BI, May 25^th to 29^th, 1999

Instructor: Prof. Howard E. Aldrich

Email: howard_aldrich@unc.edu

The goal of the seminar is to introduce you to an evolutionary perspective on entrepreneurship. Readings for the course include Howard Aldrich's new book, Organizations Evolving (Sage, 1999), and journal articles. We will study the process b y which new organizations and industries come into existence. We will focus on issues of organizational knowledge, social networks, human resource management in new ventures, and organizational learning. If time permits, we will conduct a survey of the so cial networks of small & medium sized businesses.

Participants should have a basic knowledge of organization theory and organizational behavior. If not, they should read the following books:

Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations and Environments.

Charles Perrow, Complex Organizations.

W. Richard Scott, Organizations, 4th edition.

Oliver Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies.

The course will be run as a seminar, rather than a lecture. Participants should be prepared to discuss the day's assigned readings and to take part in debates, role playing, simulations, and other types of active learning.

We will meet twice a day. In the morning, we will start at 9:30 and end at noon, with a break in between. In the afternoon, we will start at 2 and end at 4:30, with a mid-afternoon break.

Please visit my Web page: http://www.unc.edu/~healdric/ and check out the various links listed there. We will use some of them in this course. Look especially at: http://www.unc.edu/~healdric/Entsem/Entsem.html

Morning: The evolutionary approach.

Assigned reading: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapters 1-3

Visit my web page to see data on the characteristics of the US business population:

http://www.unc.edu/~healdric/soci245/econdata.html

Afternoon: Entrepreneurship -- Knowledge and Resources.

Assignment readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 4, and Karl Vesper, New Venture Experience, "The John Morse Case," pp. C592-C613.

See what incubator organizations are doing to help US startups: http://www.garage.com/

Or visit this law firm site: http://www.venlaw.com/

Morning: The Emergence of Organizational Boundaries.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 5, and Rob Brookler, "HR in Growing Companies," Personnel Journal, November, 1992, pp. 80B-80O.

Afternoon: The Emergence of a Community of Practice.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 6, and Luis R. Gomez-Mejia and Theresa Welbourne, "The Role of Compensation in the Human Resource Management Strategies of High Technology Firms." Pp. 255 - 277 in Mary Ann Vo n Glinow and Susan Albers Mohrman, Managing Complexity in High Technology Organizations, Oxford University Press, 1990.

Morning: Organizational Growth & Transformation.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 7 and Herbert Kaufman, Time, Chance, and Organizations, Chatham House, 1985, Chapters 3 & 4, pp. 33-83.

Afternoon: Organizations and Social Change OR Organizations & Networks.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 8, OR Howard E. Aldrich, Amanda Brickman Elam, and Pat Ray Reese. 1996. "Strong Ties, Weak Ties, and Strangers: Do Women Business Owners Differ from Men in Their Use of Networking to Obtain Assistance?" Pp. 1-25 in Sue Birley and Ian MacMillan, editors, Entrepreneurship in a Global Context. London: Routledge Ltd.

Morning: New Populations.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 9, and Phaedra Hise, "The Well-Merchandised Web Site," Inc., October, 1995, pp. 83-85.

Look again at: http://www.unc.edu/~healdric/Entsem/Entsem.html

Afternoon: Reproducing Populations.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 10, and Anand Swaminathan and Glenn Carroll, "Beer Brewers," Pp. 223-238 in Glenn R. Carroll and Michael T. Hannan, Organizations in Industry, Oxford.

Morning: New Organizational Communities

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 11, and Clint Willis, "Does Amazon.com Really Matter?" Forbes ASAP, April 6^th, 1998, pp. 55-58.

Visit the web links listed on my page for e-commerce: http://www.unc.edu/~healdric/Entsem/Web_biz.html

Afternoon: Wrap up

Assigned reading: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 12.

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