Kannan Ramaswamy, PhD

Kannan Ramaswamy is the William D. Hacker Chair Professor of Management in global business at Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is world-renowned for his expertise on global strategy, emerging markets – including India and South Asia, the energy sector, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and global management. A native of India who is now a U.S. citizen, Ramaswamy has consulted for several U.S. and European multinationals. He is an award-winning executive educator whose teaching and research interests span emerging market multinationals, business groups and corporate diversification, mergers and acquisitions, privatization, and joint ventures.

In addition to teaching in Thunderbird’s full-time programs, Ramaswamy teaches extensively in the school’s executive education programs. He has participated in programs with multinational companies including American Express, EDS Corp. (now part of Hewlett-Packard Co.), Dow Chemical, General Motors, Mattel, Brasil Telecom, Delta Air Lines, Astellas Pharmaceutical (Japan), LG Electronics (Korea), Ericsson, Motorola, ExxonMobil, Baker Hughes, ONGC (India), Integra (Russia), and SK Corp. (Korea). Ramaswamy also directs several Thunderbird programs including the program on Globalization: Merging Strategy with Action that deals with global strategy issues, and the Advanced Management Program for Oil and Gas Industry Executives dealing with contemporary issues in oil and gas.

Ramaswamy’s research – which has appeared in distinguished journals including Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Academy of Management Journal, Management International Review, Journal of Management and Journal of Business Research – focuses on a broad range of topics: challenges facing emerging market multinationals, the performance impact of corporate diversification; competitive consequences of privatization; the role of strategic fit in mergers and acquisitions; and equity vs. operational-control issues in joint ventures. Much of his recent research in these areas has centered on emerging markets. Ramaswamy’s work has been featured among the best papers at these prestigious national meetings eight times; his work was chosen “best paper” twice at the Academy of Management national meetings. As a faculty member at the academic institutions he has served, Ramaswamy has won numerous awards for research excellence.

A member of the Board of Reviewers of the Journal of International Business Studies and the editorial board of the Journal of International Management, and the Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Dr. Ramaswamy has also served as guest editor of a special issue of the Journal of Operations Management on “knowledge offshoring.” With Thunderbird professor Andrew Inkpen, Ramaswamy co-authored the book Global Strategy: Creating and Sustaining Advantage across Borders published by the Oxford University Press. 

Education
Ph.D. Strategic Management, Virginia Tech
M.B.A. University of Madras, India
B.S. Physics, University of Madras, India