Personal profile

Personal Statement

Harry Sminia is professor of strategic management.

Before joining Strathclyde in 2013, Harry held positions at the University of Groningen, the Vrije Universteit, Amsterdam and the University of Sheffield.

His research interests are in the area of processes of strategy formation, strategic change, and competitive positioning. He is eclectic in his theoretical tastes, as long as it helps to elucidate ‘how’ questions. Management reality is processual. It is not about the state of things and providing explanations why these are correlated with each other. It is about how things come into being, change or continue to be, and sometimes disappear again. It is about understanding how things happen and can be made to happen.

Harry has done research on how a top management team activity actually affects the strategic direction of a firm, how organizations change, how environments develop, but also how crucial things remain unaltered over a period of time despite a strong impetus for change. He currently focuses on high value manufacturing. This is a particularly interesting problem area, not only because of its prominence in Scotland’s and the UK’s economic and innovation policy, but also because it is at the crossroads of strategy, innovation, and operations. He is also interested in process research methods and methodology.

To do and to teach strategy, Harry believes there is nothing so practical as a good theory (to paraphrase Kurt Lewin). Furthermore, he beliefs that learning is the most effective if you have to do what you are being taught. For those reasons he always tries to involve students in activities in which they have to use strategy theories to experience their practicality.

Harry is happy to supervise PhD students who – like him – are interested in finding out about 'how' questions in the broad area of strategic management. Yet he is particularly interested in projects that are at the crossroads of strategy, innovation, and manufacturing.

Expertise & Capabilities

  • Strategy process
  • Realising strategy
  • Strategic management capability
  • High value manufacturing
  • Process research

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
  • SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

Education/Academic qualification

Doctor of Business Administration, Turning the Wheels of Change: The Top Management Contribution to the Process of Strategy Formation, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Award Date: 17 Nov 1994

Master of Social Science, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden

Award Date: 15 Aug 1988

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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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