Robert A. Fox Leadership International Faculty Director and Professor of Practice in Strategy and Innovation, Partnership for Innovation, Cross-Sector Collaboration, Leadership, and Organization; Senior Fellow, Mack Institute for Innovation Management, Wharton School
Dr. Charlotte Ren is Robert A. Fox Leadership International Faculty Director and Professor of Practice in Strategy and Innovation at Partnership for Innovation, Cross-Sector Collaboration, Leadership, and Organization (PICCLO), School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania. She is also Senior Fellow at Wharton’s Mack Institute for Innovation Management. Previously she was on the faculty at Purdue University (Assistant Professor of Strategic Management, 2005-2012), University of Pennsylvania (Visiting Assistant Professor of Strategic Management, 2013-2016), and Temple University (Associate Professor of Strategic Management, 2016-2021). Dr. Ren holds a PhD in Management and an MA in Economics from UCLA, as well as a bachelor’s degree in International Politics and a minor degree in Law from Peking University (China).
Dr. Ren’s research interests focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, and competitive strategy. She examines how organizations adjust innovation strategy and manage corporate entrepreneurial processes to improve their technological competence and overall performance. She also investigates how firms compete along non-price dimensions including product variety, geographic location, and service. For example, her research shows that when retail stores offer “price match guarantees” that prevent them from turning to price reductions to attract consumers, they choose to compete or coordinate in product variety depending on whether their rivals are co-located or not. Dr. Ren conducts research on several industries including general retail, consumer electronics retail, aircraft manufacturing, hard disk drives, computer workstations, machine tools, movies, and charter schools.
Dr. Ren’s work has been published in top academic journals in the field of management such as Management Science, Journal of Management, Journal of Business Ethics, and Strategic Management Journal. Her research won the Inaugural IDEA Award (Research Promise) in 2008 from the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management, the largest academic community of management scholars with over 18,000 members from nearly 120 countries. She served as a Representative-at-Large for two leading academic communities of management scholars, the Academy of Management (Entrepreneurship Division, 2018-2021) and the Strategic Management Society (Competitive Strategy Interest Group, 2020-2022).
Dr. Ren has taught courses at the undergraduate, MPA, MBA, and PhD levels on strategy, innovation management, entrepreneurship, and cross-sector collaboration. She received numerous teaching awards including the 2017 Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award from the Academy of Management’s Entrepreneurship Division and the 2019 Faculty of the Year Award (full-time MBA program) from Temple’s Fox School of Business.
A social entrepreneur at heart, Dr. Ren designed, launched, and served as the founding faculty director (2013-2016) of the Penn Restorative Entrepreneurship Program, an innovative initiative geared towards helping formerly incarcerated individuals to become entrepreneurs, participate in civic engagement, and advocate for social justice. The program has garnered wide press attention and is featured in a forthcoming PBS documentary. For this work, Dr. Ren received the Education Leadership Award from Rescue Mission of Trenton. More information about Dr. Ren’s research, teaching, and service can be found on her professional website, www.charlotteren.net.
Research Areas
Competitive Strategy, Innovation Management, Corporate Entrepreneurship, Organizational Learning
