Profile picture of Alex Murray

Alex Murray

Associate Professor of Management | Director, Intelligent Futures Lab

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

About

Biography:

Alex Murray's research explores how emerging technologies are reshaping the ways we organize, collaborate, and govern. His work focuses on human–AI collaboration, decentralized governance, and algorithmic organizing, with particular attention to the phenomena of crowdfunding, blockchain-based tokenization, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

He develops theoretical frameworks to advance our understanding of technological shifts and to guide the responsible implementation of emerging technologies in organizations and society. His work combines inductive field studies with experiments and statistical analyses to generate insights on how technologies like AI and blockchain are reshaping decision-making, collaboration, and organizational design.

Murray's research has been published in leading academic journals, including Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Academy of Management Annals, Journal of Management Studies, and Research Policy.

He also directs the Intelligent Futures Lab, a student- and faculty-led research group focused on the impact of emerging technologies on organizations and society.

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:
  • Senior Editor, Organization Science
  • Guest Editor, Special Topic Forum on "AI in Management," Academy of Management Review
  • Editorial Board Member, Academy of Management Review
  • Editorial Board Member, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal
  • Member, Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Academy of Management
Honors and Awards:
  • Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Review, 2025
  • Williams Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2025
  • Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Review, 2024
  • Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching, University of Oregon, 2024
  • 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

Back to Top

Areas of Expertise

  • AI leadership
  • Algorithmic organizing
  • Blockchain technology
  • Crowdfunding
  • Decentralized governance
  • Human-AI interaction
  • Technology entrepreneurship

Back to Top

Current Projects

  • Majzoubi, Majid, Alex Murray, and William J. Mayew. "Shaping Expectations, Losing Flexibility: A Study of CEO Promises as Strategic Communication Tools."
  • Murray, Alex. "AI Agents in DAO Governance: The Case of GoverNoun."
  • Murray, Alex, Benjamin L. Hallen, and Suresh Kotha. "Levered Replication: A Study of How Entrepreneurs Better Learn New High-stakes Skills from Others."
  • Murray, Alex, Susan Cohen, and Farhan Iqbal. "Legitimacy Buffers: How Ventures Maintain Stakeholder Support in the Face of Operational Legitimacy Threats."
  • Murray, Alex, Ussama A. Khan, Ameer Basit, and Michael Johnson. "Ego-centrists, Collaborators, and Socializers: How Tie-forming Motivations Impact Pivoting."
  • Park, Sung H., and Alex Murray. "The Effects of Generative AI on Entrepreneurial Theorizing."
  • Rhymer, Jen, Alex Murray, and David Sirmon. "Synthetic Stakeholders: Combining Acknowledged Personhood and Emergent Technologies to Achieve Stakeholder Salience."
  • Tinguely, Patrick, and Alex Murray. "Selectively Tokenizing Hierarchies: The Emergence of Centralized Semi-autonomous Organizations."
  • Younger, Shannon, Alex Murray, Suresh Kotha, Andy Wicks. "How Marketplace Platforms Sequence Community Building for Strategic Advantage in Nascent Markets."

Back to Top

Publications

Journal Articles:

Hmaddi, Ouafaa, Lauren Lanahan, and Alex Murray. "Tracing Entrepreneurial Spillovers: Evidence from the U.S. State Small Business Credit Initiative and Kickstarter." Research Policy 54, no. 4: 105197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2025.105197

May 2025

Jones, Jessica, and Alex Murray. "Contending with Perceived Legitimacy Tensions: Impact Investing in Pluralistic Institutional Environments." Journal of Management Studies, forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.13233.

April 2025

Brewer, Jordan, Dhru Patel, Dennie Kim, and Alex Murray. "Navigating the Challenges of Generative Technologies: Proposing the Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain." Business Horizons 67, no. 5: 525–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2024.04.011.

September 2024

He, Vivianna Fang, Mattias Tröbinger, and Alex Murray. "The Crowd Beyond Funders: An Integrative Review of and Research Agenda for Crowdfunding." Academy of Management Annals 18, no. 1: 348–394. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2022.0064

January 2024

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 66, no. 2: 191–202. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2022.06.002.

March 2023

Murray, Alex, and Greg Fisher. "When More is Less: Explaining the Curse of Too Much Capital for Early-Stage Ventures." Organization Science 34, no. 1: 246–282. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1568.

February 2023

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
Book Chapters:

Rhymer, Jen, Alex Murray, and David Sirmon. "Synthetic Stakeholders: Engaging the Environment in Organizational Decision-Making." In Research Handbook on Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making in Organizations, edited by Ioanna Constantiou, Mayur P. Joshi, and Marta Stelmaszak, 226–239. Northhampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803926216.00022.

March 2024
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

Master of Accounting students are already co-publishing along with faculty on the bleeding-edge topic of blockchain and artificial intelligence.
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.