About

Dr. Devi R. Gnyawali is the Department Head and R. B. Pamplin Professor of Management in the Department of Management at Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business. He holds a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the University of Pittsburgh and has a background in Business Administration and Management from Tribhuvan University in Nepal. His research focuses on understanding how firms learn, innovate, and create competitive advantages through competition, cooperation, and co-opetition, with particular attention to why and how firms engage in co-opetition and the implications of such strategies. Additionally, his work explores how firms acquire external resources, develop internal capabilities such as technology and shared knowledge, and leverage these resources to enhance competitiveness and innovation. Dr. Gnyawali has published extensively in premier management journals and has served in editorial roles, including as Associate Editor of the Journal of Management and on the Editorial Board of the Academy of Management Review. He has also organized international conferences, delivered keynote speeches, and received numerous awards for his research, teaching, and service. His teaching areas include strategic management, management of technology and innovation, entrepreneurship, and international management, and he has extensive international experience, including managing consulting services and training entrepreneurs worldwide.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Business
• Artificial Intelligence
• Knowledge management
• Political Science
• Marketing
• Psychology
• Microeconomics
• Public relations
• Epistemology
• Communication
• Economics

Selected publications

• Value Creation Tension in Coopetition: Virtuous Cycles and Vicious Cycles

  Strategic Management Review · 2025-03-19 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  Intent to create value is the raison d'être for participation in coopetition, but the complexities and challenges of value creation are poorly understood relative to other areas of the coopetition literature. Our essay highlights how simultaneous efforts to pursue firm value creation and joint value creation leads to challenges and unique tension in coopetition. We develop the concept of 'value creation tension' to explain how efforts towards firm value creation in coopetition can undermine joint value creation and vice versa. We also demonstrate how such tension manifests in challenges faced by managers, in terms of cognition, behavior, and emotion. Drawing from the paradox literature, we suggest that attempts to resolve, manage, or manipulate tension may reinforce the positives, leading to virtuous cycles, or negatives, leading to vicious cycles. Our essay offers foundations for addressing a critical but currently underexplored tension in coopetition; offering avenues for future research within and beyond the coopetition literature.

  PublisherDOI

• Inter-Organizational Technology Transfer: Synthesizing a Coherent Multidimensional Construct

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  Prior research recognizes that inter-organizational technology transfer (ITT) is inherently a socio-technical process where success is critically contingent upon human interaction and organizational alignment between partners. However, empirical investigations predominantly rely on archival proxy measures that capture technical-economic exchanges while overlooking essential human and organizational dimensions. Through a three-phase survey-based longitudinal study, we address this incongruity. First, we conceptualize ITT as comprising four interdependent, non-substitutable components: capital-, human-, information-, and organization-embodied. Next, using a sample of 437 ITT engagements, we develop a 16-item multi-dimensional scale capturing human interactions and organizational alignment. Finally, using a matched sample of 227 ITT engagements, we establish ITT's nomological network by validating its relationship with interaction quality and performance while examining how organizational compatibility shapes these performance benefits. By addressing longstanding challenges of construct clarity (delineating conceptual properties) and construct validity (psychometrically valid scale), we enable examination of previously unexplored relationships in technology transfer research, advancing theory and practice.

  PublisherDOI

• Differential effects of geographic-cluster and alliance resources on firm innovation: The moderating role of firm technological capability

  Journal of Engineering and Technology Management · 2025-07-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Building an entrepreneurship education program in a technology-rich environment: Virginia Tech’s entrepreneurship ecosystem

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2025-01-10

  book-chapterOpen accessSenior author

  In recent years, the entrepreneurship ecosystem at Virginia Tech has rapidly evolved into one of the leading global university entrepreneurship programs. Through an integrated mix of curricular and co-curricular programs and initiatives, Virginia Tech is leading the way in building a world-class entrepreneurship ecosystem throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia to serve the students, faculty and staff, Commonwealth citizens, and the entrepreneurship community at large. Building on the historic strengths as a pre-eminent STEM-focused institution, Virginia Tech’s comprehensive ecosystem encompasses a unique blend of academic courses and programs, student experiential learning, and a broader support system to advance technology commercialization and entrepreneurship efforts. Dedicated to entrepreneurship education excellence, Virginia Tech pushes the boundaries of knowledge acquisition and generation by taking a hands-on, transdisciplinary approach to prepare students to be leaders and problem-solvers. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and a leading research institution, Virginia Tech’s entrepreneurship ecosystem spans multiple campuses across the Commonwealth and is anchored by our primary campus in Blacksburg, VA. These innovative and comprehensive efforts and demonstrated success have led to Virginia Tech’s winning the National Model Program Award for entrepreneurship education from the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship in 2022.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reconceptualizing Cooperative Strategy in the Era of Social Movements—A Firm Perspective

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  In the era of social movements, firms have notably shifted from confrontation with activist groups towards cooperating with such groups. This type of cooperation allows firms to adapt to societal demands, enhancing their survivability while enrolling them to help address societal problems. This panel symposium identifies three research streams salient to the theorization of firm-social movement cooperation—interorganizational relationships (IORs), nonmarket strategy and social movement research—and aims to foster an intersectional conversation amongst them. The symposium will explore various potentials of theory development and surface new research avenues to advance all three research traditions.

  PublisherDOI

• Dances With Wolves: How Top Management Shapes the Pursuit of Coopetition

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09

  article

  Empirical research on coopetition has examined multiple forces that shape the pursuit of coopetition (simultaneous competition and cooperation), but studies have largely concentrated on factors at the industry, organization, or network levels, with limited attention given to the managerial level. Focusing on the top management team (TMT), we integrate theoretical insights from the upper echelons and agency literatures and suggest that the risk-taking propensity of the TMT drives firms to engage in coopetition. We theorize that this positive relationship becomes more pronounced with an increase in long-term compensation but is attenuated by environmental dynamism. Results from the data of publicly traded firms from Taiwan during 2013-2016 provide support for our hypotheses. A supplementary analysis also shows that TMT risk-taking propensity propels firms to pursue simultaneous competition and cooperation rather than aggressive competition. Our theoretical insights and empirical results underscore the role of TMTs in the firm’s pursuit of coopetition and provide a nuanced understanding of how such effect varies across different conditions.

  PublisherDOI

• Beyond the Pale Blue Dot: Theoretical and Empirical Research Opportunity in the Space Economy

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09

  article

  Once dominated by state-run entities, the space industry is experiencing a significant transformation and the emergence of the “space economy.” Entailing the exploration, development, and utilization of outer space, the space economy encompasses a wide range of commercial, scientific, as well as private and government activities that take place beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The space economy includes various sectors and industries, such as satellite manufacturing, launch, and communications, space tourism, research and development, and the potential for resource extraction from celestial bodies (e.g., asteroid mining). The primary objective of this proposed panel symposium is to accelerate research engagement on the intricacies of the space economy. To achieve this, we bring a diverse group of experts from several management sub-fields, including entrepreneurship, corporate strategy, ecosystem management, business policy, innovation, and corporate venture capital. We seek to (1) expose AOM attendees to insights gleaned from these experts regarding research challenges and opportunities in the space economy; and (2) provide multifaceted perspectives on the development of innovative theories and methods for shaping future research in this area. Aligned with the overarching theme of AOM 2024 Chicago, “Innovating for the Future,” this symposium will contribute to our understanding of the “untamed problems” inherent in exploring an emerging domain, called the space economy.

  PublisherDOI

• Managing coopetition dynamics: A longitudinal study of a multiparty alliance formation in a large utilities project

  Journal of Operations Management · 2024-06-29 · 18 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Multiparty alliances (MPAs) are increasingly used to deliver large utilities infrastructure projects on‐time, on‐budget, and to specified quality. In theory, MPAs should help buyers to coordinate suppliers, enable concurrent scheduling, and create process innovations. On the other hand, these governance structures are inherently less stable than dyadic relationships due to their additional complexity and greater opportunities for free riding. We conduct a multi‐source, longitudinal study, investigating how a buyer actively manages the dynamics between competition and cooperation during the formation of an MPA consisting of a lead organization and directional relationships between all partners. We contribute to MPA and coopetition literature by exploring cooperation and competition dynamics that are associated with the MPA structure that would largely be absent in dyads, and unpack the process by which a buyer orchestrates these dynamics by sequentially introducing new initiatives that seek to balance coopetition. MPAs have been recommended by governments and industry bodies as one solution for time and cost overruns in the utilities infrastructure sector, our study also provides guidance to buyers on the management of the alliance during the critical formation stage of the relationship lifecycle.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cooperation-Competition (Coopetition)

  2024-05-22

  reference-entry1st authorCorresponding

  Coopetition involves the simultaneous pursuit of cooperation and competition to create value. This unique strategy blends opposing principles of competition and cooperation and presents intriguing opportunities and challenges. Various factors drive organizations to pursue coopetition, and success in coopetition is enhanced when organizations possess specialized capabilities to navigate the complexities involved. Recognized as a modern strategic approach, coopetition has gained significant attention in academic research and management practice, making it a compelling area of study in contemporary business environments.

  PublisherDOI

• From early curiosity to space wide web: The emergence of the small satellite innovation ecosystem

  Research Policy · 2023-12-11 · 25 citations

  articleOpen access

  Innovation ecosystems have gained significant scholarly and managerial attention. Much of the literature focuses on established ecosystems, and the limited research that examines ecosystem emergence does not dig deeper into the dynamics and challenges during the process of emergence. With a focus on the transition from birth to growth of an ecosystem, this paper fills this important gap by systematically examining how a nascent ecosystem develops into a thriving one. Employing a conceptualized composition approach, we conduct an in-depth qualitative study on the emergence of the modern small satellite ecosystem from 1981 to 2017. Our case analysis demonstrates a dynamic process through which a seed innovation gradually grows into a thriving ecosystem without a centralized sponsor. We explicate how tensions arise within an evolving ecosystem and how forces hindering specialization delay the emergence process. We then develop a process model of ecosystem emergence to conceptualize how actors gradually become specialized, how their specialization decisions coevolve with the ecosystem value proposition, and how tensions get resolved through a complex and iterative process. We contribute to the literature by advancing an evolutionary view of ecosystem emergence with an in-depth analysis of the transition from birth to growth of an ecosystem.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Manish K. Srivastava

  Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology

  26 shared

• Tadhg Ryan‐Charleton

  Motu Economic and Public Policy Research

  18 shared

• Nuno Oliveira

  Tilburg University

  16 shared

• Jinyu He

  Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

  12 shared

• Yue Song

  Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

  10 shared

• Beverly B. Tyler

  Virginia Tech

  7 shared

• Evan H. Offstein

  6 shared

• Shaohua Mu

  6 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Management

  University of Pittsburgh

  1997

Awards & honors

• Research Download Award, Pamplin College of Business, Virgin…
• Faculty Research Excellence Award, Department of Management,…
• Excellence in International Programs, Pamplin College of Bus…
• Outstanding Faculty in Doctoral Education Award, Pamplin Col…
• Pamplin Excellence in Teaching Award and Warren Holtzman Out…