Wednesday, August 27th, 4:30 PM
Room 302 Uris Hall

Toby Stuart, "Communications (and Coordination?) in a Modern, Complex Organization"

Toby E. Stuart is the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His research has examined the formulation of firm strategies in a number of industries; the formation, governance, and consequences of strategic alliances; organizational design and new venture formation in established firms; venture capital networks, and the role of networks in the creation of new firms. He has published numerous articles in refereed management, strategy, and general field journals, including Administrative Science Quarterly, American Journal of Sociology, Science, Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, and Research Policy.

This is a descriptive study of the structure of communications in a modern organization. We analyze a dataset with millions of electronic mail messages, calendar meetings and teleconferences for many thousands of employees of a single, multidivisional firm during a three-month period in calendar 2006. The basic question we explore asks, what is the role of observable (to us) boundaries between individuals in structuring communications inside the firm? We measure three general types of boundaries: organizational boundaries (strategic business unit and function memberships), spatial boundaries (office locations and inter-office distances), and social categories (gender, tenure within the firm).

To view the paper, please visit Communications (and Coordination?) in a Modern, Complex Organization.

Thursday, February 28th, 4:30 PM
Room 302 Uris Hall

Martin de Santos, Economic Statistics as Cultural Objects

Professor Martin de Santos earned his PhD in Sociology from Yale University in 2007, and he is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Cornell Sociology Department.

He works at the intersection of cultural and economic sociology. He researched the cultural and social life of statistics in the public sphere, and his work aims to develop a set of concepts to theorize and make visible this understudied dimension of statistics.

Thursday, February 14, 4:30 PM
Room 302 Uris Hall

Matthew Bothner, University of Chicago, will present:

"Primary Status, Complementary Status, and Capital Acquisition in the U.S. Venture Capital Industry"

Matthew S. Bothner earned his Ph.D. of Sociology at Columbia University, and he is currently an Associate Professor of Organizations and Strategy at Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.

He researches social status and its effects on the performance and strategies of venture capital firms, competitive crowding, risk taking in tournaments, and innovation diffusion in high-technology environments.

Matthew Bothner recieved the 2006 The Academy of Management Glueck Best Paper Award for the most outstanding new research in Business Policy and Strategy for his paper, "Status Volatility and Organizational Growth in the U.S. Venture Capital Industry." Bothner, also a recipient of the GSB's Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching, has published his papers in publications such as: American Journal of Sociology, Journal of Mathematical Sociology, and Administrative Science Quarterly.

To view the paper and biographical information, please visit http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/matthew.bothner/research/two_kinds_of_status.pdf

In April, look forward to:

Edward Laumann, University of Chicago, as he presents

"Network Perspectives on Sexuality, Health and Aging"

Apr. 11th 3:30 p.m, 302 Uris Hall

Upcoming Mini-Symposium

Loïc Wacquant, UC Berkeley, Apr. 17th at AD White House

"THE PENALIZATION OF POVERTY AS PRODUCTION OF REALITY"

"STIGMA, SPACE, AND STATE IN THE MAKING OF THE PRECARIAT"

Andrea Maurer, University of Bundeswehr Munich, Apr. 30th (Wed.) or May 1st