The Strategy Witan

Past editions

Where the Witan has met.

The Witan rotates annually across UK institutions. Below are the editions to date.

2026 · Oxford

Strategy Witan at Saïd Business School

Thursday 10 September 2026 · Saïd Business School, Oxford

Organised by Michelle Rogan, Richard Whittington and Eric Zhao

The first meeting under the Witan name, hosted by Oxford’s Saïd Business School. The day opened with a panel on the future of strategy scholarship, ran parallel sessions on theoretical and topical agendas for the field, and closed with a debate on whether the field of strategy should exist at all, followed by dinner at Trinity College.

Programme

  1. 09.15
    Welcome
  2. 09.30
    Reimagining Strategy Scholarship for a Changing World

    Opening panel. Three scholars each brought a provocation on how the world strategy studies is changing, and how the way we study it should change too.

  3. 11.00
    Future Agendas: Theoretical Perspectives

    Three parallel tracks asking where each tradition should go next: Behavioral Strategy & Cognition; Institutional Theory & Categories; Strategy as Practice & Process.

  4. 12.00
    Half-Baked Ideas Speed-Friending

    Short, rotating conversations in which participants traded early-stage ideas.

  5. 14.00
    Future Agendas: Topical Areas

    Three parallel tracks on the substantive questions facing the field: Governance; Societal Issues; Tech & AI.

  6. 15.30
    Oxford Union–style debate

    “This House believes strategy as a field should no longer exist.” Three speakers for, three against.

  7. 16.30
    Roundtables: Designing the PhD Strategy Syllabus of the Future

    Six tables, each producing ideas for a future doctoral syllabus: women scholars; non-Western scholars; current problems; dependent variables beyond firm performance; underexplored contexts and marginalised populations; strategy theory in 2035. Tables reported back in a closing plenary.

  8. 18.00
    Closing remarks

    Followed by drinks and dinner at Trinity College.

Full programme with speakers and papers — PDF to be posted

A written recap will appear on the blog in late 2026.

2019 · London

The London 50

Thursday 30 May 2019 · London Business School

Organised by Freek Vermeulen

The predecessor conference from which the Witan tradition emerged. Unlike the Witan, the London 50 was built around research presentations: scholars from London’s business schools, with colleagues from Cambridge, Oxford and Warwick, shared current work across three themed sessions and a rapid round.

Programme

  1. 09.00
    Leadership & Change

    Four papers, spanning CEOs, how history and tradition shape strategy in centuries-old firms, collective action in global supply chains, and cooperation in large groups.

  2. 11.00
    The Rapid Round

    Fourteen short talks, on topics from platform ecosystems and e-sports teams to social polarisation, open strategy, game engines and microfinance.

  3. 13.30
    Keynote
  4. 14.00
    Innovation & Entrepreneurship

    Four papers, on stakeholder laws and technological investment, entrepreneurship and wage inequality, strategic renewal, and purpose under commercial pressure.

  5. 16.00
    Organisation Theory

    Four papers, on gamification and institutional change, the decision to pivot, the “platformification” of banking, and corporate social responsibility and risk-taking.

  6. 18.30
    Dinner & debate

Full programme with speakers and papers — PDF to be posted