Cole Short, PhD

Assistant Professor of Strategy

Graziadio Business School

Biography

Dr. Short’s research explores how strategic leaders navigate disruptions to create value. This work examines topics such as the motivations and consequences of strategic decision making, how executive characteristics adapt and influence firm strategy, and the implications of natural language processing techniques on organizational research and practice.

Dr. Short has contributed research to several top-tier academic journals, with published and forthcoming work in journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management, Research Policy, Journal of Management Studies, Academy of Management Discoveries, and Journal of Business Venturing Insights. This work has also led to various awards and recognitions, such as the Highly Cited Paper distinction by Thomson Reuters and best paper and outstanding reviewer awards at leading international conferences. Dr. Short is a frequently invited speaker at leading universities, executive conferences, and academic associations worldwide. He currently serves on the advisory board for AI 2030, a think tank focused on responsible artificial intelligence deployment.

Dr. Short’s background includes strategic advising, strategy consulting, medical diagnostics and IT investing, and volunteer service as a first responder. He received his PhD in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from the University of Georgia, his MA in Economics from Boston University, and his BA in International Studies from Baylor University. Dr. Short previously completed professional education in applied data science and machine learning through the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Education

PhD in Strategy and Entrepreneurship, University of Georgia
MA in Economics, Boston University
BA in International Studies, Baylor University

Research
Awards
Presentations

Hubbard, T.D., Short, C.E., & Hu, M. (conditionally accepted) “Shaping the Future of Work: The Transformative Impact of Immersive Virtual Work Environments on Employee Outcomes and Environmental Decision-Making.” Academy of Management Discoveries.
Short, C.E. (in press) “Textual Analysis.” In Grossmann-Hensel, B., Jarzabkowski, P., Kratochvil, R., Seidl, D., Spee, A. P., & Whittington, R. (Eds.), Elgar Encyclopedia of Strategy as Practice. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Graf-Vlachy, L., Neville, F., Short, C.E., & Völkl, F. (in press) “Understanding the Situational Antecedents of CEO Regulatory Focus.” Journal of Management Studies. DOI: 10.1111/joms.13148.
Campbell, R., Short, C.E., & Graffin, S.D. (2025) “Balancing the Radical and the Incremental: CEO Affiliative Humor and Organizational Ambidexterity.” Research Policy, 54(1): 105131.
Short, C.E., & Pfarrer, M.D. (2025) “Managing Asymmetric Events with Anticipatory and Reactive Strategies.” Journal of Management, 51(3): 1170-1200.
Parker, O., Short, C.E., Titus, A., Gong, K., & Nahm, P. (2024) “Accentuate the Positive? Strategic Negativity Amid the Hazard of High Expectations.” Strategic Management Journal, 45(9): 1851-1874.
Short, C.E., & Short, J.C.* (2023) “The Artificially Intelligent Entrepreneur: ChatGPT, Prompt Engineering, and Entrepreneurial Rhetoric Creation.” Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 19: e00388. *Authors contributed equally.
Short, C.E., & Hubbard, T.D. (2023) “Extending Upper Echelons Theory: How Evaluator Characteristics Influence Signal Interpretation and Evaluation.” In Sund, K., Galavan, R., & Gustafsson, R. (Eds.), Cognitive Aids in Strategy: 47-64. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.
Short, C.E., & Hubbard, T.D. (2023) “Do Boards and the Media Recognize Quality? An Assessment of CEO Contextual Quality Using Pay, Dismissal, Awards, and Linguistics.” Academy of Management Discoveries, 9(4): 525-548.
Gamache, D.L., Neville, F., Bundy, J., & Short, C.E. (2020) “Serving Differently: CEO Regulatory Focus and Firm Stakeholder Strategy.” Strategic Management Journal, 41(7): 1305-1335.
Bundy, J., Pfarrer, M.D., Short, C.E., & Coombs, W.T. (2017) “Crises and Crisis Management: Integration, Interpretation, and Research Development.” Journal of Management, 43(6): 1661-1692.

(2025) Visiting Associate Professor, Hitotsubashi University
(2025) Perplexity Business Fellowship, Perplexity AI
(2025) Research Excellence Award, Graziadio Business School
(2025) AI 2030 Scholar of the Year, AI 2030
(2024) Outstanding Reviewer Award (Stakeholder Strategy), Strategic Management Society
(2024) Outstanding Teaching Recognition, Graziadio Business School
(2024) Outstanding Author Contribution (Emerald Literati Award), Emerald Publishing
(2024) Karen Legge Bursary Award, Society for the Advancement of Management Studies
(2024) Global Fellow and Advisory Board Member, AI 2030
(2024) Top cited publication in Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier
(2024) Graziadio Business School Research Award, Pepperdine University
(2023) Provost Research Grant, Pepperdine University
(2023) Most-read publication in Journal of Management, SAGE Publications
(2022) Outstanding Reviewer Award (Stakeholder Strategy), Strategic Management Society
(2022) Scholarly Impact Award (Finalist), Journal of Management
(2022) Most-read publication in Journal of Management, SAGE Publications
(2021) Julian Virtue Professorship, Graziadio Business School
(2021) Overall Conference Best Paper Nominee, Strategic Management Society
(2021) Most-read publication in Journal of Management, SAGE Publications
(2021) Above and Beyond the Call of Duty Reviewing Award (OMT), Academy of Management
(2021) Highly Cited Paper in Business & Economics, Web of Science (Thomson Reuters)
(2020) Most-read publication in Journal of Management, SAGE Publications
(2020) Best Paper Finalist (Strategic Leadership & Governance), Strategic Management Society
(2020) Best Paper Nominee (Research Methods), Strategic Management Society
(2020) Outstanding Reviewer Award (Strategic Management), Academy of Management
(2018) Overall Conference Best Paper Nominee, Strategic Management Society
(2018) Outstanding Reviewer Award (Stakeholder Strategy), Strategic Management Society
(2017) Outstanding Reviewer Award (Business Policy & Strategy), Academy of Management
(2016) Best Paper Award (Strategic Leadership & Governance), Strategic Management Society

Conference Presentations

Parker, O., Fraseur, S., Zhou, Y., Short, C., & Gong, K. (2024) “Leadership style and tolerance of censorship among film directors.” Southern Management Association Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX.
Zhou, Y., Li, H., Cui, M., & Short, C. (2024) “Shifting demands: Governance-influenced firm strategy in the context of geopolitical risk.” Annual Meeting of the Strategic Management Society, Istanbul, Turkey.
Porck, J., Short, C., Parker, O., & Kim, R. (2024) “Effects of cognitive diversity amid earnings surprises on market reaction and financial performance.” Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Chicago, IL.
Johnson, C., Ascencio, C., Bauer, B., Gibson, C., Lynn, T., Mooney, J., Nagaraj, V., Niederman, F., Short, C., & Sinclair, G. (2024) “A swarm of scholars: Adopting and improving on the swarm methodology in organizational research.” Annual Meeting of the Academy of International Business, Seoul, South Korea.
Parker, O., Fraseur, S., Zhou, Y., Short, C., & Gong, K.(2023) “Censor-me-not: Gender, leadership style, & censorship tolerance in film.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Strategic Management Society, Toronto, Canada.
Short, C., & Hubbard, T. (2023) (Panel symposium) “Extending upper echelons theory: How evaluator characteristics influence signal interpretation and evaluation.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Boston, MA.
Porck, J., & Short, C. (2022) “Can cognitive consensus soften the blow? TMT language (in)congruence after a negative earnings surprise.” Strategic Management Society Annual Conference, London, United Kingdom.
Short, C. (2022) (Panel symposium) “A swarm of scholars: Adopting & improving on the swarm method for collaborative qualitative research.” Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Seattle, WA.
Parker, O., Short, C., Titus, V., Nahm, P., & Crawford, W. (2021) “Negative impression management and its contingent use by executives.” Southern Management Association Annual Conference. (Virtual)
Short, C., & Zhou, Y. (2021) “Determinants of anticipatory impression management.” Strategic Management Society Annual Conference. (Virtual)
Campbell, R., Short, C., & Graffin, S. (2020) “CEO sense of humor and organizational ambidexterity.” Strategic Management Society Annual Conference. (Virtual)
Parker, O., Short, C., & Titus, V. (2020) “Hold your horses: Negative anticipatory impression management and its motivations.” Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. (Virtual)
Short, C. (2019) “Managing failure: The effects of anticipatory and reactive strategies.” Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Boston, MA.
Parker, O., Short, C., & Titus, V. (2019) “Hold your horses: Negative anticipatory impression management and its motivations.” Strategic Management Society Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN.
Short, C., & Pfarrer, M. (2018) “Path dependence in organizational impression management.” Strategic Management Society Annual Conference, Paris, France.
Short, C. (2018) “When clinical trials fail: Managing drug development in the pharmaceutical industry.” Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation Symposium, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Short, C. (2018) (Panel symposium) “Firm performance and executive succession.” Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Chicago, IL.
Short, C. (2018) “Path dependence in organizational impression management.” Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Chicago, IL.
Short, C., Hubbard, T., Quigley, T., & Graffin, S. (2017) “Who gets it right and when? Internal and external evaluations of CEO quality.” Strategic Management Society Annual Conference, Houston, TX.
Short, C. (2017) (Panel symposium) “AIMing to impress: Anticipatory impression management and the organization.” Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Atlanta, GA.
Gamache, D., Neville, F., Bundy, J., & Short, C. (2017) “Serving differently: CEO regulatory focus, shareholder activism, and corporate social performance.” Academy of Management Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA.
Ashmore, Z., Alch, C., Coyle, C., Johnson, T., Kingry, C., Okunnu, R., Short, C., Jupiter, D., & Islam, J. (2017) “Improving rates of diabetic foot inspections to prevent complications: UTMB family medicine quality improvement project.” American Diabetes Association Annual Conference, Orlando, FL.
Neville, F., Gamache, D., Bundy, J., & Short, C. (2016) “CEO regulatory focus, shareholder activism, and corporate social performance.” Strategic Management Society Annual Conference, Berlin, Germany

Invited Talks

(2025) "How earnings surprises impact market reactions to cognitive diversity." Seminar Speaker Series. UC Riverside. Riverside, CA.
(2024) “AI strategy: Navigating stakeholder demands and implementation challenges.” Certified Responsible AI Leader Program. AI 2030. (Virtual, co-presented with Rodrigo Valadao).
(2024) “Advancing entrepreneurship theory with generative artificial intelligence.” Institute of Innovation Research Annual Workshop. Hitotsubashi University. Tokyo, Japan.
(2024) “Theory building with generative artificial intelligence.” Journal of Management Studies Publishing Workshop. Yokohama National University. Yokohama, Japan.
(2024) “Generative artificial intelligence and business.” Convene 2024 Executive Conference. San Diego, CA.
(2024) “Large language model inference as an organizational research method.” SoCal Strategy/OT Workshop. University of Southern California. Los Angeles, CA.
(2024) “State of AI.” 2024 AI Innovation Lab. 1871 + Why of AI. (Virtual).
(2023) “Exploring the nexus of generative AI and stakeholder strategy.” EMERGE 2023: Emerging Technology in Business and Industry. (Virtual).
(2023) “On the horizon: Technology integration into treasury – highlighting AI and ChatGPT.” National Institute of Public Finance. Los Angeles, CA.
(2023) “Determinants of anticipatory impression management.” SoCal Strategy/OT Workshop. University of Southern California. Los Angeles, CA.
(2023) “Natural language processing and strategic management.” 2023 AI Innovation Lab. 1871 + Why of AI. (Virtual).
(2022) “Textual analysis as an empirical research method.” Pepperdine Graziadio 2022 DBA and CAR Conference. Irvine, CA.
(2022) “Can cognitive consensus soften the blow? Top management team language (in)congruence after a negative earnings surprise.” Pepperdine Graziadio Annual Pitch and Poster Event. Los Angeles, CA.
(2021) “Negative impression management and its contingent use by executives.” Pepperdine Graziadio Annual Pitch and Poster Event. (Virtual)
(2018) “Managing failure: The joint effects of anticipatory and reactive strategies.” University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Lincoln, NE.

Topics

Stakeholder Strategy
Strategic Leadership
Natural Language Processing
Artificial Intelligence