Rebecca Henderson

Rebecca M. Henderson is the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, one of only 25 University Professors, holding a joint appointment at Harvard Business School within the field of Business & Economics. She earned her Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University in 1988 with a thesis on the failure of established firms in the face of technological change, and her S.B. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. Henderson's academic career spans prestigious institutions: she joined MIT Sloan School of Management as Assistant Professor in 1988, advancing to Associate Professor in 1995, Robert Noyce Associate Professor in 1993, and Eastman Kodak LFM Professor from 1999 to 2009. She held visiting positions including Marvin Bower Visiting Professor at Harvard Business School (2002–2003), Thomas Henry Carroll Foundation Visiting Professor (1996–1997), and Visiting Assistant Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business (1992–1993). In 2009, she became Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management at Harvard Business School, ascending to her current University Professorship in 2011. She served as Department Head of Strategy and Management Science at MIT Sloan from 1995 to 2000 and acted as an expert witness in the remedies phase of the Microsoft antitrust trial from 1999 to 2000.

Henderson's research explores technological change and organizational competence, drivers of innovation, relational contracts, purpose-driven firms, and the private sector's role in building sustainable economies to address climate change, inequality, and political dysfunction, with applications in sectors like energy, pharmaceuticals, information technology, and real estate. Her seminal works include the book Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire (PublicAffairs, 2020), shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year; Leading Sustainable Change: An Organizational Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2015, co-edited with Ranjay Gulati and Michael Tushman); and Accelerating Energy Innovation (University of Chicago Press, 2011, co-edited with Richard G. Newell). Influential papers feature 'Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms' (Administrative Science Quarterly, 1990, with Kim B. Clark), 'Relational Contracts and Organizational Capabilities' (Organization Science, 2012, with Robert Gibbons), and 'Innovation in the 21st Century: Architectural Change, Purpose, and the Challenges of Our Time' (Management Science, 2021). Awards include the 2022 Honorary Doctorate in Economics from London Business School, 2017 Viipuri Prize for Strategic Management, 2017 Aspen Institute Ideas Worth Teaching Award, 2010 Dan and Mary Lou Schendel Best Paper Prize, 2001 MIT Sloan Teacher of the Year, and 1996 Shingo Prize. A research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1995, fellow of the British Academy and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has served on editorial boards of Administrative Science Quarterly (1994–2008), Research Policy (1998–2014), and others, and held over twenty-five years of public company board experience including Amgen (2009–2020) and Idexx Laboratories (2003–2021).

Professional Email: rhenderson@hbs.edu