Johnathan Cromwell

Associate Professor Johnathan Cromwell is an expert on creativity, innovation, and teams, particularly when they are working on vague, open-ended, and ambiguous problems—such as the application of AI (or any other emerging technology) to different industries or users. This work has been featured in premier outlets such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Research Policy, Harvard Business Review, and MIT Sloan Management Review, along with winning multiple “Best Paper” awards from leading academic conferences. He also serves as the Faculty Director of Entrepreneurship for Life (E4L) at the University of San Francisco, where he guides hundreds of students each year across different disciplines to develop their ideas, gain skills, and make a tangible impact on different user groups or communities. He earned an S.B. in Chemical-Biological Engineering from MIT and a Doctorate in Management from Harvard Business School.

• Creativity
• Innovation
• Team dynamics
• Entrepreneurship

• Creativity
• Innovation
• Problem solving
• Team dynamics

• Faculty Director, Entrepreneurship for Life Initiative (2024-present)
• Editorial Review Board, Academy of Management Review (2024-present)
• Editorial Review Board, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (2024-present)
• Faculty Lead, BSBA Entrepreneurship & Innovation Major (2023-2025)
• Faculty Chair, University Budget Advisory Council (2023-2024)

• Harvard Business School, DBA Management, 2018
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, S.B. in Chemical-Biological Engineering, 2009

• Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Review: 2020, 2025, 2026
• Outstanding Research Award, USF School of Management: 2024, 2025
• Outstanding Conference Paper Award, INGroup Conference: 2021
• Best Paper Award, Academy of Management Conference: 2018

• Cromwell, J. R. & Harvey, J.F. (2026). The hidden power of messy teams. MIT Sloan Management Review 67(3), 38–41. *Invited to present at annual Work/26 Conference hosted by MITSMR.

• Cromwell, J. R. & Harvey, J.F. (2025). A problem half-solved is a problem well-stated: Increasing the rate of innovation through team problem discovery. Research Policy 54(3).
• Cromwell, J. R. (2024). How combinations of constraint affect creativity: A new typology of creative problem solving in organizations. Organizational Psychology Review, 14(1), 3–24. *Won “Best Paper Award” for the OB Division at the 2018 Academy of Management.
• Harvey, J.-F., Cromwell, J. R., Johnson, K. J., & Edmondson, A. C. (2023). The dynamics of team learning: Harmony and rhythm in teamwork arrangements for innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 68(3), 601–647.
• Cromwell, J. R., Harvey, J.F., Haase, J. & Gardner, H. K. (2023) Discovering where ChatGPT can create value for your company. Harvard Business Review.