Rachelle C. Sampson is Associate Professor of Logistics, Business and Public Policy at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. She currently teaches several MBA-level courses including Managerial Economics and the Economics of Sustainability, and conducts inter-disciplinary research, contributing primarily to the strategy literature in addition to in organizational economics, technology management and legal studies.
Rachelle's current research agenda surrounds how firms foster knowledge creation and commercialization, with a particular focus on the role of organization in this process. Her ongoing work focuses on the role of organization in setting incentives for innovation as well as how organizational structure influences firm investment horizons, particularly in the context of environmental sustainability. More specifically, this work can be grouped into three categories:
(1) the development of theory based on earlier empirical observations;
(2) the investigation of the ways in which incentive structures, embodied in formal organization, influence knowledge creation and commercialization; and
(3) the exploration of how incentives and organization, embedded in ownership structures, influence R&D investment decisions.
Rachelle joined the Smith School after five years at New York University's Stern School of Business. Prior to receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Prof. Sampson lived in Australia for 10 years. During this time, she received her law degree from Queensland University of Technology and was admitted as a barrister in New South Wales. Rachelle also held several legal and consulting positions during this time, most recently at Ernst and Young advising firms on optimal expansion strategies for South East Asia.
Since returning to the U.S., Rachelle has received several awards for her teaching and research work, including the Krowe Award for Teaching Excellence, the Ameritech Foundation Research Fellowship and the Gerald and Lillian Dykstra Fellowship. She is an active participant in several activities related to expanding the sustainability curriculum at the University of Maryland, most recently serving as a faculty mentor and facilitator on the Chesapeake Project.
