C-CUBES Award for Outstanding Research & Impact

Recognizing Excellence in Customer-Based Strategy Research

The Center for Customer-Based Execution and Strategy (C-CUBES) at Rice Business proudly announces the C-CUBES Award for Outstanding Research & Impact, which honors research that exemplifies the Center’s mission: delivering rigorous, actionable insights into customer-based strategy and execution. C-CUBES recognizes published research that significantly advances the understanding and implementation of strategy from a customer-centric perspective.

2025 Award Winner

“Stakeholder Engagement Strategies, National Institutions, and Firm Performance: A Configurational Perspective” by Kamini Gupta, Donal Crilly, and Thomas Greckhamer published in Strategic Management Journal. 

This groundbreaking paper explores how stakeholder engagement and national institutions work together to shape firm performance. Its configurational approach aligns with C-CUBES’s mission to promote strategy that is both research-based and practical.

Kamini Gupta

Kamini Gupta

Lecturer in International Business & Comparative Management (ICBM), King’s College London
Donal Crilly

Donal Crilly

Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship; Chair, Strategy and Entrepreneurship Faculty, London Business School
Eleazar Gavia

Thomas Greckhamer

William W. Rucks IV Endowed Chair and Professor of Management, Louisiana State University

Honorable Mentions

  • “Organized Complexity of Digital Business Strategy: A Configurational Perspective” by YoungKi Park and Sunil Mithas, published in MIS Quarterly
  • “Dealing with Revered Past: Historical Identity Statements and Strategic Change in Japanese Family Firms” by Innan Sasaki, Josip Kotlar, Davide Ravasi and Eero Vaara, published in Strategic Management Journal
  • “Collaborative Market Driving: How Peer Firms Can Develop Markets Through Collective Action” by Andre F. Maciel and Eileen Fischer, published in the Journal of Marketing

These awards reflect the breadth and depth of scholarship advancing customer-based strategy, across disciplines and industries.


Selection Committee

The 2025 award was determined by an interdisciplinary committee of experts in finance, marketing and strategic management:
 

Alessandro Piazza

Alessandro Piazza

Associate Professor of Strategic Management
Ph.D. Area Advisor - Strategic Management
Ruud Wetzels, Lecturer in Marketing, The University of Sydney Business School

Ruud Wetzels

Lecturer in Marketing, The University of Sydney Business School