Dr. Carla D. Jones is a Templeton Fellow in FPRI’s Africa Program and an Associate Professor in the Management, Marketing & IS department of the College of Business at Sam Houston State University. Her research interests focus on the influence of executives. She primarily examines how the leadership of a firm influences firm outcomes. More specifically, she studies how the board of directors and members of the C-Suite influence firm strategy and performance. Among these groups, several advancements have been initiated to improve governance and the link between executives and performance, such as increasing independence among board members and tying compensation incentives to stock performance. These initiatives have produced changes, however likely not the intended changes.

Her current projects examine heterogeneity among the leaders of an organization and its influence on group dynamics and group outcomes. Several of her projects examine how the dynamics among the upper echelon of an organization influence competitive dynamics and ultimately firm performance. Carla is also developing research projects to track how increasing cultural diversity impacts the ability of teams to work together to achieve success. A few of her current projects have been accepted at the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management, and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice.