Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President

Faculty Spotlight

Mike Barnett

College of Business, Management & Organization Department

Undergraduate Degree

Business Administration, University of Missouri (Columbia)

Graduate Degree

MBA, Webster University (St. Louis)

Doctoral Degree

Ph.D., Strategic Management, New York University

Previous Post(s)

This is my first academic post. Before coming to Tampa, I spent 6 years in the doctoral program at NYU. Prior to NYU, I was an officer in the US Air Force. No, I didn’t fly, though I did have a swivel chair at my desk that could pull a few G’s if I spun real fast.

Selected Published Works

Five most recent published works:
A bit of nighttime reading to aid the sleep challenged:

• M. L. Barnett & A. King. Good fences make good neighbors: A longitudinal analysis of an industry self-regulatory institution. Academy of Management Journal (forthcoming).
• W. H. Starbuck, M. L. Barnett & P. Baumard. 2008. Payoffs and pitfalls of strategic learning. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (forthcoming).
• M. L. Barnett. 2008. An attention-based view of real options reasoning. Academy of Management Review, 33(3): forthcoming.
• M. L. Barnett & A. J. Hoffman. 2008. Beyond corporate reputation: Managing reputational interdependence. Corporate Reputation Review, 11(1): forthcoming.
• M. L. Barnett. 2007. Stakeholder influence capacity and the variability of financial returns to corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 32(3): 794-816.

Area of Specialization / Research

The beauty of academia is that so long as I can make a contribution (that is, publish), I’m free to tackle any subject that interests me. As a result, my research topics vary. But broadly, I’m interested in why some firms do “good” things (i.e., contribute to social and environmental betterment), or conversely, why some firms avoid doing “bad” things (i.e., polluting, using child labor, etc.), how well external governance systems (i.e., markets, trade associations, activist groups, and consumers) encourage the good and discourage the bad, and how well we all can even distinguish the good from the bad.

Current Course Offerings

• GEB 4890 : Strategic Management & Decision-making

How and when did you first become interested in your field of study?

Many of the concepts in my field of study, strategy, come from the military. I completed my MBA studies at night, while managing hundreds of military personnel during the day as an executive officer in the Air Force. I could try out some of the ideas I learned at night, at my job during the day. Moreover, I could absorb more of the ideas from the classroom, since they were more than just abstract ideas to me.

What made you decide to pursue a career in higher education?

Probably overconfidence. I did very well in my MBA studies and I think I did pretty well managing military personnel. I felt I could make the leap into management academia pretty easily. Thankfully I had no idea what I was in for, else I probably would’ve decided against it. I’m now very glad I made the leap, but anyone considering it should realize that the worlds of business practice and business academia are very different. We’re working on building better linkages between the two, but regardless of our success at bridge building, management PhD’s are not turbo-charged MBA’s; academia is an entirely different thing, with a wholly different set of challenges and rewards. Moreover, the process of getting a PhD is long, arduous, and filled with uncertainty . . . and let’s not even get into the hiring and tenure processes! Nonetheless, if you do jump successfully through all these flaming hoops, you certainly can’t beat academia for its freedom to work on what interests you and the ability to control your own schedule. As the saying goes, you get to choose whichever 70 hours you want to work each week.

Why did you choose to be a part of the academic community at USF?

I think it offers a comfortable middle ground between the sometimes crushing pressures on junior faculty at the most elite universities and the resource constraints of lower-status universities. I’ve found that I have resources ample to allow me to accomplish my research goals and the freedom to carry out these projects without the fear that I will be chastised if each and every project doesn’t quickly work out. Don’t get me wrong – the pressure to perform at elite levels is still here, but it’s not crushing, and it’s mostly internal. I think I work better, and I’m more productive, in this type of an environment.

What do you enjoy about teaching the students of USF?

I'm a first generation college student, and so I appreciated the opportunity to attend college. I think USF has many students who also appreciate the opportunity to be here. That said, most of the students in my class are graduating seniors, who are often working full time, may have family obligations, and might even dare to try to have some sort of social life outside the classroom. My students will tell you that I don’t allow “senioritis” as an excuse. I strongly encourage my students to make a full investment – not just money, but also time – in their education now, knowing that it will pay off later. You can’t just check a bunch of boxes and graduate; you really need to learn something, and to do that you need to set aside the time and energy, though painful it may be. Look, I lived in NYC for 6 years on $20k or less in order to get the chance (with no guarantee!) to earn my PhD. I knew the sacrifice would pay off if I fully invested. I tell my students that if they just shuffle their way through the system, finding the path of least resistance toward their degree, the credential might get their feet in the door, but once they’re called on to use the knowledge that the credential represents, and they can’t, then that door is going to slam shut.

What do you like about the university community?

I like the idea of being at a university on the rise. It’s going to be a longer, harder slog for USF than I had anticipated, in light of budget shortfalls. But I have seen some clear signs of progress, and I’m hopeful that progress will continue. At a place like USF, it’s also a benefit that I don’t have to sit on the sidelines. Unlike at more established universities, where assistant professors are to be seen and not heard, here I have an active voice and can help to shape the university.