Caruna
  •  caruna.bhat@spjimr.org

Caruna Bhat

Assistant Professor, Strategy

Caruna Bhat is an Assistant Professor of Strategy at SPJIMR. She holds a Ph.D. in Strategy from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB). Her research explores the formation and evolution of director interlocks, especially in the context of exogenous institutional change in emerging economies. She has received two director’s merit awards – the maximum possible – for excellence in Ph.D. coursework at IIM Bangalore. Her research interests include corporate governance – particularly board of directors and director networks, network evolution and entrepreneurship.

Her research has been presented at prestigious conferences like the Academy of Management, the Strategic Management Society, and the British Academy of Management Conference. Her teaching interests include Strategic management, Corporate governance, Social Networks and Economics of Strategy. Prior to her Ph.D., she pursued an integrated first degree, MSc. (Hons.) in Economics from BITS Pilani and worked for a short stint in investment banking with Credit Suisse.

Read More

EDUCATION

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

Ph.D., 2023, Specialisation: Strategy

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Master of Science, Major/Specialisation: Economics (Honours)

  • RESEARCH INTERESTS

    Corporate Governance

    Social Networks

    Entrepreneurship

  • CONFERENCES

    • Bhat, C., & Dwibedy, P. (2024). Digital platform adoption as a response to informal competition – An attention based view of small business. 9th Indian Academy of Management- INDAM National 2024 Conference, Goa Institute of Management, Goa
    • Bhat, C., & Dwibedy, P. (2019). Necessity Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies: The Role of Human & Social Capital. Academy of Management Global Proceedings, (2019), 388.
      Presented at the Academy of Management Special Conference, Bled, Slovenia, 2019
      https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amgblproc.slovenia.2019.0388.abs
      [Received a full conference waiver from the STR (Strategic Management) Division of the Academy of Management. Also chosen as session chair for my session.]
    • Bhat, C. (2019). Network Evolution of Director Interlocks and Organizational Performance. International Corporate Governance Society Annual Conference, (2019) [Selected to present, did not attend]
    • Bhat, C. (2018). The Paradox of Performance: The Effect of Multiple Directorships on Indian Firms. Strategic Management Society Special Conference Proceedings. (December 2018)
      Presented at the Strategic Management Society Special Conference, Hyderabad, India, 2018
    • Bhat, C. (2018). Multiple Directorships and Firm Performance in the Indian Context. British Academy of Management (BAM) 2018 Conference Proceedings. (September 2018)
      Presented at the British Academy of Management Annual Conference, Bristol, UK, 2018
    • Bhat, C. (2018). Role of Firm Characteristics in Tacit Knowledge Transfer during Acquisitions. British Academy of Management (BAM) 2018 Conference Proceedings. (September 2018)
      Presented at the British Academy of Management Annual Conference, Bristol, UK, 2018
    • Bhat, C. (2018). Is Investment In Innovation And Social Responsibility Really A Zero-Sum Game? Evidence From Corporate India. AICAR Annual Conference, Aston University. (August 2018)
      Presented at the Aston India Centre for Applied Research, Birmingham, UK [Awarded best paper for its track.]
    • Bhat, C. (2018). Fastalliance Process: A Social Capital Perspective. Academy of International Business-India Conference Proceedings. (April 2018)
      Presented at the AIB India Conference 2018, IIFT HIPA, Shimla
    • Bhat, C. (2018). Determinants of Groupthink: The Role of Organizational Strata. Academy of International Business-India Conference Proceedings. (April 2018)
      Presented at the AIB India Conference 2018, IIFT HIPA, Shimla
    • Bhat, C. (2017). Firm position and knowledge flows through acquisitions. Academy of International Business-India Conference Proceedings. (April 2017)
      Presented at the AIB India Conference 2017, SCMHRD, Pune
    • Bhat, C. (2017). Social entrepreneurship: A social capital perspective on financial inclusion in Bangladesh. Academy of International Business-India Conference Proceedings. (April 2017)
      Presented at the AIB India Conference 2017, SCMHRD, Pune

  • WORKSHOPS

    Academy of Management Journal Paper and Idea Development Workshop. February 2018, IIMB

    SMS Hyderabad Doctoral Workshop. December 2018, ISB. Nominated for the “That’s Interesting!” Doctoral Workshop Prize.

    FPM Paper Writing Workshop. July 2019, IIMB.

    Teaching Workshop for Doctoral Students. January 2021, Centre for Teaching and Learning, IIMB.

    Teaching and Learning Workshop. June 2021, Centre for Teaching and Learning, IIMB.

  • WORKING PAPERS

    Corporate Governance: A Qualitative Systematic Review (with Prof. Rejie George Pallathitta, Prof. Ganesh Prabhu and Prof. S Raghunath).

    Board Attributes and Firm Performance: Evidence from India (with Prof. Rejie George Pallathitta)

    Evolution of Network due to Institutional Disruptions: Impact of Companies Act on Indian Firm Networks (with Prof. Rejie George Pallathitta and Prof. Suresh Bhagavatula)

    Digital platform adoption by Microfirms in developing economies (with Punyashlok Dwibedy)

  • AWARDS & HONOURS

    Director’s Merit List Award for excellence in Ph.D. Coursework for the first year (2015-2016).

    Director’s Merit List Award for excellence in Ph.D. Coursework for the both years (2015-2017).

    SMS Hyderabad Doctoral Workshop. December 2018, ISB. Nominated for the “That’s Interesting!” Doctoral Workshop Prize.

    Paper titled “Development of an Internal Risk Calculator for Indian Organizations” presented at the all India Inter-Collegiate Technical Festival of BITS Pilani (APOGEE 2015)– won best paper award for its category.

    Paper titled “Nutritional Optimization of Food Basket in times of Steep Inflation – A Modelling Approach” presented at the all India Inter-Collegiate Technical Festival of BITS Pilani (APOGEE 2015)– won best paper award for its category.

    Awarded the Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) scholarship under innovation in Science Pursuit for INSPIRE scheme by virtue of performance within top 1% of the senior school certificate examination 2011 conducted by CBSE. The scholarship is awarded by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India.

    Awarded Certificate of Merit by CBSE for being among the top 0.1% of successful candidates in Chemistry.

    Awarded Atma Ram Padia-Pande Gold Medal for standing first in AISSCE-2011 amongst all Birla Education Trust Schools.

    Topped the district in State Talent Search Examination (STSE – Science) conducted by Dept. of Science and Technology (Rajasthan Govt.).

    State Topper (Rajasthan) of the subject “English” in the International Assessment for Indian Schools examination conducted by the University of New South Wales, Australia in 2010.

    Qualified within top 1 percentile of the 6th National Cyber Olympiad held on August 24, 2006 (with a percentile score of 99.06% and All India Rank of 210).

  • TEACHING INTEREST

    Strategic Management, Corporate Governance, Social Networks, Economics of Strategy.

  • REVIEWER EXPERIENCE

    Reviewer for the Academy of Management Annual Conference

  • PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

    Student Volunteer for IIMB Management Review Doctoral Consortium, IIMB in 2015, 2016, 2017/18

    Student Volunteer, Corporate Governance Conference, organised by Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship (CCGC), IIMB and Florida International University (FIU), 2019.

    Student Volunteer Organiser, “OMT Global: Doing Organisational Research Around the World” PDW, Academy of Management Conference, 2020.

  • PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

    Academy of Management

    Strategic Management Society

AppLy Now