Dr. Caron St. John

Professor Emerita, College of Business

Contact

301 Sparkman Drive
Huntsville, AL 35899
Campus Map

caron.stjohn@uah.edu

Biography

Caron St. John is a professor of management and former dean of the College of Business at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. Her research and teaching interests are tied to the growth, competitive, and technology strategies of firms and regions. During her term as dean, the UAH College of Business created three new master’s degrees, four new graduate certificate programs, and one new undergraduate degree. She was involved in establishing programs to more closely link the college to the business community including two annual speaker series, Huntsville Open Tech Coffee, and programs to assist small businesses. Before joining UAH, she was the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs, Research, and Outreach in the College of Business & Behavioral Science at Clemson University, with responsibility for MBA programs, executive education programs, the Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and the Small Business Development Center. Dr. St. John received her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Georgia Institute of Technology and a MBA and PhD in Business from Georgia State University. Before pursuing an academic career, she was a research chemist in new product and new business development with the multinational chemical company, Celanese Corporation, in Charlotte, NC.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Ph.D., Business, Georgia State University, 1998
  • M.B.A., Business, Georgia State University, 1984
  • B.S., Chemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1976

Honors & Awards

  • Recipient, 2007, Dr. Charles Townes Individual Achievement Award, which "recognizes an individual who exhibits the true spirit of innovation, excellence and leadership through hard work and a commitment to the Upstate of South Carolina," presented by InnoVision, a program of Deloitte-Touche.
  • Recipient, with N. Balakrishnan and J. Fiet, of the Outstanding Interdisciplinary Paper Award, Decision Sciences Institute Annual Meeting, 1999.
  • Invited by the Conference Board of Canada to present paper on geographical clustering of competing firms at their annual Technopolis Conference – Ottawa Canada, 1997.
  • Research profiled in "Hopelessly Seeking Synergy," The Economist, August 20, 1994 v332 n7877 p53(1).

Expertise

  • Growth, Competitive, & Technology Strategies of New & Established Firms & of Geographical Regions
  • Research Methods
  • Measurement Challenges

Recent Publications

  • David Bodde & Caron St. John (Editors), (2012) Chance and Intent: Managing the Risks of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, New York: Taylor & Francis (Routledge). Sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation.

  • C. St. John, R. Pouder, & A. Cannon, (2003) Environmental Uncertainty and Product-Process life Cycles: A Multi-level Interpretation of Change Over Time, Journal of Management Studies, 40(2), 513-539.

  • C. St. John, A.Cannon, & R. Pouder, (2001) Change Drivers for the New Millennium: Implications for Manufacturing Strategy Research, Journal of Operations Management, 19, 143-160

  • Caron St. John & Jeffrey Harrison, (1999), Manufacturing -Based Relatedness, Synergy and Coordination, Strategic Management Journal, 20 (2), 129.

  • St. John, Caron H. & Rue, Leslie W., "Coordinating Mechanisms, Consensus between Marketing and Manufacturing Groups, and Marketplace Performance" Strategic Management Journal, November, (1991).

  • St. John, Caron H., (1991) "Marketing and Manufacturing Agreement on Goals and Planned Actions," Human Relations, vol. 44, no.3, 211 229.

  • Caron St. John & Richard Pouder (2006) Technology Clusters vs. Industry Clusters: Resources, Networks, and Regional Advantages, Growth And Change, 37 (2), 141-171.

  • Richard Pouder & Caron H. St. John, (October 1996), Hot Spots and Blind Spots: Geographical Clusters of Firms and Innovation, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 21, no. 4, 1192-1226.

  • Alan Cannon and Caron St. John (2007) Measuring Environmental Complexity: A Theoretical and Empirical Assessment, Organization Research Methods, 10: 296- 321.

  • Caron St. John (2005) Multi-Theoretical Mixed-Level Research in Strategic Management in Research Methodology in Strategy and Management, 2, editors: David Ketchen and Donald Bergh (Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier Press).