Ryan L. Raffaelli

Ryan L. Raffaelli

Marvin Bower Associate Professor

Marvin Bower Associate Professor

Ryan Raffaelli is the Marvin Bower Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He created and teaches the MBA course "Leadership: Execution and Action Planning" (LEAP) and serves on the faculty of several executive education programs, including Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation and Leading Change and Organizational Renewal. 

Professor Raffaelli's research focuses on organizational reinvention and leading change. His work introduces the concept of "technology reemergence," a process whereby organizations and industries faced with technological change reinvent themselves. He also studies how leaders infuse values and meaning into institutions during periods of instability. Professor Raffaelli’s research has been published in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, the Strategic Management Journal, the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Annals, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, as well as in a number of edited handbooks on innovation and management. He serves on the editorial board of Administrative Science Quarterly and is a faculty associate at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. His work has been covered by such media as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Washington Post, NPR, Fortune, CNBC, Fast Company, and Rolling Stone.

Organizational Behavior
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Ryan L. Raffaelli
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Publications Research Summary Awards & Honors
Overview
Professor Raffaelli's research focuses on the concept of reinvention. This work examines how organizations and leaders manage processes of innovation adoption, institutional change, and cognitive framing.
Reinvention and "Technology Reemergence"

The prevailing view of industry and technology evolution has emphasized displacement, on the assumption that old technologies and organizational forms will disappear when newer ones arrive. Professor Raffaelli's research challenges this view by illuminating how and when it may be possible for incumbent firms in mature industries to reinvent themselves. This work introduces the notion of "technology reemergence," a process whereby organizations and industries successfully respond to new technologies or business models that threaten to render them obsolete. Recently, Professor Raffaelli has examined these dynamics in the context of the Swiss mechanical watch industry and the US independent bookselling sector. 

Keywords: Turnarounds; Innovation And Management; Technology Evolution; Change Management; Disruption; Transformation; Transition
Reinvention and “Frame Flexibility”

Adopting a radical innovation creates pressure for leaders to reframe their mental models while they also sustain their organization's existing capabilities and product category variants. Yet at key junctures in a product class and during technological change, a concrete definition of the firm’s innovation boundaries and identity can hold a firm hostage to its past.

Professor Raffaelli has theorized that successful innovation adoption is in part due to the top management team’s "frame flexibility", i.e., the capability to cognitively expand an innovation’s categorical boundaries and to cast the innovation as emotionally-resonant with the organization’s identity, competencies, and competitive boundaries. A flexible cognitive frame – coupled with emotional framing – helps leaders and organization members become emotionally engaged in transformation efforts and, in turn, adopt multiple radical innovations over time. When asked to innovate, perhaps there is no more important role for leaders than to expand their cognitive frame and to infuse these expanded frames with emotion. 

Keywords: Institutional Change; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Diffusion Processes; Technology Adoption; Cognition and Thinking; Identity; Emotions
Leadership & Values in Times of Instability
Professor Raffaelli investigates the role of leaders within organizations and across industries during periods of upheaval and ambiguity. His work indicates the key role leaders play in driving and infusing values. He also connects leadership to meaning-making, theorizing about the underlying processes and mechanisms that allow leaders to foster the continuance, character, and collective nature of values in organizations. His research finds that such leadership is essential in times of instability.
Keywords: Leadership; Values And Beliefs; Mission and Purpose

Ryan Raffaelli is the Marvin Bower Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He created and teaches the MBA course "Leadership: Execution and Action Planning" (LEAP) and serves on the faculty of several executive education programs, including Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation and Leading Change and Organizational Renewal. 

Professor Raffaelli's research focuses on organizational reinvention and leading change. His work introduces the concept of "technology reemergence," a process whereby organizations and industries faced with technological change reinvent themselves. He also studies how leaders infuse values and meaning into institutions during periods of instability. Professor Raffaelli’s research has been published in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, the Strategic Management Journal, the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Annals, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, as well as in a number of edited handbooks on innovation and management. He serves on the editorial board of Administrative Science Quarterly and is a faculty associate at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. His work has been covered by such media as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Washington Post, NPR, Fortune, CNBC, Fast Company, and Rolling Stone.

Professor Raffaelli's research has received several awards, including the inaugural "Best Research Methods Paper" from the Strategic Management Society, and "Best Paper" and "Giarratani Rising Star" distinctions from the Industry Studies Association. His doctoral thesis won multiple "Best Dissertation" awards from the academic community, including the Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) Division of the Academy of Management, the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), and the INFORMS Technology Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship Division. In recognition of his research at the intersection of leadership, strategy, and technology studies, he was awared the Richard Hodgson Fellowship at Harvard Business School.

Professor Raffaelli earned his undergraduate degree in business administration from Georgetown University and studied corporate strategy at Oxford University. He holds master’s degrees in business and government relations (MPP) and in organizational ethics (MTS) from Harvard University. He received a PhD in management and an MS in organization studies from Boston College.  

Before his academic career, Professor Raffaelli was an executive in Accenture’s strategy management consulting practice, advising Fortune 500 firms, global nonprofits, and various U.S. government agencies. He also served briefly as a White House liaison to NASA.

Journal Articles
Working Papers
Book Chapters
Cases and Teaching Materials
Research Summary
Overview
Professor Raffaelli's research focuses on the concept of reinvention. This work examines how organizations and leaders manage processes of innovation adoption, institutional change, and cognitive framing.
Reinvention and "Technology Reemergence"

The prevailing view of industry and technology evolution has emphasized displacement, on the assumption that old technologies and organizational forms will disappear when newer ones arrive. Professor Raffaelli's research challenges this view by illuminating how and when it may be possible for incumbent firms in mature industries to reinvent themselves. This work introduces the notion of "technology reemergence," a process whereby organizations and industries successfully respond to new technologies or business models that threaten to render them obsolete. Recently, Professor Raffaelli has examined these dynamics in the context of the Swiss mechanical watch industry and the US independent bookselling sector. 

Keywords: Turnarounds; Innovation And Management; Technology Evolution; Change Management; Disruption; Transformation; Transition
Reinvention and “Frame Flexibility”

Adopting a radical innovation creates pressure for leaders to reframe their mental models while they also sustain their organization's existing capabilities and product category variants. Yet at key junctures in a product class and during technological change, a concrete definition of the firm’s innovation boundaries and identity can hold a firm hostage to its past.

Professor Raffaelli has theorized that successful innovation adoption is in part due to the top management team’s "frame flexibility", i.e., the capability to cognitively expand an innovation’s categorical boundaries and to cast the innovation as emotionally-resonant with the organization’s identity, competencies, and competitive boundaries. A flexible cognitive frame – coupled with emotional framing – helps leaders and organization members become emotionally engaged in transformation efforts and, in turn, adopt multiple radical innovations over time. When asked to innovate, perhaps there is no more important role for leaders than to expand their cognitive frame and to infuse these expanded frames with emotion. 

Keywords: Institutional Change; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Diffusion Processes; Technology Adoption; Cognition and Thinking; Identity; Emotions
Leadership & Values in Times of Instability
Professor Raffaelli investigates the role of leaders within organizations and across industries during periods of upheaval and ambiguity. His work indicates the key role leaders play in driving and infusing values. He also connects leadership to meaning-making, theorizing about the underlying processes and mechanisms that allow leaders to foster the continuance, character, and collective nature of values in organizations. His research finds that such leadership is essential in times of instability.
Keywords: Leadership; Values And Beliefs; Mission and Purpose
Awards & Honors
Runner-up for the 2024 Best Entrepreneurship Paper Award from the Academy of Management, Organization and Management Theory Division, with Ryann Noe.
Runner-up for the 2024 Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Student Mentoring.
Runner-up for the 2022 Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Student Mentoring.
"Frame Flexibility: The Role of Cognitive and Emotional Framing in Innovation Adoption by Incumbent Firms" with Mary Ann Glynn and Michael Tushman (July 2019) received a 2020 Strategic Management Journal Certificate of Achievement which is given for SMJ articles in the top ten percent of downloads in the year since published.
Winner of the 2019 Strategic Management Society (SMS) Annual Conference Best Research Methods Paper Award for “Cognitive Framing and Capability Development at the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” with Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati, and Jan Rivkin.
Finalist for the 2019 Strategic Management Society (SMS) Annual Conference Best Paper Award for “Cognitive Framing and Capability Development at the Federal Bureau of Investigation” with Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati, and Jan Rivkin.
Co-Runner Up for the 2019 Junior Faculty Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Student Mentoring.
Winner of the 2019 Bronze Telly Award in the Non-Broadcast—General Education category for "The Reinvention of Kodak (A)" with Dave Habeeb and Ruth Page (HBS Multimedia/Video Case 421-704).
Awarded the 2018 Best Paper in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Industry Studies Association Annual Conference for “The Use of History as a Strategic Resource: Institutional Resilience and the Complementarity of Entrepreneurship and Guardianship in Swiss Watchmaking” (HBS Working Paper 16-003) with Richard DeJordy.
Recipient of a 2015 Richard Hodgson Fellowship from Harvard Business School.
Winner of the 2015 Best Symposium Award from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management for "What does Imprinting Mean? New Perspectives on Imprint Formation and Persistence Processes."
Received the 2015 Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management.
Winner of the 2014 Giarratani Rising Star Award for Best Paper from the Industry Studies Association for “Mechanisms of Technology Re-Emergence and Identity Change in a Mature Industry: Swiss Watchmaking, 1970-2008” (HBS Working Paper 14-048, 2013).
Winner of the 2014 Best Dissertation Award from the Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) Division of the Academy of Management.
Winner of the 2014 Grigor McClelland Doctoral Dissertation Award from the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), the Journal of Management Studies (JMS), and the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS).
Winner of the 2014 INFORMS Best Dissertation Award, Technology, Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship Section.
Received the 2013 Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management.
Received the 2013 Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Managerial and Organizational Cognition Division of the Academy of Management.
Selected as a finalist for the 2012 INFORMS/Organization Science Dissertation Proposal Competition.
Selected as a finalist for the 2012 Best Symposium Award for “Fields of Gold: Mining the Origins, Definitions, and Assumptions Attending Institutional Fields” from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management.
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