TEPPO FELIN

Twitter @teppofelin

curriculum vitae [pdf]

RESEARCH INTERESTS

cognition, decision making, rationality, causal reasoning, theory-based view, cognitive systems, economics, organization design, strategy


INTERDISCIPLINARY 

COLLABORATIONS

Caryn Devins 

law [html]


George F.R. Ellis

mathematics, physics [html]


Stuart Kauffman 

evolutionary biology [html]


Jan Koenderink 

vision, perception [html]


Joachim Krueger 

cognition, psychology [html]


Denis Noble 

biology [html]


APPOINTMENTS

2021 - present, Douglas D Anderson Endowed Professor, Huntsman School, USU 


2013 - 2021, Professor of Strategy, University of Oxford


2021 - present, Founding Director, Institute for Interdisciplinary Study


2015 - 2016, Academic Area Head (for Strategy, OT, IB & Marketing faculty), Saïd Business School, University of Oxford


2016 - 2021, Director of Diploma in Strategy & Innovation, University of Oxford


2016 - 2021, Board Member, Oxford Centre for Corporate Reputation, University of Oxford


2005 - 2013, Assistant and Associate Professor (2010-), Marriott School, BYU


2004 - 2005, Visiting Professor, Goizueta Business School, Emory University


I collect art - here's a 1968 piece by Carl Wargh who attended Oskar Kokoschka's Schule des Sehens


PUBLICATIONS

Felin, T & Holweg M (2024). Theory is all you need: AI, human cognition, and causal reasoning. Strategy Science. [html]


Felin T, Gambardella A, Novelli E & Zenger T (2024). A scientific method for startups. Journal of Management. [open access]


Felin, T. (2024). Cognitive economics, technology, and combinatorial salience. Working paper. 


Felin T, Gambardella A, & Zenger T (2024). Theory-based decisions: Foundations and introduction. Strategy Science. 


Santangelo G, Phene A, Coviello N, Tung R, Felin T (2024). Microfoundations as a toolkit for international business research. Journal of International Business Studies. 


Ehrig T, Felin T & Zenger T (2024). Causal reasoning and the scientific entrepreneur: Beyond bayes. In Bayesian Entrepreneurship. MIT Press. [html]


Edited by Ajay Agrawal, Arnaldo Camuffo, Alfonso Gambardella, Erin Scott & Scott Stern. 


Mastrogiorgio A, Mastrogiorgio M, Kauffman S, Felin T (2024). Quantum cognition: Implications for strategy and management. European Management Review.


Felin T & Kauffman S (2023). Disruptive evolution: Harnessing functional excess, experimentation and science as tool. Industrial and Corporate Change. [pdf]


selected as "Editor's Choice" - freely readable here


Wuebker R, Zenger T & Felin T (2023). The theory-based view: Entrepreneurial microfoundations, resources, and choices. Strategic Management Journal [ssrn] [doi]


Felin T & Koenderink J (2022). A generative view of rationality and growing awareness. Frontiers in Psychology. [html]


Felin T, Kauffman S & Zenger T (2022). Resource origins and search. Strategic Management Journal. [html]


Felin T & Foss N (2022). Microfoundations of ecosystems: The theory-led firm and capability growth. Strategic Organization. [ssrn] [doi]


Mastrogiorgio A, Felin T, Kauffman S & Mastrogiorgio (2022). More thumbs than rules: Is rationality an exaptation? Frontiers in Psychology. [html]


Felin T, Koenderink J, Krueger J, Noble D & Ellis GFR (2021a). The data-hypothesis relationship. Genome Biology. [html]


Felin T, Gambardella A & Zenger T (2021). Value lab: A tool for entrepreneurial strategy. Management & Business Review. [html]


Felin T, Koenderink J, Krueger J, Noble D & Ellis GFR (2021b). Data bias. Genome Biology. [html]


Felin T & Kauffman S (2021). The search function and evolutionary novelty. Oxford University Press. 


Felin T, Gambardella A, Stern S & Zenger T (2020). Lean startup and the business model: Experimentation revisited. Long Range Planning. [open access] 


Felin T & Felin M (2020). Seeking rationality: $500 bills and perceptual obviousness. Handbook of Bounded Rationality.


chapters also by Dan Sperber, G Gigerenzer, Cristina Bicchieri, Cass Sunstein, Phil Johnson-Laird, Nancy Nersessian, Paul Thagard, Richard Nelson, etc


Felin T & Zenger T (2020). Open innovation: A theory-based view. Strategic Management Review. [pdf]


Hallberg N & Felin T (2020). Untangling infinite regress and the origins of capability. Journal of Management Inquiry.


Felin T, Felin M, Koenderink J & Krueger J (2019). On surprise-hacking. Perception. [open access pdf]


Chater N, Felin T, Funder D, Gigerenzer G, Koenderink J, Krueger J, Noble D, Nordli S, Oaksford M, Schwartz B, Stanovich K & Todd P (2019). Mind, rationality and cognition: An interdisciplinary debate. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. [html] [pdf]


Felin T & Foss N (2019). Microfoundations for institutional theory? Research in the Sociology of Organizations. 


Felin T & Lakhani K (2018). What problems will you solve with blockchain? MIT Sloan Management Review. [html]


Devins C, Felin T, Kauffman S & Koppl R (2018). The law and big data. Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy. [html]


Felin T & Zenger T (2017). The theory-based view: Economic actors as theorists. Strategy Science. [html] [pdf]


Felin T, Koenderink J & Krueger J (2017). Rationality, perception, and the all-seeing eye. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. [html] [pdf]


Felin T & Zenger T (2017). What sets breakthrough strategies apart. MIT Sloan Management Review. [pdf]


Felin T, Lakhani K & Tushman M (2017). Firms, crowds, and innovation. Strategic Organization.  [pdf]


Felin T & Zenger T (2016). Strategy, problems and a theory for the firm. Organization Science.


Felin T & Powell T (2016). 

Designing organizations for 

dynamic capabilities. California Management Review. [html]


Felin T, Kauffman S, Mastrogiorgio A & Mastrogiorgio M (2016). Factor markets, actors and affordances. Industrial and Corporate Change.[html]


Felin T (2016). When strategy walks out the door. MIT Sloan Management Review. [html]


Stirling W & Felin T (2016). Satisficing, preferences and social interaction: A new perspective. Theory & Decision. [html]


David R, Felin T, Langley A, Rowley T, Verona G (2016). The strategic organization of strategic management scholarship. Strategic Organization.


Koppl R, Kauffman S, Felin T & Longo G (2015b). Economics for a creative world: A response to comments. Journal of Institutional Economics.


Felin T, Foss N & Ployhart R (2015). Microfoundations movement in strategy and organization theory. Academy of Management Annals.


Koppl R, Kauffman S, Felin T & Longo G (2015a). Economics for a creative world. Journal of Institutional Economics.


this paper received the 2016 Elinor Ostrom Prize [html]


Felin T (2015). Valve Corporation: Strategy tipping points and thresholds. Journal of Organization Design. [html]  


commentary on article by Phanish Puranam and Dorthe Håkonsson.[html]


Devins C, Koppl R, Kauffman S & Felin T (2015). Against design. Arizona State Law Journal. [html]


responses to this article by: Steven Calabresi [pdf], Sanford Levinson [pdf], Vernon Smith [pdf]


Felin T, Kauffman S, Koppl R & Longo G (2014). Economic opportunity and evolution: Beyond landscapes and bounded rationality. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. [html


Mark Buchanan discusses this paper in Nature Physics, see here


Felin T & Zenger T (2014). Closed or open innovation? Problem solving and the governance choice. Research Policy. [open access]


Barney J & Felin T (2013). What are microfoundations? Academy of Management Perspectives. [pdf]


Argyres N, Felin T, Foss N & Zenger T (2012). Organizational economics of capability and heterogeneity. Organization Science. [html]


Felin T (2012). Cosmologies of capability, markets and wisdom of crowds. Managerial & Decision Economics. [html]


interdisciplinary special issue with contributions from David Sumpter, Scott Page, Robb Willer, Claudio Castellano, Peter Leeson, Bruno Frey, Margit Osterloh and others 


Felin T & Foss N (2012). The (proper) microfoundations of routines and capabilities: a response to Winter, Pentland, Hodgson and Knudsen. Journal of Institutional Economics. [pdf]


King B, Felin T & Whetten D (2010). Finding the organization in organization theory: a meta-theory of the organization as social actor. Organization Science. [pdf] [html


Felin T & Foss N (2009). Performativity of theory, arbitrary conventions, and possible worlds: a reality check. Organization Science. [pdf] [html]


Felin T & Zenger T (2009). Entrepreneurs as theorists: on the origins of collective beliefs and novel strategies. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. [pdf] [html


Felin T, Zenger T & Tomsik J (2009). The knowledge economy: emerging organizational forms, missing microfoundations and key considerations for managing human capital. Human Resource Management.


Abell P, Felin T & Foss N (2008). Building microfoundations for the routines, capabilities, and performance links. Managerial & Decision Economics. [pdf] [html]


Felin T & Hesterly W (2007). The knowledge-based view, nested heterogeneity, and new value creation: philosophical considerations on the locus of knowledge. Academy of Management Review. [pdf] [html]


Felin T & Foss N (2006). Individuals and organizations: thoughts on a microfoundations project for strategic management and organizational analysis. Research Methodology in Strategy and Management.


Felin T & Foss N (2005). Strategic organization: a field in search of micro-foundations. Strategic Organization. [pdf]


commentary by Jay Barney and Bruce Kogut


PRESENTATIONS ETC

American Finance Association panel on "Neurofinance and cognition" [html]


Oct 2024 Strategic Management Society panel: "AI and entrepreneurship" with Annamaria Conti, Alfonso Gambardella, Carlos Serrano, Felipe Csaszar


Sept 2024 Boston Univ Digital Business Seminar, "AI and cognition" [html]


Oxford lecture - "AI and strategy: What every decision maker needs to know" July 2024


June 2024 EconTalk podcast episode "When prediction is not enough" [html


June 2024 Presentation at Lawrence-Tushman conference at Harvard


May 2024 Aalto University presentation on AI and Strategy


April 2024 presentation at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign


Strategy Science conference and special issue on "theory-based view" (with Alfonso Gambardella and Todd Zenger) - Oct 2023, Milan, Italy [html]


"Generative rationality and evolution" - Sept 2023, University of Helsinki


"Scientific reasoning, evolution and the human mind" - March 2023, University of Oxford


Foundations of Value Summit, Univ of Oxford, Jan 2023 - "Evolutionary origins of (perceiving) value"


"Rationality in uncertain ecologies" - presentation @ Brunswik Society, Dec 2022


The fallacy of obviousness 

Aeon [html]


"Experimentation in human evolution" - joint lecture with Stuart Kauffman at the Huntsman School, Oct 2022 


Organizing for Novelty keynote at ODC conference, Oct 2022 [details here]


"Generative rationality and growing awareness" - presentation at Oxford Univ, May 2022


Strategy: A Very Short Introduction book under contract with Oxford University Press


co-founder of "Foundations of Value & Values"-initiative, housed @ Blavatnik School, Oxford Univ -  faculty group now includes Ruth Chang, Paul Collier, George Ellis, Cecilia Heyes, Colin Mayer & Denis Noble


2019-2021, worked on Future of Industrial Strategy research project with Julian Allwood & U of Cambridge Engineering (total EPSRC funding £5 million) 


Aug 2019: presented at conference celebrating Stu Kauffman's work, Santa Fe Institute [html] - talk titled "Mind and Economy"


co-taught (with Nir Vulkan) online Oxford Blockchain Strategy course [html] 2017-2020


May 2019: London50 conference - debate about the concept of ecosystems with Gary Dushnitsky


March 2019: Utah Winter Strategy Conference [html] - "state of field" panel presentation with Jay Barney and Joanne Oxley


Oct 2018: open innovation conference, UC Berkeley


Jan 2019: strategy for startups and SMEs, Strategy Insight Lab project [html] - with Arnaldo Camuffo, Alfonso Gambardella, Elena Novelli, Chiara Spina


June 2018: Strategy Science 

conference at Wharton, UPenn [html] - panel with Arnaldo Camuffo, Alfonso Gambardella, Todd Zenger and Scott Stern


BBC interview related to big data, artificial intelligence and the fallacy of obviousness [html]


April 2018: Big Data symposium [html]


interview with Geoff Mulgan at the Oxford Literary Festival: book Big Mind (Princeton U Press) [html]


"Creating a hive mind" - blurb about some of my research, written by Rob Brown [html]


speaking at Edith Penrose book launch in Oxford, 16 Nov 2017 [html]


EconTalk podcast with Russ 

Roberts (Hoover, Stanford Univ): Blindness, rationality, 

and perception [html]


Sept 2017 Strategy Science conference at Apple, Cupertino, CA: origins of great strategy [html]


Sept 2017 plenary with Nick Chater and Adam Oliver: behavioral science and public policy [html]


90 mile Oxford-Cambridge charity bike ride, British Heart Foundation [donate here]


FURTHER PUBLICATIONS

Devins C, Koppl R, Kauffman S & Felin T (2016). Still against design: A response to Steven Calabresi, Sanford Levinson and Vernon Smith. Arizona State Law Journal. [pdf]


Felin T (2015). A forum on minds and institutions. Journal of Institutional Economics. [html] 


intro to forum with papers by Cass Sunstein & Reid Hastie and Giovanni Dosi & Luigi Marengo


Abell P, Felin T & Foss N (2014). Microfoundations of social theory: A response to Jepperson and Meyer. Sociologica. [html]


Stirling W & Felin T (2013). Game theory, conditional preferences and social influence. PLoS ONE. [html]


Felin T & Knudsen T (2012). A theory of nascent entrepreneurship and organization. Managerial & Decision Economics. [pdf] [html


Felin T, Foss N, Heimeriks K & Madsen T (2012). Microfoundations of routines and capabilities: individuals, processes and structures. Journal of Management Studies.


Stirling W, Giraud-Carrier C & Felin T (2012). A framework for the design and synthesis of coordinated social systems. Social Informatics.


Felin T & Foss N (2011). The endogenous origins of experience, routines and organizational capabilities: the poverty of stimulus. Journal of Institutional Economics. [pdf] [html]


three responses to the above article: S Winter, Problems at the Foundation? Comments on Felin & Foss and B Pentland and G Hodgson and T Knudsen


Felin T & Zenger T (2011). Information aggregation, matching, and radical market-hierarchy hybrids. Strategic Organization.

[pdf] [html]


Zenger T, Felin T & Bigelow L (2011). Theories of the firm-market boundary. Academy of Management Annals. [html] [pdf]


Abell P, Felin T & Foss N (2010). Causal and constitutive relations and the squaring of coleman's diagram: reply to Vromen Erkenntnis. [html] [pdf]


Felin T & Foss N (2009). 

Social reality, the boundaries of self-fulfilling prophecy, and economics. Organization Science. [pdf] [html]


response by Ferraro, Pfeffer & Sutton. How and why theories matter: a comment on Felin and Foss [see here]; editor introduction [see here]


Felin T & Foss N (2009). Organizational routines and capabilities: Historical drift and a course-correction toward microfoundations. Scandinavian Journal of Management. [html]


King B, Felin T & Whetten D (2009). Comparative organizational analysis. Research in the Sociology of Organizations. [pdf]


review of volume by P Foreman in Administrative Science Quarterly (2010)


Felin T & Spender JC (2009). An exchange of ideas about knowledge governance: seeking first principles & microfoundations. In Knowledge Governance, edited by Foss et al. Oxford University Press.


Whetten D, Felin T & King B (2009). Theory-borrowing in organizational studies. Journal of Management. [pdf] [scribd]


strategy and artificial intelligence


artificial intelligence and strategy