Sharon Matusik

Sharon F. Matusik is an American business strategy scholar, currently serving as dean of the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.

She is the Edward J. Frey Dean and the Stephen M. Ross Professor of Business at the University of Michigan. Matusik's teaching and research areas of expertise include strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, and knowledge assets. She focuses on understanding the knowledge-intensive firm and how firm knowledge and innovation capabilities contribute to competitive advantage.

Education
Matusik received a Bachelor of Arts with majors in economics and English with honors from Colby College at Waterville, Maine in 1986. She received a Doctor of Philosophy in the field of business administration with a concentration on strategic management from the University of Washington in 1998.

Career
Matusik joined the faculty of the Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University as an Assistant Professor in 1998 before moving to the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2004,. She rose through the ranks to become Professor in the Leeds School in 2014 and also served as Academic Research Director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship. In 2016, Matusik was named interim senior associate dean for Faculty and Research, and in 2017, she was appointed interim dean and later dean at the Leeds School of Business of the University of Colorado Boulder.

In 2022, Matusik moved to the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, where she is the Edward J. Frey Dean of Business and the Stephen M. Ross Professor of Business.

Research
Matusik and Hill examined the role of "contingent workers" in knowledge flows that affect competitive advantage of a firm – temporary employees, independent contractors; workers at outsourcing firms, contract workers on-site at a firm, consultants, etc. Reliance on contingent workers can stimulate information flows inside a firm by causing firms to codify of tacit knowledge inside the firm, but also puts the firm at risk of having its special expertise appropriated. Matusik has also studied entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, such as the role of “offensive” and “defensive” patents in the pricing of initial public offerings, the role played by venture capitalists in the success or failure of startup firms.