Michael Lenox

Michael Lenox

University Professor
Tayloe Murphy Professor of Business Administration

Office

FOB 237

Areas of Expertise

Business Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Digital Transformation, Business & Sustainability

Education: B.S., M.S., University of Virginia; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Professor Lenox, is University Professor and Tayloe Murphy Professorship in Business Administration. He also holds an appointment as a Professor of Public Policy (by courtesy) at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He teaches the core MBA strategy course and an MBA elective on Strategy in the Digital Age, among other offerings. He serves as a Special Advisor to the Dean leading special projects.  In 2023, he was asked by UVA’s President to serve as the inaugural Donna & Richard Tadler University Chair of Entrepreneurship and to lead a new Pan-University Entrepreneurship Initiative as a Special Advisor to the Provost. In addition, he is a Senior Faculty Fellow for the UVA Miller Center where he is an Academic Director for the Program on Democracy and Capitalism. From 2016 to 2023, he served as the Senior Associate Dean and Chief Strategy Officer for the Darden School. From 2008 to 2016, he served as Associate Dean of Innovation Programs and Academic Director of Darden's Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He helped found and served as the inaugural president of the multiple-university Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability. 

Prior to joining Darden in 2008, Professor Lenox was a tenured professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, where he served as the area coordinator for Fuqua's Strategy Area and the faculty director and founder of Duke's Corporate Sustainability Initiative. He received his Ph.D. in Technology Management and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999 and the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Science in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. Professor Lenox has served as an assistant professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and as a visiting professor at Stanford University, Harvard University, Oxford University and IMD.

Professor Lenox's research has appeared in over thirty refereed academic publications and has been cited in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, the Financial Times and The Economist. He has published five books including, “Strategy in the Digital Age” (2023), "The Decarbonization Imperative" (2021), and "Can Business Save the Earth" (2018) all from Stanford University Press, and “The Strategist’s Toolkit” (2013) from Darden Business Publishing.  In 2009, he was recognized as a Faculty Pioneer by the Aspen Institute and as the top strategy professor under 40 by the Strategic Management Society. In 2011, he was named one of the top 40 business professors under 40 by Poets & Quants. 

Professor Lenox's primary expertise is in the domain of technology strategy and policy. He is broadly interested in the role of innovation and entrepreneurship for economic growth and firm competitive success. In particular, he explores the business strategy and public policy drivers of the direction of innovative activity and technology transitions such as those being driven by digital transformation and decarbonization.  Professor Lenox has a long-standing interest in the interface between business strategy and public policy as it relates to the natural environment. 

Michael Lenox's Ideas to Action Posts

Good Disruption: Social Media

Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Good Disruption: AI Companions

Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Selected Publications

York, Jeff, Sid Vedula, & Michael Lenox. 2018. "It's Not Easy Building Green: The Intersection of Private and Public Institutions in the Adoption of Voluntary Certificiation Standards." Academy of Management Journal. 61(8): 1492-1523.

Ahuja, Gautam, Laurence Capron, Michael Lenox, & Dennis Yao. 2018. "Strategy and the Institutional Envelope." Strategy Science. 3(2): 2-10.

Eesley, Chuck, Katy DeCelles, & Michael Lenox. 2016. "Through the Mud or in the Boardroom: A Broad Spectrum Approach for Examining Activist Types and Their Strategies in Targeting Firms for Social Change." Strategic Management Journal. 37(12): 2425-2440.

York, Jeff & Michael Lenox. 2014. "Exploring the Socio-Cultural Drivers of De Novo versus De Alio Entry in Emerging Industries." Strategic Management Journal. 35(13): 1930-1951.

Hall, Jeremy, Greg Daneke, & Michael Lenox. 2010. "Sustainable Development and Entrepreneurship: Past Contributions and Future Directions." Journal of Business Venturing. 25(5): 439-448.

Lenox, Michael Scott Rockart & Arie Lewin. 2007. "Interdependency, Competition, and Industry Dynamics." Management Science, 53(4): 599-615.

Dushnitsky, Gary & Michael Lenox. 2005. "When Do Firms Undertake R&D by Investing in New Ventures?" Strategic Management Journal. 26(10) 947-965.

King, Andrew & Michael Lenox. 2002. "Exploring the Locus o Profitable Pollution Reduction." Management Science. 48(2): 289-299.

King, Andrew & Michael Lenox. 2000. "Industry Self-Regulation Without Sanctions: The Chemical Industry's Responsible Care Program." Academy of Management Journal. 43(4): 698-716.

 

Selected Books

Lenox, Michael, 2023. Strategy in the Digital Age: Mastering Digital Transformation. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto. Forthcoming.  

Lenox, Michael & Becky Duff. 2021. The Decarbonization Imperative: Transforming the Global Economy by 2050. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto.

Lenox, Michael & Ronnie Chatterji. 2018. Can Business Save the Earth? Innovating Our Way to Sustainability. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto.

De Figueiredo, John, Michael Lenox, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, and Rick Vanden Bergh (co-editors). 2016. Strategy Beyond Markets. Advances in Strategic Management, Volume 34. Emerald Publishing, London.

Lenox, Michael and Jared Harris. 2013. The Strategist's Toolkit. Darden Business Publishing, Charlottesville.

 

Case Studies

Advancing knowledge through research that shapes business, Darden professors are recognized thought leaders in their fields. They are not only master case method teachers, they also author many of the cases used in Darden classrooms and around the world.

Michael Lenox's cases are available in the Darden Business Publishing website.