Former PhD student at UCL School of Management, Joe Ploog, has won the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Strategic Management Division at the Academy of Management’s Annual Meeting in Copenhagen.

Joe, who completed his PhD under the supervision of Associate Professor Joost Rietveld, was nominated for Best Dissertation in two of the Academy’s major divisions: Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) and Strategic Management (STR). 

His dissertation, “Three Essays on Heterogeneous Network Effects: Implications for Firms and Users”, challenges the assumption that network effects are uniformly beneficial. Across three essays, he examines how governance, product design and market context influence the strategic value of network effects, offering fresh insights into strategy, innovation diffusion and freemium business models.

Now an Assistant Professor of Strategy at IE University in Madrid, Joe continues to build on his doctoral research, which has already attracted attention from leading scholars in the field with some of his dissertation chapters recently published in top management journals such as the Strategic Management Journal and the Academy of Management Journal.

School of Management Associate Professor, Joost Rietveld congratulated his former supervisee: 

“This is a highly prestigious award that speaks to the quality of Joe’s research on network effects and it also reflects positively on the quality of our School’s PhD programme.”

The STR division received 14 submissions this year, with six finalists selected through a rigorous review process led by the STR Research Committee. Joe’s success places him among a distinguished group of emerging scholars in strategic management.

The Academy of Management is a global association for management and organisation scholars, with members spanning over 120 countries. 

The Strategic Management Division (STR) supports the development and dissemination of knowledge relevant to organisational strategy and the effective teaching of strategic management.