The Medici Summer School in Management Studies, Bologna, June 23-June 28, 2024
We are pleased to announce the organization of the 16th edition of the Medici Summer School in Management Studies for doctoral students and young researchers, which will be held in Bologna, June 23-June 28, 2024. The school is organized and sponsored by Bologna Business School (University of Bologna), HEC Paris (Society and Organizations Research Center and the HEC Foundation), and MIT Sloan School.

The Summer School is designed to promote doctoral education and research in organization theory and related fields (economic sociology, management studies, strategy) and contribute to the development of enlightened practice in the management of business organizations. The Summer School is a unique educational program for qualified doctoral students interacting with thought leaders in the management field who will share their knowledge and wisdom on frontier research topics.
The title of the 2024 edition is:

Space and Place in Organizational Thinking

The Summer School combines lectures and research seminars by international scholars with an active engagement of participant students.

Confirmed faculty members:

• Juan Alcacer (Harvard)
• Emilio J. Castilla (MIT Sloan)
• Mercedes Delgado (CBS)
• Rodolphe Durand (HEC Paris)
• Simone Ferriani (University of Bologna & City, University of London)
• Catherine Magelssen (LBS)
• Abhishek Nagaraj (Berkeley Haas)
• Nathan Wilmers (MIT Sloan)
• Ezra Zuckerman Sivan (MIT Sloan)

The school will be convened by Bologna Business School (Bologna).

Application procedure           
Applications are welcome from current Ph.D. students in Management, Strategy, Organization Theory, Economic Sociology, and related disciplines from universities worldwide. Students for the Summer School will be selected in accordance with the quality of their doctoral curricula, research interests, and application materials.  Applications from students who have completed at least two years of doctoral training will be considered, with preference given to those who have satisfied their course requirements and exams but have not yet embarked on their dissertation research.  Applications from post-docs will also be considered.
 
There is no application or participation fee. Student participants will be responsible for covering their own travel expenses to and from Bologna, but the Summer School will cover accommodation and board expenses during the week of sessions.

The deadline for applications is March 20th, 2024. Admitted candidates will be notified by April 12. A waiting list of other candidates will be established.

Full program and application details can be found at:

https://www.bbs.unibo.eu/xiii-medici-summer-school/

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University

Organizations and Their Effectiveness

July 7 through July 20, 2024

Directors
Robert Gibbons (rgibbons@mit.edu), economics and management, MIT

Woody Powell (woodyp@stanford.edu), education and sociology, Stanford University

ABOUT THE CASBS SUMMER INSTITUTE

The sixth CASBS summer institute on Organizations and Their Effectiveness will occur from July 7 through July 20, 2024, at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences on the Stanford University campus. Fifteen fellowships will be awarded to cover tuition, room and board, and travel.

There are two important dates in the application process: (1) the complete application, including the letter of support, is due December 13, 2023; and (2) fellowship awards will be announced by email no later than January 29, 2024.

TOPICS AND PURPOSE

Organizations are all around us: not just firms, plants, and work groups, but also hospitals, schools, and governments. Furthermore, by construing an “organization” as something that can be first organized and then managed, one can also include certain relationships — not only between firms (such as some hand-in-glove supply relationships, joint ventures, and alliances) but also between a government and a firm (such as some regulatory relationships and public-private partnerships).Indeed, noting that the examples above are all opportunities to collaborate, one can move beyond formal organization charts and formal contracts to include communities, networks, social movements and other less formal institutions as organized activities.

Given such a broad domain, a huge fraction of economic activity, as well as much political and social activity, is undertaken in, with, or by organizations. Put differently, if organizations are how we collaborate, it is important to get them right! For example, the gains from improving production activities and supply chains in low-income countries could be enormous. Also, learning from the “bright spots” among hospitals, schools, and governments, and understanding how these successes might be spread, could be immensely valuable. Finally, although industrial productivity in high-income countries may seem mundane to some, improving the effectiveness of such firms might nonetheless allow substantial improvements in the quality of life—both for the workforces in these firms and for the communities that experience the products and externalities these firms produce.

If organizational effectiveness is so important for innovation and social impact, one might think that academics would be studying the issue actively. To some extent, this is true, but the field is badly fragmented: different disciplines operate mostly in isolation; many professional schools focus on only their own kind of organization (e.g., hospitals, schools, public agencies, businesses). Meanwhile, social-science departments often regard organizational effectiveness as outside their purview; and doctoral training in professional schools sometimes lacks the depth available in social-science departments.

In response to this situation, the 2024 summer institute will begin with presentations about how economics and sociology approach the study of organizations (with other disciplines to follow). In addition, to build community, there will be frequent group discussions and projects (“hacks”) on thorny organizational ideas and problems, as well as dinner conversations with scholars and practitioners who have been deeply involved in the worlds of politics, law, journalism and business. In sum, the first week will be a very intensive experience.

Besides the two directors, the full-time participants in the first week will be young scholars (ranging from advanced assistant professors to late-stage graduate students) drawn from a wide range of disciplines and fields (not just economics and sociology; typically also political science, communications, organizational behavior and strategy), whose careers studying organizations are underway, and who have demonstrated an interest in and an aptitude for expanding their thinking about organizations towards other disciplines.

The first week will also include a “guest chef”—a senior scholar studying organizations from outside economics and sociology—who will visit for about 24 hours, typically involving both lectures and a hack.

The second week will be in two phases. On Monday and Tuesday July 15 and 16, the full-time participants and spirit of the first week will continue. There will probably be a second guest chef, representing another discipline or methodology.

Then, on Wednesday, July 17 through Friday, July 19, participants from the fifth summer institute (2023) will be invited back to CASBS to join in a convocation with the 2024 cohort, concluding with dinner on Friday. Finally, on Saturday, July 20, the group will return to being just the directors and the 2024 full-time participants, with the institute concluding over lunch.

The second part of the second week (Wednesday, July 17 through Friday, July 19) may also include a few members of the first four cohorts (2016–19). Naturally, members of the early cohorts are now further along in their careers than the new participants in 2024 will be—albeit less far along than the senior scholars who serve as guest chefs. Also, members of the early cohorts represent a wide range of the disciplines and fields that study organizations and other organized activities; for example, fewer than half are from economics or sociology. The convocation on July 17–19 of the 2024 summer institute may leverage the expertise of the early cohorts to emphasize additional disciplines and fields studying organizations (perhaps in smaller versions of the guest-chef role described above).

ELIGIBILITY

Those eligible to apply include junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows and very advanced graduate students from the social and behavioral sciences and allied professional schools. We are also interested in applications from scholars affiliated with four-year colleges and with colleges and universities attended predominately by minority students.

Accepted applicants will be expected to arrive prepared by having read a syllabus of about 20 key papers and surveys.

LOCATION

The Center is located on a beautiful hillside overlooking the Stanford University campus. Comfortable studies in restful surroundings will be provided.

SUPPORT

Admitted applicants will be offered a fellowship that will cover all expenses, including transportation (within the usual university-mandated constraints on travel expenses). Lodging will be provided and meals will be covered. Though not required, any financial contribution from a participant’s home institution would be greatly appreciated.

APPLICATION

The application consists of: (i) a cover letter providing contact information and the name of the recommendation writer; (ii) a curriculum vitae (for faculty, this should include not only research but also courses taught; for doctoral students, not only research but also courses taken); (iii) a two-page essay explaining how the institute will advance the applicant’s research; and (iv) one letter of support, which will be treated confidentially and submitted

through our secure application system.

Application portal can be accessed at

https://applycasbs.stanford.edu/summerapplication/