California Management Review (CMR), the Haas School's peer-reviewed business journal, has awarded its annual Accenture Award to two Harvard professors and one professor from Stanford who co-authored an article about how organizations survive over long periods of time.
The co-authors of the winning article, "Organizational Ambidexterity: IBM and Emerging Business Opportunities," in the summer 2009 issue of CMR are Charles A. O'Reilly III of the Stanford Graduate School of Business; J. Bruce Harreld, who joined Harvard Business School after retiring from IBM in 2008; and Michael L. Tushman of Harvard Business School.
The Accenture Award is given each year to the author (or authors) of the article published in the preceding volume of CMR that made the most important contribution to improving the practice of management. The award is chosen by a panel of senior executives and carries a cash prize of $2,500.
Drawing on recent advances in evolutionary theory, the winning article illustrates how multi-level selection processes help organizations adapt in the face of technological and market changes. This process, combined with organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities, may help how organizations survive over long time periods, the authors write, exploring IBM as an example.