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Alex Murray

Assistant Professor of Management

Affiliations: Management, Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship
Phone: 541-346-3318
Office: Anstett 398C

About

Biography:

Alex Murray's research focuses on developing theoretical frameworks to explain how entrepreneurs mobilize resources from distributed resource providers and how distributed resource providers use novel technologies to coordinate resource allocations. He addresses empirical and theoretical puzzles stemming from the technologically-driven phenomena of crowdfunding, blockchain-based firms, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Theoretically, he contributes to the literatures on organizational theory, strategy, and entrepreneurship by unpacking how entrepreneurs obtain and maintain support from many distributed resource providers over time. Methodologically, he complements inductive field-based approaches with statistical analyses to develop novel insights and advance existing theories in intriguing ways.

Degree History:
  • PhD, University of Washington, 2018
  • MS, University of Virginia, 2012
  • BS, University of Alabama, 2011
Previous Positions:
  • Senior Researcher, ETH Zurich, 2018–2019
Professional Leadership:
  • Guest Editor, Special Topic Forum on "AI in Management", Academy of Management Review
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Academy of Management Review
Honors and Awards:
  • Best Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Review, 2023
  • Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, Lundquist College of Business, 2023
  • Consumer Protection Grant Award, University of Oregon, 2023
  • Goulet Outstanding Research Award, Lundquist College of Business, 2023
  • Dave Petrone Financial Literacy and Wellness Research Award, Lundquist College of Business, 2022
  • Best Paper Award, Academy of Management Review, 2022
  • Best Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Review, 2022
  • Outstanding Faculty in Entrepreneurship, Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship, 2022
  • Best Reviewer Award, Journal of Business Venturing, 2021
  • Most Developmental Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Review, 2021
  • Translational Research Grant, Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship, 2020
  • COVID-19 Impact Grant Award, 2020
  • New Junior Faculty Research Award, University of Oregon, 2019

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Areas of Expertise

  • Crowdfunding
  • Decentralized governance
  • Distributed ledger technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Innovation
  • Resource mobilization
  • Technology entrepreneurship
  • Venture finance

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Current Projects

  • Murray, Alex, Benjamin L. Hallen, and Suresh Kotha. "Levered Replication: A Study of How Entrepreneurs Quickly and Effectively Learn New Capabilities for Their Nascent Organizations."
  • Murray, Alex, Farhan Iqbal, and Susan Cohen. "Legitimacy Buffers: How Ventures Maintain Stakeholder Support in the Face of Operational Legitimacy Threats."
  • Hmaddi, Ouafaa, Lauren Lanahan, and Alex Murray. "The Impact of Nonprivileged Catalysts on Entrepreneurial Action."
  • Basit, Ameer, Michael Johnson, Ussama A. Khan, and Alex Murray. "Ego-centrists, Collaborators, and Socializers: How Tie-forming Motivations Impact Pivoting."
  • Rhymer, Jen, Alex Murray, and David Sirmon. "The Advent of Synthetic Stakeholders: How the Natural Environment Achieves Salience in Organizations."
  • Heidl, Ralph, Purushothaman Padmanabhan, and Alex Murray. "Trust in Human-Nonhuman Collaborations."
  • Brewer, Jordan, Dennie Kim, Alex Murray, and Dhru Patel. "Assessing the Blockchain-Artificial Intelligence Ensemble."

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Publications

Journal Articles:

Murray, Alex, Dennie Kim, and Jordan Combs. "The Promise of a Decentralized Internet: What is Web 3.0 and How Can Firms Prepare?" Business Horizons, forthcoming. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2022.06.002.

June 2022

Murray, Alex, and Greg Fisher. "When More is Less: Explaining the Curse of Too Much Capital for Early-Stage Ventures." Organization Science, forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1568.

November 2021

Murray, Alex, Scott Kuban, Matthew Josefy, and Jonathan Anderson. "Contracting in the Smart Era: The Implications of Blockchain and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations for Contracting and Corporate Governance." Academy of Management Perspectives 35, no. 4: 622-641. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2018.0066.

November 2021

Murray, Alex, Jen Rhymer, and David G. Sirmon. "Humans and Technology: Forms of Conjoined Agency in Organizations." Academy of Management Review 46, no. 3: 552-571. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2019.0186.

July 2021

Hallen, Benjamin L., Jason P. Davis, and Alex Murray. "Entrepreneurial Network Evolution: Explicating the Structural Localism and Agentic Network Change Distinction." Academy of Management Annals 14, no. 2: 1067-1102. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2018.0063.

July 2020

Murray, Alex, Suresh Kotha, and Greg Fisher. "Community-Based Resource Mobilization: How Entrepreneurs Acquire Resources from Distributed Non-Professionals via Crowdfunding." Organization Science, 31, no. 4: 960-989. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2019.1339.

July 2020
Cases:

Huang, Laura, Maximilian Enthoven, Alex Murray, and Erik Hofmann. "modum.io (B): Bidding Farewell to Crypto." Harvard Business School Case N9-421-068.

January 2021

Huang, Laura, Dominik Roeck, Alex Murray, and Erik Hofmann. "modum.io: Funding a Blockchain-based Start-up's Supply Chain Solution." Harvard Business School Case N9-420-006.

January 2020

Murray, Alex, and Suresh Kotha. "Kickstarter: Using Crowdfunding to Launch a New Board Game." In Strategic Management, edited by F. T. Rothaermel. Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Hill.

January 2020

In the News

Lundquist College management faculty are teaching at the highest levels, out-researching some major names in academia, and publishing in the field's top journals, all while earning notice for excellence in teaching.
Four awardees earned special funding to continue and expand the study of financial literacy and wellness.
Research by management professor Alex Murray and coauthor examined why some tech ventures fail on crowdfunding platforms despite meeting their financing goals.
The Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship has launched a new funding opportunity to support research activities of Lundquist College faculty.
Eight Lundquist College of Business researchers brought their papers to life during the inaugural Research Slam.
When it came to delivering engaging coursework virtually, Lundquist College faculty and staff didn’t miss a beat.
Research by management professor Alex Murray and coauthors explored how new companies fuel success in online fundraising campaigns.
Management professor Alex Murray's research focuses on the interface of humans and technologies.