PDW-06: Experimental Research in Organization Studies: Pushing the Boundaries

Convenors:
Alexandre B. Bitektine
HEC Montréal, Canada
Rodolphe Durand
HEC Paris, France
Patrick Haack
University of Zurich, Switzerland

Call for Applications


Facilitators:
Eva Boxenbaum, Mines ParisTech, France/Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Heiko Breitsohl, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany
Vern Glaser, University of Alberta, Canada
Derek Harmon, USC Marshall School of Business, United States
Aafke Raaijmakers, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
Fei Song, Ryerson University, Canada
Leigh Tost, University of Michigan, United States
Patrick Vermeulen, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
Peter Walgenbach, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany


Purpose

The overall purpose of this Pre-Colloquium Development Workshop (PDW) is to advance the use of experimental methods to study organizations and organizational processes and provide feedback to participants' work in progress. The overall length of the workshop is five hours including a coffee break of 30 minutes.


The workshop starts with opening remarks by the PDW organizers. We will take stock of current laboratory and non-laboratory experiments in the study of organizations, explore their future potential for examining organizational processes, consider new experimental paradigms, and discuss the need to develop a unique experimental approach for the analysis of organizational and institutional processes. We will draw participants' attention to common challenges in research on micro-foundations of different management theories and highlight the role of experimental methods in the exploration of micro-level processes that, on the one hand, are triggered by macro-level events and, on the other hand, produce macro-level outcomes for organizations, categories and organizational fields.

 

The second part of the workshop consists of a paper development workshop. Work in progress as well as project ideas will be exchanged in roundtable discussions. Each roundtable will be led by a facilitator. We explicitly welcome the submission of project ideas (no paper required).

 

The workshop ends with a general discussion on the potential prospects and pitfalls of experimental research in organization studies.

 

 

Application

All scholars interested in applying experimental methods to the study of organizational phenomena are invited to apply. However, preference will be given to PhD students/early career scholars. To be considered as an early-career scholar, the applicant needs to have completed his/her doctoral/PhD thesis within the last three years. Attendance of the workshop is limited to 20 participants. Criteria for selection are originality and relevance of the proposal.

Please submit until – via the EGOS website! – a single document of application (.doc, .docx or .pdf file) that includes:

  • On the first page: a short letter of application containing full details of name, address (postal address, phone and email), affiliation (date of PhD completion for early career scholars), and a statement of why you consider it valuable to attend this PDW;
  • A CV;
  • A two-page proposal of the project idea outlining the research question and its relevance. The proposal should also motivate why an experiment is needed to answer the research question and specify the dependent and independent variable(s) in the experiment. Note: the experiments can be carried out after the PDW. The purpose of the roundtable session is to discuss work in progress as well as project ideas, not fully-developed papers.

 

Alexandre B. Bitektine is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management at HEC Montréal, Canada. His research interests include social judgments, institutional theory, strategic management and non-market strategies, as well as application of experimental methods in organizational research. He currently serves as a member of editorial review boards of the 'Academy of Management Review', 'Organization Studies', and the 'Journal of Management Studies'.
Rodolphe Durand is the GDF-Suez Professor of Strategy at HEC Paris. He received his Ph.D. from HEC Paris. His primary research interests concern the sources of competitive advantage and the interplay between the strategic, social, and institutional determinants of performance. For his research, Rodolphe received the American Sociological Association’s R. Scott Award in 2005 and the European Academy of Management/Imagination Lab Award for Innovative Scholarship in 2010.
Patrick Haack is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Business Administration at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His primary research interests include social judgment formation, practice adoption, and recent developments in research methodology, especially the application of experiments and quasi-experiments to the study of institutionalization and legitimation. Patrick's research has been published in the 'Academy of Management Review', 'Journal of Management Studies', and 'Organization Studies'.