Steven White is Professor of Asian Business and Comparative Management at INSEAD. His research and teaching activities focus on three areas related to the issue of dynamic strategic fit. The first investigates the interface and fit between groups and firms, with a specific focus on the tension between cooperation and control in alliance relationships and the interaction between different cultural stakeholders. The latter is being developed into a cultural due diligence protocol for firms contemplating an alliance, merger or other interorganizational strategy.

The second area of research addresses the challenges facing Chinese firms as both domestic and global competition requires them to become more innovative. The organizational features that have enabled many of these firms to succeed based on an imitation strategy are very different from those necessary to succeed based on creating unique and proprietary knowledge and resources. Empirical studies in the auto, electronics, biotech and retail industries examine firms attempting to make this transition from imitation to creation, as well as those founded originally on a creation-based strategy.

The third area of research is developing a framework for analyzing the process by which complex systemsorganizations and industriesiterate between fit and mis-fit and undergo change. Specific phenomena being investigated include transitions in a firms configuration of resources, capabilities, structure and culture, and the emergence of new institutional structures in an industry.

He has published articles in the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Studies, Research Policy, Journal of Management Studies, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, R&D Management, International Journal of Technology Management, and Technovation. His books include Biotechnology Japan and Handbook of Asian Management. He has developed numerous cases and exercises for executive education programs and his MBA courses: Strategies for Asia Pacific, China: Management and Change, and Managing Across Cultures. He completed his Ph.D. at MITs Sloan School of Management, and has previously taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Before his Ph.D., he worked for Sumitomo Corporation in Tokyo and Unistone Pharmaceutical in Beijing.

Venture Capital). Other Projects Study Cultural Interfaces; including the Transfer of Practices across Borders; Managing Interorganisational Collaboration; and Merging Organizations.; Alliances and the Tension Between Control and Cooperation; Organisational Change and Innovation; and Cross-Cultural Management. Empirical Work in China has focused on Chinese Firms and Industries (; Electronics.

MBA Electives include: Strategies for Asia Pacific (applies Strategic Concepts in Asian Business Contexts; with Particular Emphasis on the Social Environment); China: Management and Change (surveys Major Issues in doing Business in China; including both Domestic and Foreign Perspectives); China (B): Fieldwork (a Study Tour to China for MBAs); International Business Negotiations (incorporates Cultural and Communication Issues into Negotiation Strategies); and Managing Across Cultures (teaches Awareness and Coping Strategies for Managing at the Interface between Cultural Groups; including Functional.