Nathan Washburn, Ph.D.
Emerging Market Innovation, Transferring Strategies to New Markets, Healthcare Sector, Global and Competitive Strategy, Corporate Social Responsibility, China.
Competitive Strategy, Dynamic China Business Environment, Global Strategy
Despite his childhood in the small Snowflake Arizona, Nathan Washburn always wanted to see the world. With over half of his adult life spent outside the United States, with his global business experience in Asia, the Americas, and Europe, and with his fluency in Spanish and Mandarin, he nicely fits the typical Thunderbird profile.
As an assistant professor at Thunderbird, Nathan has continued to develop his expertise in global business. He teaches courses on strategic management in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Glendale, and this diversity of locations has given Nathan direct access and insight into a wide variety of firms in many different countries.
Nathan’s research areas of expertise focus on the role of the executive as strategic leader and decision-maker, and the overriding influence that an executive has on the overall performance and health of the organization. He is involved in several ongoing research projects, studying executives from 20 different countries. In one of these projects, he and his co-authors examine the influence of national culture and CEO leadership on a firm’s corporate social responsibility values. In another, they study the relationship between subordinate perceptions of executives, and subordinate willingness to give their best to the organization.
Nathan has transferred his research interests in behavioral strategy and global business into article published in such prestigious publications as Administrative Science Quarterly and the Journal of International Business Studies.
Before joining the Thunderbird faculty in 2007, Nathan held a visiting faculty position at Arizona State University, teaching courses in business strategy, corporate strategy and international strategy. He earned his Ph.D. in management at Arizona State University following several years in business consulting with Andersen Consulting and Booz Allen Hamilton. Among his clients were such notable companies as Cable & Wireless, AT&T and others with operations located in the U.S., South America and Europe. He also worked in Asia, teaching English and managing an English school, and as a rural development facilitator in South America.
Nathan received his Master’s degree in organizational behavior in 1995, and a BA in international relations in 1992 from Brigham Young University.
