University of Vermont

Faculty Profiles

• Professor
  • Chiang, Kevin C.H. Ph.D.
  • DeWitt, Rocki-Lee Ph.D.
  • McIntosh, Barbara R. Ph.D.
  • Noordewier, Thomas G. Ph.D.
  • Sharma, Sanjay Ph.D.
  • Sharma, Pramodita Ph.D.
  • Sinkula, James M. Ph.D.
• Associate Professor
  • Arel, Barbara Ph.D.
  • Bonifield, Carolyn M Ph.D.
  • Cats-Baril, William L. Ph.D.
  • Dempsey, Stephen J. Ph.D.
  • Hughes, Susan B. Ph.D.
  • Jones, David A. Ph.D.
  • Lucas, Marilyn T. Ph.D.
  • Novak, David Ph.D.
  • Parke, E. Lauck Ph.D.
  • Tomas III, Michael J. Ph.D.
  • Vanden Bergh, Richard G. Ph.D.
  • Zhang, Chun Ph.D.
• Assistant Professor
  • Beaudoin, Cathy A. Ph.D.
  • Do, Hung Tuan Ph.D.
  • Kingsley, Allison F. MSL, Ph.D.
  • Marble III, Hugh Ph.D., CFA
  • Walberg, Glenn C. JD, LLM
  • Zhang, Jie DBA
• Lecturer/Sr Lecturer
  • Chittenden, Thomas I. MBA
  • Monahan, John D. JD
  • Tomas, Amy M. Ph.D.
  • Woodman, Martha MBA
• Lecturer (Part Time)
  • Jones, Christopher Ph.D.
  • Kasper, Keith J. JD
  • Lee, Peter PhD
  • Meier, Frederic MPA
  • Mount, David W. MBA
  • Walberg, Julia C MS
  • Wood, Larry N. MBA
• Faculty Emeritus
  • Averyt, William F. Ph.D.
  • Battelle, Peter E. M.B.A.
  • Brandenburg, Richard G. Ph.D.
  • Gatti, James F. Ph.D.
  • Gurdon, Michael A. Ph.D.
  • Jesse, Richard R. Ph.D.
  • Kraushaar, James M. Ph.D.
  • Laber, Gene Ph.D.
  • Savitt, Ronald Ph.D.
  • Severance, Malcolm Ph.D.
  • Shirland, Larry E. Ph.D.
  • Tashman, Len J. Ph.D.

Allison F. Kingsley, MSL, Ph.D. Assistant Professor

Contact Information

Office: 302 Kalkin
Phone: 802 656-3464
E-Mail: akingsle@bsad.uvm.edu

Office Hours: TTh 1-3pm or by appointment

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT (STRATEGY)

Dr. Kingsley earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University, where she was a multi-year Jacob K. Javits Scholar. She also received her M.S.L. from Yale Law School and B.A. cum laude from Rice University.

In her research, Professor Kingsley contributes to the understanding of international business, political economy, political risk, and nonmarket strategy. Her focus is on firm strategies to manage political risk. (Please see details below.) She has been awarded research grants from institutions such as Ford Foundation, Sloan Foundation, and Center for International Business Education. Professor Kingsley's current teaching interests include both strategy and the political environment of business, and she is the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the business school's Undergraduate Teacher of the Year (2011, 2013) and UVM's Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching (2013).

Prior to joining the UVM faculty in Fall 2010, Professor Kingsley worked on Wall Street for nearly a decade. She started on the sell-side in M&A investment banking (Lehman Brothers) and then moved in 2003 to the buy-side (Ambac, Reformation / PartnerRe), where she focused on project and structured finance, distressed debt and mezzanine investment, infrastructure and energy deals, and emerging markets transactions. In those positions she executed billions of transactions globally. Simultaneous with her private sector work, Professor Kingsley taught political economy courses at New York University and Yale University for six years. Previously she spoke Arabic, French, and Hebrew, and lived throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Conference Presentations:
-"The Elephant and the Mosquito: Political Risks, Investor Types, and Capital Flows," 2013 International Political Economy Society (Claremont).
-"Even Constrained Governments Steal: The Domestic Politics of Transfer and Expropriation Risks," 2013 Strategy and Its Business Environment Conference (Austin).
-"How Sovereigns Steal: Political Constraints and the Choice between Transfer and Expropriation Risks," International Political Economy Society 2012 Annual Meeting (Charlottesville).
-"The Political Risk of Repatriating Profits: How Politics and Transfer Risk Affect Foreign Investment," American Political Science Association 2012 Annual Meeting (New Orleans).
-"Political Markets and Regulatory Uncertainty: Insights and Implications for Integrated Strategy," Academy of International Business 2012 Annual Meeting (Washington, D.C.).
-"Microdeterminants of Foreign Direct Investment into Developing Countries: Evidence from the Telecom Sector," American Political Science Association 2011 Annual Meeting (Seattle).

Selected Research:
-"Even Constrained Governments Steal: The Domestic Politics of Transfer and Expropriation Risks," with B. Graham and N. Johnston
-"The Elephant and the Mosquito: Political Risks, Investor Types, and Capital Flows" with B. Graham and N. Johnston
-"Predicting Variation in Investment Prices: A Simple Transaction Cost Economics Model of Foreign Direct Investment" with T. Noordeweir
-"The Value of Domestic and International Constraints on Different Political Risks" with B. Graham and N. Johnston
-"Measuring Political Risk in U.S. States," with R. Vanden Bergh
-"How Political Risk Determines States' Investment Portfolios," with R. Vanden Bergh
-"A General Theory of Political Risk" with B. Graham and N. Johnston
-"Microdeterminants of Investment Performance: Foreign Direct Investment, Stakeholder Conflict, and Emerging Markets"
-"Predicting Interest Group Opposition by the Sources and Uses of Industry Production"
-"A Formal Model of Regulatory Risk: Ideological Opponents, Political Competition, and Nonmarket Strategy," with R. Vanden Bergh
-"Tying Gulliver: The Surprising Impact of Domestic Energy Regulation"
-U.S. Banking Regulation project with K. Wilson

Affiliations: Academy of Management (AOM); Academy of International Business (AIB); Strategic Management Society (SMS); American Political Science Association (APSA); International Society for Neo-Institutional Economics (ISNIE)

Suggested Topics for Comment: political economy, foreign investment, infrastructure and energy finance, emerging markets, political risk

Publication History

Journal Article, Academic Journal

• Kingsley, A. F.; Vanden Bergh, R. G.; Bonardi, J. - "Political Markets and Regulatory Uncertainty: Insights and Implications for Integrated Strategy " (Refereed) - Academy of Management Perspectives - 2012 - v. 26, no. 3, pp. 52-67 [View publication] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  Abstract: Managers can craft effective integrated strategy by properly assessing regulatory uncertainty. Leveraging the existing political markets literature, we predict regulatory uncertainty from the novel interaction of demand and supply side rivalries across a range of political markets. We argue for two primary drivers of regulatory uncertainty: ideology-motivated interests opposed to the firm and a lack of competition for power among political actors supplying public policy. We align three, previously disparate dimensions of nonmarket strategy???profile level, coalition breadth, and pivotal target???to levels of regulatory uncertainty. Through this framework, we demonstrate how and when firms employ different nonmarket strategies. To illustrate variation in nonmarket strategy across levels of regulatory uncertainty, we analyze several market entry decisions of foreign firms operating in the global telecommunications sector.
  
• Kingsley, A. F. - "Reevaluating Emerging Market Risks: The Case for Project Finance" - Yale Journal of International Affairs - 2009 - v. Spring/Summer, pp. 51-65 [View publication] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  Abstract: Foreign investors are struggling to find effective ways to mitigate risks in emerging markets. Prior to the 2008-2009 global crisis, emerging market risks had largely progressed from the contagion paradigm of the 1980s and 1990s, and instead were viewed as idiosyncratic risks that could be mitigated and hedged. Now, conventional wisdom suggests that all emerging market investments are correlated and that risk is inherently systemic. Neither view is sufficient to explain how investors should approach investing in emerging markets. As an academic and investment professional, I integrate the competing paradigms and advocate one relatively crisis-resistant and development-positive investment: project finance.
  
• Kingsley, A. F. - "Dealing Away Risk in Foreign Infrastructure Investment" (Refereed) - The Journal of Structured Finance - 2003 - v. 9, no. 2, pp. 53-64 [View publication] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  Abstract: To stimulate investment and growth and to develop their infrastructure, governments around the world are seeking capital and technological know-how from private foreign investors. However, to attract the private sector to finance infrastructure projects these governments must develop the appropriate investment environment. I argue that governments and foreign investors in emerging markets develop strategies to "deal away" risk. To fill the gaps left by low market opportunity and low country credibility, governments and investors have developed deal mechanisms such as "profit safeguards" and "commitment institutions." Using a 103-country dataset over a 10-year period, this article tests the causal relationships among market opportunity, country risk, specific deal mechanisms, and private foreign investment performance.