industry: The Role of Interfirm Linkages,” was a finalist in the Dissertation Award Competition of the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management. He has received Best Paper Awards from the American Marketing Association, as well as from the Eastern Academy of Management and presented papers at professional conferences and workshops both in the United States and internationally. He has also authored or coauthored several cases, reports, teaching notes, and book chapters.

Among the organizations that have supported Ravi’s research are the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Posco Research Institute, the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, and the Pitt Momentum grants program.

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Research grants totaling over $500,000
  • Bernstein Award for Faculty Teaching Excellence, PittBusiness, 2017-18
  • Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award, Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, multiple years

Selected Professional Service and Activities

  • Fellow, Center for Evidence-Based Management
  • Founding Member, Industry Studies Association
  • Editor, Industry Studies Working Paper Series (2008-2014)
  • Member of the Editorial Board, Journal of Management Studies
  • Member of the Editorial Board, Strategic Organization

Degrees

  • PhD, University of Pittsburgh (1996)
  • MBA, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India (1982)
  • BComm, Calicut University, India (1980)

Recent Publications

“Relational Competition: Interesting Idea, Questionable Construct.” Ao, Nicholson, Blatman, Madhavan & Prescott, 2022. Academy of Management Perspectives, Volume 36(4): 1033-1048

“China-Latin America Links in Advanced Technology Sectors: State Grid Investments and Strategies in Brazil,” Madhavan & Rawski. Forthcoming in China-Latin America and the Caribbean: Infrastructure, Connectivity, and Everyday Life, Ed. Enrique Dussel Peters, Joseph Alter and James Cook. University of Pittsburgh Press

“Dumb Money or Smart Money? Meta-Analytically Unpacking Corporate Venture Capital.” Huang & Madhavan. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2021, Volume 15(3): 403-429

“Assessing the Vulnerability of Megaprojects using Complex Networks.” Guo, Guo, Madhavan, Zhao & Liu. Project Management Journal, 2020, Volume 51(4): 429-439

“Capability Upgrading and Catch-Up in Civil Nuclear Power: The Case of China,” Madhavan, Rawski & Tian. Chapter pp. 419-486 in Policy, Regulation and Innovation in China’s Electricity and Telecom Industries, Ed. Loren Brandt, University of Toronto and Thomas G. Rawski, University of Pittsburgh. Cambridge University Press, 2019

“Chinese Infrastructure Projects in Advanced Industries: The Atucha III Nuclear Power Reactor in Argentina,” Madhavan, Rawski & Tian, 2018. pp. 102–121 in Ed. Enrique Dussel Peters, Ariel Armony & Shoujun Cui, Building Development for A New Era: China’s Infrastructure Projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Asian Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh, and Red Académica de América Latina y el Caribe sobre China.

“Diversity in Alliance Portfolios and Performance Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis,” Lee, Kirkpatrick-Husk & Madhavan. Journal of Management, 2017, Volume 43(5): 1472-1497

“The network perspective of alliances: Taking stock and looking ahead,” Madhavan & Prescott, pp. 179- 186 in Luiz F. Mesquita, Roberto Ragozzino & Jeffrey J. Reuer (Eds.), Collaborative Strategy: Critical Issues for Alliances and Networks, Elgar, 2017

“The Competition-Cooperation Paradox in Inter-Firm Relationships,” Gnyawali, Madhavan, He & Bengtsson. Industrial Marketing Management, February 2016, Volume 53: 7-18

“Evidence based management (EBMgt),” Madhavan & Niranjan, pp. 167-179 in Sanjay Patole (Ed.), Management and Leadership – A Guide for Clinical Professionals, Springer, 2015

“Post-Formation Inter-Partner Equity Transfers in International Joint Ventures: The Role of Experience,” Iriyama & Madhavan. Global Strategy Journal, 2014, Volume 4(4): 331-348

“Steel industry restructuring and location,” Giarratani, Gruver & Madhavan, in Frank Giarratani, Goeffrey Hewings & Philip McCann (Eds.), Handbook of Economic Geography and Industry Studies, Edward Elgar, 2013

“Familiarity and novelty in inter-partner knowledge: Homophily cycles in joint venture networks,” Hsu & Madhavan, pp. 45-73 in T. K. Das (Ed.), Managing Knowledge in Strategic Alliances, IAP, 2013

Center Affiliation

Asian Studies Center, University Center for International Studies

Academic Area

Organizations and Entrepreneurship