Charlotte Ren is the Robert A. Fox Leadership International Faculty Director for Research, Curricular and Civic Initiatives, as well as Professor of Practice in Strategy and Innovation of the Partnership for Innovation, Cross-Sector Collaboration, Leadership, and Organization (PICCLO). She is also Senior Fellow at Wharton’s Mack Institute for Innovation Management. Charlotte holds a PhD in management and an MA in economics from UCLA, a bachelor’s degree in international politics and a minor degree in law from Peking University (China).
Charlotte’s research focuses on innovation management and competitive strategy and has been published in top academic journals in the field of management such as Management Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management, and Strategic Management Journal. Her research won the Inaugural IDEA Award in 2008 from the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management, the largest academic community of management scholars with over 18,000 members from nearly 120 countries. She served as a Representative-at-Large for two leading academic communities of management scholars, the Academy of Management (Entrepreneurship Division) and the Strategic Management Society (Competitive Strategy Interest Group).
Charlotte has taught courses at the undergraduate, MPA, MBA, and PhD levels on strategy, innovation management, entrepreneurship, and cross-sector collaboration. She received numerous teaching awards including the 2017 Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award from the Academy of Management’s Entrepreneurship Division.
A social entrepreneur at heart, Charlotte designed, launched, and served as the founding faculty director (2013–2016) of Penn Restorative Entrepreneurship Program, an innovative initiative geared towards helping formerly incarcerated individuals to become socially responsible entrepreneurs. The program has garnered wide press attention and is featured in a forthcoming PBS documentary.
Research Areas:
Competitive strategy, innovation management, corporate entrepreneurship, organizational learning
