Prof. Lalit Manral graduated with his PhD in Strategic Management in 2006, from the Columbia Business School, Columbia University, under the supervision of Prof. Richard R Nelson and Prof. Kathryn R Harrigan. His other qualifications include an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering (BTech, 1993, National Institute of Technology, Kozhikode, India), a Master's degree in International Business (MIB, 1996, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, India), and an MPhil in Management (MPhil, 2003; Columbia University, New York, USA). His five years of professional experience prior to joining the Ph.D. program spans different functional areas (e.g., corporate strategy, international business, etc.) across diverse industrial sectors as apparel, construction, engineering goods, and information technology.

Prof. Manral's research in strategic management of firms borrows from evolutionary economics and industrial organization. It mainly explores the logic of economic selection of business firms in diverse industrial contexts related to systemic technologies. He is broadly interested in examining how firm (investment) strategies influence and in turn influenced by diverse market mechanisms/ processes. More specifically, he is interested in exploring the demand-side (vis-à-vis technology and policy) factors underlying the temporal and inter-industry heterogeneity of firm (investment) strategy. How do the continuously evolving markets guide firm (investment) strategy and how does firm (investment) strategy influence the origin and evolution of markets?

Disciplinary focus: Economics of (a) dynamic industrial market structure, (b) organizational strategy, and (c) technological evolution.

Functional interests: Strategy; Competition, competitive strategy, and competitive advantage; Industry structure and Industry evolution; Technology strategy; Strategic alliances and Inter-organizational Networks; International Business.

Industries: Telecommunications Services & Equipment; Information Technology services & Equipment.

MGT 71 - Business Policy

PERSONAL:
. GMAT: 740 (98%le) in Oct 1999
. Statistical Software: Stata 9.1, SPSS 13.0.
. Nationality: Indian
. Languages: English, Hindi (Read, Write, Speak)
. Hobbies: Poetry writing, Reading (non-fiction), Traveling, and Photography.