Faculty and Research

Cynthia A. Montgomery received her Ph.D. in Industrial Administration from Purdue University. Her dissertation research on corporate diversification received the General Electric Award for Outstanding Research in Strategic Management. Professor Montgomery's first faculty position was at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Michigan. She moved to the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern where she was recognized with its Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in 1988. In 1989 she joined the faculty at the Harvard Business School. She currently teaches in several executive education programs.

Professor Montgomery's research interests center on corporate governance and corporate strategy. Of particular interest are issues relating to boards of directors,  the creation of value across multiple lines of business, and the role leaders play in developing and implementing strategy.

Professor Montgomery is the co-author (with David J. Collis) of Corporate Strategy: Resources and the Scope of the Firm, and the editor of Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm, and Strategy: Seeking and Securing Competitive Advantage (with Michael E. Porter). Montgomery has published in The Strategic Management Journal, The Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, The Journal of Business, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, The American Economic Review, The Rand Journal of Economics, Harvard Business Review, and others. She is on the Board of Directors of Harvard Business Publishing, McLean Hospital, Newell Rubbermaid Inc. and several BlackRock mutual funds.