Courses
Doctoral Seminars
MS&E 371 - Doctoral Research Seminar in Innovation and Strategic Change
This seminar examines current research on innovation strategy. Topics include scientific discovery, innovation search, organizational learning, evolutionary approaches, and incremental and radical change.
The MS&E 371 seminar is taught by Professor Riitta Katila and is offered every other year.
MS&E 372 - Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives on Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is a complex phenomenon that has attracted relatively little academic attention in relationship to its great importance. This course explores the emerging work in this area. The course will have more emphasis on theoretical frameworks applicable in the entrepreneurship area. I emphasize theories and models coming from economics, though we will read a variety of work including some focused on psychological and organization theory. The discussions will be geared towards future research opportunities and implications for policy and strategy with a particular emphasis on high-tech and science-based entrepreneurship and international entrepreneurship.
The MS&E 372 seminar is taught by Professor Chuck Eesley and is offered every other year.
MS&E 375 - Doctoral Research Seminar in Organizational Approaches to Entrepreneurship
This seminar explores important, contemporary issues focused on entrepreneurial topics at the intersection of organization theory and strategy from a variety of theoretical, methodological, and topic-oriented perspectives. This seminar also enables practice in a variety of skills such as synthesizing research, understanding research designs, and developing research questions that should prove useful in your academic careers. Everyone should have some familiarity with the major related theories including institutional, learning, resource dependence, transaction cost economics, complexity theory, Austrian economics, and social networks.
The MS&E 375 seminar is taught by Professor Kathy Eisenhardt and is offered every other year (alternating with MS&E 376).
MS&E 376 - Doctoral Research Seminar in Strategy and Organization
Strategy crosses the disciplines of sociology (notably organization theory) and economics. Its focus is on the performance of the corporation. This seminar examines a variety of theoretical perspectives on strategy including strategic positioning, resource-based view and dynamic capabilities, competitive interaction, complexity theory, transaction-cost economics, agency theory, network theory, and institutional theory. Depending upon the year, other topics such as strategic decision-making, top management teams, platforms, and corporate strategy may also appear. The seminar also aims to develop skills, which are useful when pursuing an academic career, such as synthesizing research, understanding research designs, and building theories. Everyone should have familiarity with the major related theories of organization theory and economics.
The MS&E 376 seminar is taught by Professor Kathy Eisenhardt and is offered every other year (alternating with MS&E 375).
MS&E 380 - Doctoral Research Seminar in Organizations
Topics from current published literature and working papers. Content varies.
The MS&E 380 seminar is taught by Professor Bob Sutton and is currently not offered.
MS&E 380 - Distributed Work
This course will provide students with an understanding of the research on geographically distributed work. In this course, we explore research on geographically distributed work and virtual teams as well as research conducted in related areas that can serve as a foundation for understanding the impact of geographic distribution. To that end, a broad range of topics will be discussed, including computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), computer-mediated communications, group decision support systems, proximity effects, information sharing, and perspective taking. Students should leave this course with a better idea of how to approach research questions related to distributed work and apply seemingly peripheral work to inform new areas of research.
The MS&E 380 seminar is taught by Professor Pamela Hinds and is offered yearly.
MS&E 381 - Doctoral Research Seminar in Work, Technology and Organization
This seminar revolves around in depth reading and analysis of bodies of literature pertinent to the study of work and technology or work and organization. The literatures that are covered vary from year to year. They include: socio-technical systems theory, Chicago School ethnographies of work and occupations, computer supported cooperative work, anthropology of work, work and job design, and industrial sociology.
The MS&E 381 seminar is taught by Professor Stephen Barley and is offered every other year.
MS&E 383 - Doctoral Research Seminar on Ethnographic Research
This seminar is designed as a basic field methods course for graduate students (and upper level undergraduates with permission of instructor). Ethnosemantic interviewing and participant observation are emphasized. Students learn and practice techniques for taking, managing and analyzing field notes and other qualitative data. Students are required to conduct research during the course and must be willing to spend up to 15 hours per week outside class collecting and analyzing their own data. Methods texts and ethnographies are used respectively to illustrate how to analyze and communicate ethnographic data.
The MS&E 383 seminar is taught by Professor Stephen Barley and is offered every other year.
Colloquium
STVP organizes a quarterly informal brown bag lunch seminar to discuss current research topics in the areas of strategy, organization theory, and entrepreneurship in technology-based companies. Speakers include students and faculty members of the center plus colleagues from other departments at Stanford and other universities.
