Riitta Katila is an Associate Professor of Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University, and a faculty member at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program . Her research focuses on technology strategy, organizational evolution, and learning. In one of her current projects, supported by the National Science Foundation, she examines how firms create new products successfully. Focusing on the industrial robotics industry, she investigates how different search approaches, such as the exploitation of existing knowledge and the exploration for new knowledge, influence the kinds of new products that robotics firms introduce.

Prof. Katila's work has appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, Research Policy and other outlets. She was the recipient of the Best Dissertation Award from the TIM division of the Academy of Management, the INFORMS Technology Management Best Dissertation Award, and the Best Symposium Award by the OMT Division of the Academy of Management. She serves on the editorial boards of Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal. She is an Alfred P. Sloan Industry Studies Fellow, and was selected as the Strategic Management Society's Emerging Scholar. In 2010 she was elected to the Leadership Track of the Technology and Innovation Management Division of the Academy of Management. She serves currently as the division's Program-Chair Elect.