There have been only two occasions in the past 47 years that the top scholars in the field of strategic management have come together to discuss the future of the field.

Now comes the third, courtesy of the Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business. Some 150 senior strategic management scholars from all over the world will assemble this week at Deer Valley Resort in Park City for the third-ever “Strategy Summit.”

Strategic management scholars seek to understand why some firms can create and appropriate more economic value than other firms. Their insights are shared not only with students but with many companies around the world looking to improve their competitive advantage. 

Or, as Eccles School professor and 2024 Strategy Summit co-host Jay Barney puts it: “We try to explain why some firms make more money than other firms.”

The first-ever Strategy Summit was held in May 1977 at the University of Pittsburgh and led to the founding of this field in business schools around the world. The second Summit was held in November 1990 in Napa, California, and helped to define the central research questions in the field of strategic management and to clarify its role in business school research and teaching.

“The field of strategic management has evolved dramatically since 1990,” said Barney, one of the U’s 2024 Rosenblatt Prize winners, and summit co-host Todd Zenger, a professor of entrepreneurship and strategy. “It seemed like it might be a good time to reflect on how the field has changed over these more than three decades, and to consider how it should evolve going forward.”

They curated a list of prestigious names, featuring “the biggest global thinkers in this field” and invited them to Utah. Attendees will participate in 10-panel sessions that will tackle everything from the impact of artificial intelligence on corporate strategies to the relationship between corporate strategy and a government’s industrial policy.

Although in-person attendance is by invitation only, anyone wishing to view a livestream of the conference can do so via this link.