Dr Harry SMINIA
Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management
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Harry was educated in the Netherlands and holds an MSc in Sociology (Rijksuniversiteit Leiden) and a PhD in Business Administration (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen). Before joining the Sheffield University Management School he held positions at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. He now teaches strategic management at the University of Sheffield, UK.
Research Interests
Harry's research interests are in the areas of processes of strategy formation, strategic change, and competitive positioning. He is eclectic in his theoretical tastes as long as it helps to elucidate ‘how’ questions. To Harry, management reality is processual. It is not about the state of things and providing explanations why these are correlated with each other; It is about how things come into being, change or continue to be, and sometimes disappear again. It is about understanding how things happen and can be made to happen. He is also interested in process research methods and methodology. Hence his involvement in a website about process research methods.
In his teaching Harry believes that there is nothing so practical as a good theory (to paraphrase Kurt Lewin). He also believes that the most effective way to learn something is by doing it. For that reason, he always try to involve students in activities in which they have to use strategy theories to experience their practicality.