Profile Information

Profile

Dr. Chad Navis is the Martin Chair of Entrepreneurship at Clemson University. Within the Management Department, he oversees the undergraduate entrepreneurship curriculum, advances entrepreneurship scholarship, mentors PhD students, and organizes the annual Powers Pitch Competition.

He regularly publishes in the field’s leading journals, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Journal of Business Venturing, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and Journal of Management Studies. He currently serves on the editorial board of Academy of Management Review, previously served eight years on the editorial board of Administrative Science Quarterly, and is a guest editor for a Journal of Business Venturing special issue.

Dr. Navis previously taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Before academia, he worked as a senior business analyst at American Management Systems (now CGI), at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and in two family businesses. He continues to advise student start-ups.

Research Interests

• Dr. Navis's research examines a question of theoretical and practical importance: how do new market categories emerge? To do so, he focuses on the language and symbols of entrepreneurs, the interpretations and responses of their stakeholders, and the nature of and differences in these interactions as markets become more established over time. His research, which regularly blends qualitative and quantitative methods, has examined these focal dynamics in such market settings as satellite radio, local telecommunications, and online groceries, and craft micro-distilleries.

Research Publications

• Meléndez, E., Wood, M., & Navis, C. (2025). A Review of Market Categorization Research: An Evolutionary Framework Across Perspectives and Stages. Journal of Management.
• Navis, C. (2024) Christine E. Evans and Lars Lundgren. No Heavenly Bodies: A History of Satellite Communications Infrastructure. Administrative Science Quarterly. (Book review)
• Younger, S., Preedom, J, & Navis, C. (2024). Legitimately Distinct Entrepreneurial Stories in Evolving Market Categories. Journal of Business Venturing.
• Waldron, T.L., Wetherbe, J. C., Navis, C., Karam, E., & Markman, G.D., (2024). What if Activists Target My Company? Entrepreneur and Innovation Exchange (EIX)
• Jiang, D., Simarasl, N., Pandey, S., & Navis, C. (2022). Constrained but not Contained: How Marginalized Entrepreneurs Across Institutional Contexts Overcome Bias and Mobilize Resources. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal
• Waldron, T.L., Navis, C., & Markman, G.D. (2022). Toward a Theory of Activist-Driven Responsible Innovation: How Activists Pressure Firms to Adopt More Responsible Practices. Journal of Management Studies
• Waldron, T.L., Navis, C. Aronson, O., York, J. & Pacheco, D. (2019). Values-based Rivalry: A Theoretical Framework of Rivalry Between Activists and Firms. Academy of Management Review (44).
• Waldron, T.L., Navis, C., Markman, G. (2019). Mightier Than the Sword: How Activists Use Rhetoric to Facilitate Perception Change in Industries. In Siegel, D. (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility: Psychological and Organizational Perspectives. Oxford University Press.
• Navis, C. & Ozbek, O. (2018). How to Spot Entrepreneurs Who Are Likely to Crash and Burn. Academy of Management Insights
• Navis, C. & Ozbek, O. (2017). Why Context Matters: Overconfidence, Narcissism, and the Role of Objective Uncertainty in Entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Review (42), 148-153.
• Navis, C. & Ozbek, O. (2016). The Right People in the Wrong Places: The Paradox of Entrepreneurial Entry and Successful Opportunity Realization. Academy of Management Review (41), 109-129.
• Waldron, T. & Fisher, G. & Navis, C. (2015). Institutional Entrepreneurs' Social Mobility in Organizational Fields. Journal of Business Venturing (30), 131-149.
• Waldron, T.L., Navis, C., Markman, G. (2014). Activists' Strategies for Confronting Firms. In Siegel, D., Markman, G., Guerber, A. & Su, W-T. (Eds.) Sustainability, Society, Business Ethics, and Entrepreneurship, World Scientific.
• Glynn, M. & Navis, C. (2013). Categories, Identities, and Cultural Classification: Moving Beyond a Model of Category Constraint. Journal of Management Studies (50), 1124-1137.
• Waldron, T. & Navis, C. & Fisher, G. (2012). Explaining Differences in Firms' Responses to Activism. Academy of Management Review (38), 397-417.
• Navis, C. & Glynn, M. (2011). Legitimate Distinctiveness and the Entrepreneurial Identity: Influence on Investor Judgments of New Venture Plausibility. Academy of Management Review (36), 479-499.
• Glynn, M. & Navis, C. (2010). Organizational Leadership and Institutional Emergence: Tuning in to "The Next Big Thing" in Satellite Radio. Research in the Sociology of Work (21), 257-286.
• Navis, C. & Glynn, M. (2010). How New Market Categories Emerge: Temporal Dynamics of Legitimacy, Identity, and Entrepreneurship in Satellite Radio, 1990-2005. Administrative Science Quarterly (55), 439-471.