David Souder, Ph.D.
Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research | University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT, UNITED STATES
Dr. Souder specializes in strategic management.
Spotlight
Biography
Professor Souder’s ongoing research analyzes the antecedents and consequences of firms’ long horizon investments, including capital infrastructure, organization design, and mergers and acquisitions. He has published scholarly articles in the Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, and Business and Professional Ethics. In conjunction with the Network for Business Sustainability, Dr. Souder is the lead author of a systematic review and executive report on ways to incorporate long-term thinking into current business decisions.
Dr. Souder also serves as the Academic Director of UConn’s Executive MBA program, and as the PhD Coordinator for the Management Department. Before joining academia, Professor Souder obtained a decade of private-sector experience, primarily as a strategy consultant based in New York and London. He also served as the finance director for a start-up that launched the first non-profit charter school in New York state, and continues to advise business and community organizations.
In the classroom, Dr. Souder has taught case-based courses in strategic management for undergraduate, MBA, and executive audiences, as well as a PhD seminar on research methods in strategic management. He has also taught courses on the meaning and interpretation of statistics to Executive MBA students, and the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities to undergraduates.
Areas of Expertise (2)
Baby Boomer Effect on Business Ownership
Cable Industry
Education (2)
University of Minnesota: Ph.D., Business Administration 2007
University of Pennsylvania: B.S., Economics 1993
Accomplishments (1)
MBA Teacher of the Year (professional)
Awarded by the Management Department, University of Connecticut.
Media Appearances (5)
Subway, which started in Connecticut in 1965, will be sold to private equity firm
WNPR radio
2023-08-24
Additional international expansion is likely to be the next step for Subway’s growth, said David Souder, senior associate dean for research at the University of Connecticut School for Business. “Subways are fairly ubiquitous in the U.S., so the idea of additional stores doesn’t really hold up,” Souder said. “The idea that people are going to suddenly buy a lot more sandwiches, that doesn’t really hold up. So you would be looking for more locations internationally, which is what they’re talking about.”
Report: CEO of CT-based Cigna awarded nearly $21 million in 2022 compensation
Hearst Connecticut Media print
2023-06-01
The median compensation for chief executive officers reached $22.3 million in 2022, according to the 2023 edition of the Equilar 100, an annual study of the American firms with the largest revenues to file by March 31 annual “proxy statements” on key issues — equating to a nearly 8 percent year-over-year increase among those companies that was driven by the rising value of stock awards. The list included David Cordani, CEO and chairman of Bloomfield-based The Cigna Group, one of the world’s largest health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, who was awarded compensation that totaled nearly $21 million, ranking No. 66 overall. “Should CEOs be paid a lot? Yes, but what’s the limit of ‘a lot’?” David Souder, a professor in the Boucher Management and Entrepreneurship Department in the University of Connecticut’s School of Business, said in an interview. “It’s proven very hard to determine where it stops being the appropriate amount of ‘a lot.’”
Pitney Bowes, turning 100, shifts to ecommerce as its trusted postage meter recedes into the past
Hartford Courant print
2020-10-12
David Souder, an associate professor of management at the University of Connecticut, said Pitney Bowes has succeeded because it stayed close to the evolution of its original business. “Pitney Bowes would not make it 100 years if it had not evolved,” he said. “It certainly wasn’t smooth.” Unlike companies with one durable product, Pitney Bowes had to adapt in the 20th and 21st centuries to technological change that has altered shipping, retail, mailing and printing. “Coca Cola can do a lot of other things, but they still put cola in red cans and put it out there,” Souder said.
UTC’s move shows us where the opportunities are to grow
Hartford Courant print
2019-06-28
Here is a lesson that resonates with students: Every threat creates new opportunities, and every opportunity has hidden threats. The planned move of United Technologies’ headquarters to Massachusetts has been portrayed as a threat to Connecticut’s economy. But, as a manufacturing executive wrote in last Sunday’s Courant, the move does not spell doom for the state’s manufacturing sector — and we can end up stronger if we recognize new opportunities and invest in them.
Stamford-based Charter Communications to stay, expand in NY
Associated Press online
2019-04-19
“It does not surprise me that Charter is trying to remain active in New York state,” David Souder, associate dean of graduate programs in the University of Connecticut’s business school, said in a recent interview. “Although cable TV subscriptions are declining nationwide, providing internet service remains an important service with strong profit potential. Charter already has the infrastructure in place, and it makes sense to keep it in use.”
Articles (6)
We need a 'pay everything' policy to combat coronavirus recession
The Hill2020-03-29
The effect of the COVID-19 crisis on the economy differs from recessions of the past, and the tools familiar to policymakers are not designed to address our current situation. For example, cutting interest rates works in most recessions by reducing the cost of new consumer loans. But who needs a loan when people are forced to stay at home, unable to, say, shop for a car or a home?
How Family Influence, Socioemotional Wealth, and Competitive Conditions Shape New Technology Adoption
Strategic Management Journal2016 In family businesses, investment decisions often involve both socioemotional wealth and economic considerations. Focusing on new technology adoption, we argue that multiple dimensions of socioemotional wealth contribute to complex effects within different types of family firms—depending on the level of family control—as well as in contrast to non-family firms. Results based on cable TV operators ...
A Behavioral Understanding of Investment Horizon and Firm Performance
Organization Science2016 Observers have argued that firms overly emphasize short-term results at the expense of long-run value. Using a behavioral perspective, we analyze three hypotheses related to this general argument. First, we examine the association of investment time horizons with firm performance, contributing new theory that argues for a quadratic rather than linear association. Second, because the tendency toward ...
Time Horizon of Investments in the Resource Allocation Process: Review and Framework for Next Steps
Journal of Management2016 Corporate investment inherently relies on time horizon, as profits result from acquiring assets or developing capabilities that yield future benefits that exceed upfront costs. Despite the importance of time horizon to understanding resource allocation, knowledge about the subject has accumulated slowly. Our review therefore encompasses insights from several research streams that partially address the ...
Facilitating Tacit Knowledge Transfer: Routine Compatibility, Trustworthiness, and Integration in M & As
Journal of Knowledge Management2015 This paper aims to theorize how tacit knowledge influences implementation success in mergers and acquisitions (M & As), and contrasts this with explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge can be a source of sustained competitive advantage because its lack of codifiability precludes easy appropriation by competitors. However, such non-codifiability also makes it difficult to transfer knowledge within a firm ...
Model-Theoretic Knowledge Accumulation: The Case of Agency Theory and Incentive Alignment
Academy of Management Review2013 The philosophy of science offers two different perspectives on how empirical findings contribute to knowledge accumulation. The “law-statement” perspective interprets contributions to the extent that empirical research confirms or refutes general axioms of theory. Alternatively, the “model-theoretic” perspective recognizes contributions from models that improve scholars' ability to represent the ...
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