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The DCR Doctoral Program: Celebrating 10 Years

My doctoral program recently turned 10. I joined the the doctoral program in Dynamic Capabilities and Relationships in 2011. The program was the reason for me to return from the UK to Germany. I was extremely excited about the opportunity. And the program did deliver: We were given absolute freedom to work independently on our research projects, had the opportunity to attend numerous research events, such as summer schools, workshops and conferences, and were supervised by experienced and well-published academics.

Shortly upon graduation from the doctoral program, in 2014, I became a Visiting Professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. I was privileged to spend some time with Samer Faraj’s Research Group on Complex Collaboration, whose work had strongly influenced my dissertation. In a sense, it was the culmination of my journey in the doctoral program and, of course, the foundation for my current work as a professor at Munich Business School.

To mark the 10-year anniversary, all members of the doctoral program were recently asked to write s short note of reflection. I chose to contemplate my first visit to the Academy of Management Conference, one of the world’s biggest management conferences, in the summer of 2011. (One of my key takeaways was…)

Call for Applications: 6 PhD Positions

We’re currently seeking applications for six fully-funded PhD positions in our doctoral program. Here’s the link to the program description and the official call for applications. Below is a short summary of the most important points:

The aim of the doctoral program is to create knowledge about how organizations achieve and sustain competitive advantage in rapidly changing environments through the development of critical competences in relationship with other organizations and stakeholders. I’ve listed some key references here. Continue reading Call for Applications: 6 PhD Positions

Meeting Jeff Martin @Viadrina

On Wednesday, April 18, we welcomed five new PhD students to our doctoral program. We were lucky to have Professor Jeff Martin at the European University Viadrina as the keynote speaker on that day. Jeff developed the notion of Dynamic Capabilities in his paper with Kathleen Eisenhardt (2000).

Many of us will have to build on their ideas while working on our own PhD projects. Being able to talk to the scholars whose research we deal with on a daily basis is a great experience (and I’ve commented on previous occasions, such as the visit to the Academy of Management Conference, in earlier blog posts).

In his keynote, Jeffrey talked about his current research program and, more particularly, about his recent article on Managerial Dynamic Capabilities published in the journal Organization Science. To me, the methodological part was most interesting as Jeff makes heavy use of case studies for theory-building. Over dinner we were able to ask him a few more personal questions, for example how he felt about being supervised by Professor Eisenhardt, what it took to write his seminal paper, or what he thought about Ann Majchrzak’s comment below.

Photo Credit: Heide Fest, Press Office, EUV

References:

Eisenhardt, K. M., & Martin, J. A. (2000). Dynamic Capabilities: What Are They. Strategic Management Journal, 21(10/11), 1105–1121.

Martin, J. A. (2011). Dynamic Managerial Capabilities and the Multibusiness Team: The Role of Episodic Teams in Executive Leadership Groups. Organization Science, 22(1), 118–140.

Social Software, Strategic Management & Dynamic Capabilities

The doctoral program I’m in right now is called Dynamic Capabilities and Relationships, in short DCR. I’ve been trying for a while to make connections between the phenomenon I’m interested in, i.e. social software use in organizations, and strategic management. With publications like the one below from Haefliger and colleagues, bridges are being built and the path from the former to the latter is being made visible. I did not come across any work to date, however, that would explicity address the link between social software use and its implications on (the strategic management concept of) Dynamic Capabilities. Reading the below passage in a MISQ comment by Ann Majchrzak got me really excited:

Yet many contributors to organizational wikis […] organize others’ contributions not for social exchange or social capital motives, but instead because they are genuinely concerned about the organization’s ability to adapt to the needs of a volatile environment (Majchrzak et al. 2006). Not only should findings like this encourage us as researchers to rethink social exchange and social capital theories, but they also should encourage researchers in other domains, such as dynamic capabilities models (Eisenhardt and Martin 2000) to modify their theories to include information shaping as an important dynamic capability of a firm.

We’ll have Jeff Martin, the second author of the latter paper quoted my Majchrzak, over in Berlin in a couple of weeks and I’ll make sure to bring this issue up while he’s here. In case you’re interested, here’s an interview with him about the paper mentioned above and the idea behind Dynamic Capabilities: Jeffrey Martin on competing in fast-moving dynamic environments.

References:

Eisenhardt Kathleen, M., & Martin Jeffrey, A. (2000). Dynamic capabilities: What are they. Strategic Management Journal, 21(10/11), 1105–1121.

Haefliger, S., Monteiro, E., Foray, D., & von Krogh, G. (2011). Social Software and Strategy. Long Range Planning, 44(5-6), 297–316. doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2011.08.001

Majchrzak, A., Wagner, C., & Yates, D. (2006). Corporate wiki users: results of a survey. Proceedings of the 2006 international symposium on Wikis, WikiSym ’06 (pp. 99–104). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/1149453.1149472

Majchrzak, A. (2009). Comment: Where is the Theory in Wikis? Management Information Systems Quarterly, 33(1), 18–20.

Call for Applications: Six Scholarships @Viadrina @GGS_Heilbronn

If you are currently looking around for interesting PhD programs in the field of management, you may want to have a look at the following call for applications. The program I’m currently enrolled in is recruiting five PhDs and one Post-Doc as of April 2012. Deadline for applications is December 12, 2011. There are a number of testimonials about the program written by me and my colleagues. You can check them out here. For further details, have a look at the below announcement or visit the program website.

The European University Viadrina (EUV) and the German Graduate School of Management and Law (GGS) are inviting applications for six scholarships in their joint Doctoral Program in Dynamic Capabilities and Relationships.

The aim of the doctoral program is to create knowledge about how organizations achieve and sustain competitive advantage in rapidly changing environments through the development of critical competences in relationship with other organizations and stakeholders.

Minimum requirements for the positions: Master’s degree (or equivalent) in business studies, social or behavioral sciences, or related field. Interested applicants should send their application with the subject header “Doctoral Program” to applications@ dcr-research.de. The application must contain the following in PDF format:

Completed application form (available at www.dcr-research.de)

CV

Master’s certificate or evidence that all requirements for a Master’s degree will be completed by April 2012

One-page statement explaining the candidate’s interest in and suitability for the position

Outline of a potential research project in the area of Dynamic Capabilities and Relationships (max. 1000 words plus references)

Copy of Master’s thesis

One-page summary of Master’s thesis

Names and contact information of three referees

Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Closing date: December 12th, 2011
For further information, please contact info@dcr-research.de.

via academics.de