2026 Best 40-Under-40 Business Professors: Maria Roche, Harvard Business School

Maria Roche
Harvard Business School

“Professor Roche has been my advisor and mentor for 2-plus years, and the training that I have received from her represents why I chose to train at HBS in the first place. She is deeply committed to frontier, rigorous research with insight for practitioners. Furthermore, Professor Roche has transformed how the field thinks about geography (specifically micro-geography) and the commercialization of specialized knowledge. Her research has been published in top journals, is widely featured in business press, and she has applied it to develop a critical but missing course for HBS MBAs on how to innovate a scale in established firms. Her mentorship, teaching, and research has singlehandedly transformed my experience at HBS—and I know that all of her MBA and PhD students would say the same.” – Dafna Bearson

Maria Roche, 36, is an Assistant Professor in the Strategy Unit at HBS. She teaches the MBA Elective “Innovating at Scale” and contributes to teaching in executive education programs. Her research examines how specialized knowledge is commercialized and how micro-geographic environments, such as neighborhoods, buildings, or even office layouts, influence innovation outcomes. Her work demonstrates that organizations can achieve outsized innovation and performance gains by strategically designing and leveraging their physical and social environments. 

Professor Roche’s research has been published in leading journals, including Management Science, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Organization Science, and Research Policy, and has been featured in outlets such as The Atlantic, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, and Handelsblatt. She is a recipient of best dissertation awards from the Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) division of the Academy of Management and from the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (EGOS). She serves on the editorial review boards of Organization Science, the Strategic Management Journal, and Strategy Science. In 2025, she received the Wyss Award for Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students at HBS and the TIM Emerging Scholar Award. She has also served as a keynote speaker at academic and corporate conferences, as well as at industry workshops around the world. 

She earned her PhD in Management (Strategy and Innovation) from the Scheller College of Business at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she was awarded a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant. She also holds a MS in Business Administration and a BA in International Cultural and Business Studies from the University of Passau in Germany. Before entering academia, Professor Roche worked in a variety of sectors, including venture capital and film, and has lived and pursued professional opportunities in Canada, Germany, Austria, Spain, and the United States. 

BACKGROUND 

At current institution since what year?  2020 

Education: PhD Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), MS and BA University of Passau (Germany), Study Abroad (Erasmus) in Spain 

List of MBA/graduate business courses you currently teach:  Innovating at Scale (MBA); Advanced Topics in Strategy (PhD) 

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR 

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when … I was about to finish my master’s degree. Let’s put it this way: I knew I wanted to give it a shot. I never actually thought I would become one until my PhD graduation year.  

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? I am an innovation scholar with a deep interest in the micro-geography of innovation. When I say “micro”, think meters, buildings, and neighborhoods, not cities or regions. My work sits at the intersection of two questions: how does proximity shape the spread of advanced scientific knowledge, and what does it take to translate that knowledge into real products? 

My favorite finding so far is also likely the most striking. In a recent study, my co-authors (Alex Oettl and Christian Catalini) and I find that technology adoption appears to dissipate within as little as 20 meters. Innovators sitting in offices just slightly further apart show markedly weaker peer adoption effects. 

If I weren’t a business school professor… According to my brother, I would be a CEO running a multinational. He has always had high hopes for his little sister. My dream job growing up was to be a choreographer. 

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? I can do backflips.  

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: There are endless opportunities, but limited time. Saying no to pursuing projects is going to be one of the hardest things. Also, being a professor can get lonely because a lot of our work is done in isolation in front of a screen.   

Professor I most admire and why: It would not be fair to pick one. Since becoming a mother, I have to say that I am in full awe of those professors who manage/d being both a mother and professor. You are role models and we need more of you! 

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? I learn so much from my students and love the case discussion buzz! 

What is most challenging?  Honestly, the hardest part is learning to sit with self-doubt. Not everyone will be convinced by your work. Reviewers push back, editors reject your ideas, audiences ask hard questions, and there are moments where you genuinely wonder whether you belong in the room. That feeling doesn’t fully go away, no matter how many papers you publish, talks you give, classes you teach. 

The challenge is doing the work anyway. Showing up, putting your ideas out there, and trusting the process even when validation is yet to come (or never explicitly comes). 

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… Unspectacular? 

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 

What are your hobbies? Playing Beach Volleyball, Hiking, Yoga 

How will you spend your summer? Outdoors as much as possible. 

Favorite place(s) to vacation: Southern Bavaria/Alps and Spain – good vibes, great outdoors, food and drinks! 

Favorite book(s): I was an absolute book nerd growing up and still am. Academic book: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. Non-Academic: Erzähler der Nacht by Rafik Schami. 

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? Watching “Unser Sandmännchen” with my son (the intros to each episode are a work of art) and re-watching “The Office” superfan episodes (most quotable series ever). 

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? Currently I very much enjoy listening to Ibrahim Maalouf. There is so much soul in the way he plays the trumpet. My favorite artists are “Der Blauer Reiter” (The Blue Rider). I have been obsessed with their use of colors and forms since going to the Lenbachhaus Museum (Munich) in high school.  

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS 

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this… Physical proximity. The irony is that we teach innovation in buildings designed for lectures, not collision. If I had my way, business schools would be deliberately architected for accidental encounter and social interaction — spaces where a materials scientist bumps into an MBA student, where a startup founder is twenty meters from a researcher who’s solved exactly the problem they are stuck on. We know that certains types of knowledge don’t travel far. So let’s build for that. 

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at… Bridging the gap between deep scientific knowledge and the people who can actually take it somewhere. Extraordinary discoveries are sitting in labs right now that will never become products. And this is not because the science is not ready, but because the conditions for that knowledge to move still need tweaking.  

I’m grateful for… all the people who have paved the way! All the experiences I get to have, people I get to meet, advisors/co-authors/students I get to learn from and places I have the privilege to visit. And, of course, my family and friends.  

DON’T MISS: THE ENTIRE 2026 ROSTER OF THE WORLD’S BEST 40-UNDER-40 GRADUATE BUSINESS PROFESSORS 

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