Seminar on Entrepreneurship BI, Oslo

 

 

Responsible lecturer:

 

Responsible lecturer is Professor Howard E. Aldrich, Kenan Professor of Sociology, Adjunct Professor of Business, and Director of the Industrial Relations Curriculum, University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.

 

Dates:

 

June 18th to June 22nd 2001

 

Objectives:

 

The goal of the seminar is to introduce the students to an evolutionary perspective on entrepreneurship. The reading for the course is Howard Aldrich's new book, Organizations Evolving (Sage, 1999). The process by which new organizations and industries come into existence will be studied. Issues of organizational knowledge, social networks, human resource management in new ventures, and organizational learning will be focused on.

 

Course format:

 

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.

 

There will be two sessions a day. The morning session will start at approximately 9:30 and end at noon, with a break in between. The afternoon session will start at approximately 2 and end at 4:30, with a mid-afternoon break.

 

Lecturer:

 

Professor Howard Aldrich

 

Literature:

 

1. Readings to be completed before the seminar first meets (these books give a basic knowledge of organization theory and organizational behavior):

 

·        Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations and Environments. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, c1979

·        Charles Perrow, Complex Organizations. 3rd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986

·        W. Richard Scott, Organizations. 4th edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, c1998

·        Oliver Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies. New York: Free Press, 1975

 

2. Readings for the class:

 

Howard Aldrich: Organizations Evolving, London: Sage, Ltd. 1999

 

A few short case readings, which will be handed out in the beginning of the seminar.

 

Evaluation:

 

One paper (max 20 pages) is required, in addition to active participation in seminars. A numerical grade scale will be used to evaluate the papers.

 

 

Web page:

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

 

June 18th, Monday

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 (click on SBA Research Reports, on the first line):

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

Afternoon: Entrepreneurship -- Knowledge and Resources.

Assignment readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 4

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/

http://www.acceleronpartners.com/indexflash.html

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

June 19th, Tuesday

Morning: The Emergence of Organizational Boundaries.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 5.

 Visit this human resource management ASP web sites:

http://www.performaworks.com/performaworks/index.html

http://www.peerplus.com/

http://www.eepulse.com/

http://www.questback.com/

http://www.hire.com/

Afternoon: The Emergence of a Community of Practice.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 6

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 Von Glinow and Susan Albers Mohrman, Managing Complexity in High Technology Organizations, Oxford University Press, 1990.

June 20th, Wednesday

Morning: Organizational Growth & Transformation.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 7

Herbert Kaufman, Time, Chance, and Organizations, Chatham House, 1985, Chapters 3 & 4, pp. 33-83.

Failures http://www.unc.edu/~healdric/Entsem/Failures.html

Afternoon: Organizations and Social Change OR Organizations & Networks.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 8

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.

The importance of weak ties: http://www.gladwell.com/1999_01_11_a_weisberg.htm

A gallery of social network images: http://www.mpi-fg-koeln.mpg.de/~lk/netvis/substanz.shtml

June 21st, Thursday

Morning: New Populations.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 9

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

 

Afternoon: Reproducing Populations.

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 10

June 22nd, Friday

Morning: New Organizational Communities

Assigned readings: Howard E. Aldrich, Organizations Evolving, Chapter 11.

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.