Mary Yoko's Bio

DR. MARY YOKO BRANNEN, Ph.D

Mary Yoko Brannen is the AMD/Fujitsu Chair of Multicultural Integration at San José State University’s College of Business. She received her M.B.A. with emphasis in International Business and Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior with a minor in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a B.A. in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley. She has taught at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, the Haas Business School at the University of California at Berkeley, and Smith College in the United States; the Keio Business School as well as the School of Economics at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, and Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and currently at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

Professor Brannen’s expertise in multinational affairs is evident in her research, consulting, teaching, and personal background. Born and raised in Japan, having studied in France and Spain, and having worked as a cross-cultural consultant for over 20 years to various Fortune 500 companies, she brings a multi-faceted, deep knowledge of today’s complex cultural business environment. Her research focuses on ethnographic approaches to understanding the effects of changing cultural contexts on technology transfer, work organization, and multinational mergers and acquisitions. Professor Brannen’s consulting specialty is in helping companies conceptualize and enact strong and effective working cultures in cross-cultural mergers and acquisitions. Her consulting clients include Agilent Technologies, Applied Materials, Advanced Micro Devices, Cisco Systems, Dupont Photomask, Ford Motor Company, Fuji/Xerox, Fujitsu, Hewlett/ Packard, Honeywell, Intel, Motorola, Proctor and Gamble, Sony Japan, Sony Electronics, Sony USA, Toppan Ltd., Toyota Motor Company, and the Walt Disney Company.

Professor Brannen’s book monograph entitled Global Meeting Grounds: Negotiating Complex Cultural Contexts Across Organizations is forthcoming from Oxford University Press and covers four disparate industries both in technology and people-dependency— ball-bearings, paper and pulp, entertainment and high technology. In addition, Professor Brannen has published articles in the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Human Relations, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Inquiry, Anthropology of Work Review, Practicing Anthropology, Semiotica, CEMS Business Review, Business Horizon, and in various edited books such as the Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate, Crossing-Cultures: A Product of a Master Teacher, Workshop, The Handbook of Global Management: A Guide to Managing Complexity, and the Advances in International and Comparative Management.

She has won several awards for her work including the Breaking the Frames Award from the Journal of Management Inquiry, the Dean’s Research Award, and two Distinguished Teacher’s Awards.

Dr. Brannen is fluent in Japanese and English, competent in French and Spanish, and has a working knowledge of Mandarin. Her non-academic interests include, horse-back riding (dressage), skiing, Japanese calligraphy, meditation and Zen Buddhism.

To learn more about Professor Brannen’s research and teaching interests, visit her website at http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/branne_m/