Benjamin Cole is an expert in corporate strategy and international business, and currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Management Systems at both the Graduate School of Business Administration and the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University. Professor Cole joined Fordham in September 2008, and currently teaches the core Strategy course at Gabelli.
Professor Cole uses both domestic and international settings to investigate how social factors—such as status, legitimacy, logics and media framings—influence technological innovation, regulatory oversight and economic exchanges. Professor Cole was selected as a finalist in the INFORMS / Organization Science Dissertation Proposal Competition in 2006, and has earned seven outstanding reviewer awards from divisions of the Academy of Management to date. Prior to his appointment at Fordham, Professor Cole taught at the Stern School of Business at New York University and at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. At the latter institution, Professor Cole was recognized as one of the “Top 15 Instructors” for BBA-level instruction. At Fordham, Professor Cole was selected by the graduating seniors of the College of Business Administration as the recipient of the “CBA Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence” for 2008-2009.
Before entering academia, Professor Cole lived in Japan for nine years, where he worked as both a translator for a Japanese textbook company and as a corporate representative for Japan’s largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corporation. During that time, he had interactions with representatives of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and was involved in preparing materials used in the 1995 Japan-U.S. trade negotiations. Professor Cole was a key player in introducing the Toyota Hybrid System and the Fuel Cell Hybrid System technologies to the global media and financial community, and acted as simultaneous interpreter for Executive Vice President Akihiro Wada in charge of global technology. He also communicated firm decision-making on foreign direct investment in China, India, Poland, and the U.S., as well as coordinated projects between Japan, Belgium, Malaysia and the U.S. In short, Professor Cole has personal experience with many of the topics that managers face in this globalized environment. As a bilingual and a former expatriate, Professor Cole is keenly interested in cross-cultural hurdles to effective management.
Professor Cole earned his B.A. in Japanese Language & Culture from Occidental College, and his M.B.A. (with Distinction) and Ph.D. in Strategy from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Professor Cole has appeared on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, Financial Spectrum with Bill Kearney (WKXL 1450 AM), Fordham Conversations with Robin Shannon (WFUV 90.7 FM), and RepChatter with Steve Cody and Ted Birkhahn to discuss the challenges that businesses face in today’s complex world. He was an invited speaker at The CFO Alliance, and has worked with several multinational corporations, including Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank and JTB Travel USA.
