Matt Josefy
Indiana University Kelley School of Business
“Professor Josefy was my honors professor two full years ago and still drives immense impact into my professional growth and development. His commitment to students, not simply from an academic standpoint, but one of professional and personal growth, overall wellbeing, and encouragement to develop one’s knowledge base sets him apart. The projects he assigned prepared me for my professional career and taught me that although the work is important, so are the people we meet, connections we make, and knowledge we pursue. This has changed my ways of working as I prioritize networking – which has led me to meet some amazing industry professionals – and knowledge – which has allowed me to explore my natural curiosity and discover hidden talents and hobbies.” – Mallory Kimes
Matt Josefy, 42, is an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and a visiting associate professor (2024-2025) at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to entering academia, he worked in accounting and finance roles; he maintains both the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) qualification.
Josefy’s research examines how contemporary firms organize and interface with society, coalescing around two key themes at the intersection of strategic management and entrepreneurship: How do firms attract and manage resources, particularly human capital? and How do strategic leaders govern and manage competing stakeholder expectations? He often revisits key topics of longstanding interest to scholars, such his series of work on firm size, firm age and firm survival, but also has often been one of the earliest management voices on emerging topics of high relevance to practitioners, including firms’ sociopolitical involvement, crowdfunding, blockchain and the pandemic. He serves on editorial boards for Journal of Business Venturing and Business Horizons and has been elected treasurer for the Research Methods division of the Academy of Management.
Josefy is an innovative and engaging professor, employing a wide variety of teaching methods including case discussions, simulations, board games (including some he designed), debates, roleplay, book clubs, and even skits and spoken word battles.
At Kelley, he has taught strategy to over 1,000 students over the last seven years as part of the Honors Integrated Core. At Wharton, he is teaching Multinational Management, exploring how successful firms navigate challenges across borders and changes in the global environment.
He has received multiple recognitions for his teaching at both the Kelley School of Business and the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. These include the IU Trustee Teaching Award, the Honors Program Most Influential Faculty Award, the Kelley Innovative Teaching Award, the Mays MBA Program Outstanding Achievement Award, and the Mays Faculty Outstanding Service Award. He regularly mentors students through multiple programs, including a student whose senior thesis was recognized with the Provost’s Award for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity.
BACKGROUND
At current institution since what year? 2016
Education: B.B.A. Accounting, Texas A&M University, M.S. Financial Management, Texas A&M University, Ph.D. Strategic Management, Texas A&M University
List of Undergraduate courses you teach: Honors Strategic Management, Multinational Management
TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR
I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when … I spent a summer teaching a financial statements analysis course. I quickly appreciated the continuous renewal of a college campus and the chance to be part of students’ journeys of learning and discovery. In addition, in management research, I am able to study the stories of firms and their leaders, with the flexibility to explore almost any question in almost any context – organizations are all around us and shape every facet of our lives.
What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it?
I focus on firm resources, especially human capital, and firm governance. I’m currently looking at factors that are associated with whether a firm that recently completed an IPO is more or less likely to initiate layoffs. Losing a job is an incredibly difficult experience for individuals, so anything our work can do to shine a light on the factors that are tied to when firms are more likely to be able to continue providing a place for their workers to thrive is of tremendous consequence.
If I weren’t a business school professor, I’d be … probably still back working in accounting and finance, but I do sometimes still dream of being a journalist or a book author.
What do you think makes you stand out as a professor?
As a professor, I first seek to build trust so that students are comfortable to share in the environment. Then I introduce some degree of challenge, trying to keep students on the edge of their seats with surprise and variety, making each class period unique in ways that I hope will make specific concepts more memorable. When I first start teaching, I was concerned about setting up systems that sought to enforce the rules and expectations for students who were least engaged; over time, I’ve gravitated toward dedicating most of my time and attention to showing relevance and communicating my own passion for the topics, hoping that most students will respond and join on the journey.
One word that describes my first time teaching: enthusiastic.
Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor:
There is nothing as rewarding as receiving a note from a student years after they’ve had your class, recalling something they learned or something that changed their thinking and telling a story of how it helped them in their current pursuits. I try to teach my class with that perspective – someday one of my students will be an executive of a Fortune 500 company with tremendous impact on many. What can I teach them that will help them make the best possible decisions when they are in that boardroom?
Professor I most admire and why: Jeff Conant was my marketing professor when I was an undergraduate at Texas A&M. He started every class by saying “Welcome to Marketing” and thoughtfully engaged with student comments both inside and outside the classroom. I still try to model and employ many of the techniques he used to encourage student curiosity while sharing his own passions and expertise.
TEACHING BUSINESS SCHOOL STUDENTS
What do you enjoy most about teaching business students?
I enjoy seeing someone’s face light-up when they make a meaningful connection. I enjoy when someone sees me in the hallway and rushes to tell me about something that they read in the news that day that connected to a classroom conversation.
I enter the classroom operating under the assumption that one of my students will someday be the leader of a Fortune 500 company and that many of them found startups and non-profits as well as chair parent-teacher organizations at local schools and serve on city councils. I enjoy doing everything I can to prepare them to be ready for that moment, hoping that something we cover will put them in a better situation to draw on data or frameworks to consider difficult tradeoffs and priorities to ultimately arrive at the best possible decision.
What is most challenging?
Getting students to focus on a longer-term horizon is the most challenging part of teaching in this environment where students have a lot of other commitments, a lot of distraction, and a lot of focus on choosing and landing a job they desire. Some students are naturally focused then on short-term outcomes when it comes to their classes and focused on questions like “will I be assessed on this?” I do everything I can to encourage longer-term perspectives, learning and genuine curiosity.
In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Engaged
In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Distracted
When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as …
LIFE OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
What are your hobbies? I’m part of the wave – I initiated a lunch-time pickleball group of faculty and staff at Kelley. I also am a relatively avid reader. And, at this stage in my life, driving kids to their activities is my second job and watching kids’ games and performances is my favorite hobby for now.
How will you spend your summer? My summers are a mix of thinking and planning for the next academic year, longer blocks of time to focus on writing, traveling to academic conferences and vacationing with my family… and eating out in Bloomington without any lines!
Favorite place(s) to vacation: the ski slopes!
Favorite book(s): Any “corporate biography” – I encourage my students to read regularly and widely and try to expose them to books that reveal key inflection points within organizations and how leaders handled them. I’m also part of a virtual book club with other professors – we recently read The Tainted Cup. I also highly recommend the meaningful short Tolkien story: Leaf by Niggle.
What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much?
What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why?
THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this … personalized learning. I think we increasingly will have modules in which everyone needs to invest additional time, but that there will be many possible paths to pursue. I try to create such optionality in my courses as much as I can.
In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at … building community. Someone I worked for used to say that if we’re all just paid mercenaries, then people won’t be satisfied with either their work or their employer. Work itself can be highly meaningful – but a lot of meaning is also found in who we do it with. The most productive and successful organizations tend to find ways to foster meaningful community for their members.
I’m grateful for … the many wonderful colleagues I have had a chance to work with across the institutions I’ve been part of and the now over 2,000 students I’ve had the chance to teach. There’s nothing more exciting than hearing from a student several years later, hearing their life and professional updates, and knowing that I had the chance to intersect in their journey for a short moment, hopefully providing them with some new ways of thinking strategically that continue to inform their decisions.
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