Academics

Welcome

Welcome to management studies at Keble. I am senior research fellow and tutor in Management and Professor of Strategy and Decision Making at the Said Business School.

Research Interests

My research focuses on learning, decision making, and strategy. Part of my work examines the difficulties of learning about the determinants of performance in competitive environments. I have explored how randomness and sample biases can lead to flawed assessments of the determinants of performance and industry evolution. Another set of papers has examined how the process of learning from experience can systematically bias the sample of information and experiences individuals and firms have access to. I have illustrated how learning from such biased samples can generate in-group bias, discrimination, risk aversion, and conformity.

Recent Publications

• Le Mens, G. and Denrell, J., 'Rational Learning and Information Sampling: On the ‘Naivety’ Assumption in Sampling Explanations of Judgment Biases' in Psychological Review, 118 (2011), 379-392
• Denrell, J. and G. Le Mens, 'Seeking Positive Experiences Can Produce Illusory Correlations' in Cognition, 119 (2011), 313-324
• Denrell, J., C. Fang. and Z. Zhao, 'Inferring Superior Capabilities from Sustained Superior Performance: A Bayesian Analysis' in Strategic Management Journal, Forthcoming (2011)
• Denrell, J. and C. Fang , 'Predicting the Next Big Thing: Success as a Signal of Poor Judgment' in Management Science, 56 (2010), 1653-1667
• Denrell, J. and Z. Shapira, 'Performance Sampling and Bimodal Duration Dependence' in Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 33 (2009), 66-91
• Denrell, J., 'Indirect Social Influence.' in Science, 321 (2008), 47-48
• Denrell, J. and B. Kovacs, 'Selective Sampling of Empirical Settings in Organizational Studies' in Administrative Science Quarterly, 53 (2008), 109-144
• Denrell, J. & G. Le Mens, 'Interdependent Sampling and Social Influence' in Psychological Review, 114 (2) (2007), 398-422
• Denrell, J., 'Adaptive Learning and Risk Taking' in Psychological Review, 114 (1) (2007), 177-187

Academic Biography

• Assistant to Associate Professor, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University (2003 - 2009)
• Assistant Professor, Institute of International Business, Stockholm School of Economics (1998 - 2003)
• PhD, Stockholm School of Economics (1993 - 1998)