Charles Williams

Associate Professor
Knowledge groupStrategy and Operations
Research domainsCorporate Strategy
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Frederick Charles Williams

Biography

Charles Williams is Associate Professor of Corporate Strategy at Bocconi University and SDA Bocconi School of Management.

He has a strong interest in how people, structure, and experience affect the evolution of firms. He has studied how firms adapt their knowledge while expanding abroad, how executive movement through firms affects the likelihood of entering and exiting markets, and how entrepreneurial firms face the challenges of growth. 

His research has been published in Management Science and Strategic Management Journal, and he has served on the editorial boards of Strategic Management Journal and Organization Science. 

He teaches strategy and entrepreneurship at Bocconi and previously taught at University of Illinois and Duke University. Before earning his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan he worked in journalism and market research.

 

Recent Publications

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  • 2022
    How Does Firm Scope Depend on Customer Switching Costs? Evidence from Mobile Telecommunications Markets
    ABOLFATHI, N., S. SANTAMARIA, C. WILLIAMS, "How Does Firm Scope Depend on Customer Switching Costs? Evidence from Mobile Telecommunications Markets", Management Science, 2022, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 316-332
  • 2017
    Rookies and seasoned recruits: How experience in different levels, firms, and industries shapes strategic renewal in top management
    WILLIAMS, C., P.-L. CHEN, R. AGARWAL, "Rookies and seasoned recruits: How experience in different levels, firms, and industries shapes strategic renewal in top management", Strategic Management Journal, 2017, vol. 38, no. 7, pp. 1391-1415
  • 2012
    Growing pains: the effect of pre-entry experience on impediments to growth
    CHEN, P., C. WILLIAMS, R. AGARWAL, "Growing pains: the effect of pre-entry experience on impediments to growth", Strategic Management Journal, 2012, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 252-276
  • 2012
    Structural knowledge: how executive experience with structural composition affects intrafirm mobility and structural change
    KARIM, S., C. WILLIAMS, "Structural knowledge: how executive experience with structural composition affects intrafirm mobility and structural change", Strategic Management Journal, 2012, vol. 33, no. 6, pp. 681-709
  • 2008
    Comparing evolutionary and contingency theory approaches to organizational structure
    WILLIAMS, C., "Comparing evolutionary and contingency theory approaches to organizational structure" in Designing Organizations: 21st Century Approaches., Richard M. Burton, Bo Eriksen, Dorthe Døjbak Håkonsson, Thorbjørn Knudsen, Charles C. Snow (Eds.), Springer, pp. 41-56, 2008
  • 2007
    Transfer in context: replication and adaptation in knowledge transfer relationships
    WILLIAMS, C., "Transfer in context: replication and adaptation in knowledge transfer relationships", Strategic Management Journal, 2007, vol. 28, no. 9, pp. 867-889

Grants & Honors

  • Excellence in Research Award, Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, 2022

  • F. Gluek Best Paper Award, assigned by the Strategic Management Division, Academy of Management, 2020